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===Describe your organization.===
 
===Describe your organization.===
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[http://sugarlabs.org Sugar Labs] is the community organization behind the Sugar Learning Platform, a free and open-source software project. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with equal opportunity for a quality education. Originally developed for the One Laptop per Child XO-1 netbook and designed from the ground up especially for children, Sugar offers a hardware and distro independent alternative to traditional “office-desktop” software. Sugar Activities running on the Sugar Learning Platform promote collaborative learning and critical thinking, and are used every school day in 25 languages by almost 1,000,000 children in more than 40 countries.
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[http://sugarlabs.org/ Sugar Labs] is the community organization behind the Sugar Learning Platform, a free and open-source software project. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with equal opportunity for a quality education. Originally developed for the One Laptop per Child XO-1 netbook and designed from the ground up especially for children, Sugar offers a hardware and distro independent alternative to traditional “office-desktop” software. Sugar Activities running on the Sugar Learning Platform promote collaborative learning and critical thinking, and are used every school day in 25 languages by almost 1,000,000 children in more than 40 countries.
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Sugar Labs, a volunteer, non-profit organization, is a member project of the [http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/ Software Freedom Conservancy]. The mission of Sugar Labs is to support the Sugar community of users and developers and establish regional, autonomous “Sugar Labs” around the world to tailor Sugar to local languages and curricula. Sugar Labs volunteers are passionate about providing education to children.
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Sugar Labs, a volunteer, non-profit organization, is a member project of the [http://sfconservancy.org/ Software Freedom Conservancy]. The mission of Sugar Labs is to support the Sugar community of users and developers and establish regional, autonomous “Sugar Labs” around the world to tailor Sugar to local languages and curricula. Sugar Labs volunteers are passionate about providing education to children.
    
===Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2009? What do you hope to gain by participating?===
 
===Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2009? What do you hope to gain by participating?===
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As Sugar Labs only officially became a member project of the SFC in June 2008, as an organization we have not been around long enough to have participated in past GSoCs. However, we have many community members with prior GSoC experience (former mentors, students, and organization administrators from multiple open-source projects, more details available upon request) who have offered their help specifically to make our first GSoC summer a success.
 
As Sugar Labs only officially became a member project of the SFC in June 2008, as an organization we have not been around long enough to have participated in past GSoCs. However, we have many community members with prior GSoC experience (former mentors, students, and organization administrators from multiple open-source projects, more details available upon request) who have offered their help specifically to make our first GSoC summer a success.
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OLPC handled many Sugar-related GSoC applications last year and they are applying to GSoC again this year. Sugar Labs, although independent of OLPC, is in friendly, day-to-day communication with them. Together, we are making a clear distinction between our GSoC goals: anything related to the XS school server or to specific hardware issues on the OLPC XO-1 laptops would be covered by OLPC; The Sugar-related projects—the user-facing bits—are covered by Sugar Labs. Nevertheless, we expect some amount of confusion from students; both organizations are prepared to help redirect the applications of any students who apply to the wrong place.
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For the past three summers, OLPC has handled many Sugar-related GSoC applications. Sugar Labs, although independent of OLPC, is in friendly, day-to-day communication with them. There is a clear distinction between each project's GSoC goals: anything related to the XS school server or to specific hardware issues on the OLPC XO-1 laptops would be covered by OLPC; The Sugar-related projects (the user-facing bits) would be covered by Sugar Labs. Nevertheless if both organizations are accepted, we expect some amount of confusion from students; both organizations are prepared to help redirect the applications of any students who apply to the wrong place.
    
===If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?===
 
===If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)?===
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Not applicable; see above.
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As mentioned in the previous question Sugar Labs only officially became a member project of the SFC in June 2008 and all previous Sugar projects were completed under the OLPC banner.
    
===What license(s) does your project use?===
 
===What license(s) does your project use?===
The Sugar core is GPLv2+; some activity developers use other FOSS licenses, such as MIT, LGPL, etc.
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(Note: this is a one-option-selectable drop-down menu in the application, so I assume "GPL" should be chosen.)
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The Sugar core is GPLv2+.  Activity developers may choose other FOSS licenses - usually licenses such as MIT, LGPL, etc.
    
===What is the URL for your ideas page?===
 
===What is the URL for your ideas page?===
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http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/ProjectIdeas (Note: this is probably temporary; I'll see if we can get something better by the 13th. [[User:Mchua|Mchua]] 22:36, 4 March 2009 (UTC))
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http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Development Team/ProjectIdeas (Note: this is probably temporary; I'll see if we can get something better by the 13th. [[User:Mchua|Mchua]] 22:36, 4 March 2009 (UTC))
    
===What is the main development mailing list or forum for your organization?===
 
===What is the main development mailing list or forum for your organization?===
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===What is the main IRC channel for your organization?===
 
===What is the main IRC channel for your organization?===
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irc.freeenode.net #sugar
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<nowiki>#</nowiki>sugar on irc.freenode.net
    
===Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now.===
 
===Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now.===
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(origin: [[Summer_of_Code/Student_application_template]])
 
{{:Summer_of_Code/Student_application_template}}
 
{{:Summer_of_Code/Student_application_template}}
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:Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn -AT- gmail.com>
 
:Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn -AT- gmail.com>
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===Who will your mentors be? Please include Google Account information.===
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===What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors? Please be as specific as possible.===
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All of our mentors have experience with the Sugar code base and around half of them have been with the project since the beginning - more than 2 years ago. Most have successful mentoring experience (including combined 6 years' experience as successful GSoC mentors) and/or are teachers. All have been active in our software development support community and a regular presence on our support IRC channel.
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List of mentors:
 
name <gmail account name>
 
name <gmail account name>
 
#Walter Bender <walter.bender>
 
#Walter Bender <walter.bender>
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#Wade Brainerd <wadetb>
 
#Wade Brainerd <wadetb>
 
#Luis Gustavo Lira, BSc, MSc <lira.lg at pucp.edu.pe>
 
#Luis Gustavo Lira, BSc, MSc <lira.lg at pucp.edu.pe>
#Ben Lau < xbenlau at gmail.com >
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#Ben Lau <xbenlau>
#Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com>
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#Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu>
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#Austin Appel <scorche15>
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===What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors? Please be as specific as possible.===
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===What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?===
All of our mentors have experience with the Sugar code base and most of them have been with the project since the beginning, more than 2-years ago. Also, they have been active in our software development support community and a regular presence on our support IRC channel.
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We also plan to pair mentors to ensure that there is an experienced "second" associated with each project. Finally, our IRC channel is active 24/7, and we will give all students a list of IRC handles whom they can consult specifically. There is a safety net for any software developer who needs it.
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We will set the expectation that students will not be out of communications for more than 60 hours (ie, the length of a weekend) without prior notification to their mentor. We'll also hold mandatory weekly meetings in IRC for all the students to report on progress made, problems encountered, and proposed next steps. If a student does disappear, their mentor will attempt to contact them through all reasonable means to see what happened.
 
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===What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?===
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We will set the expectation that students will not be out of communications for more than 60 hours (ie, the length of a weekend) without prior notification to their mentor. We'll also hold mandatory weekly meetings in IRC for all the students to report on progress made, problems encountered, and proposed next steps.
      
===What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?===
 
===What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?===
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Our mentors have a history of being deeply involved and invested with the project and in constant and reliable contact with the community, so we think it is unlikely that this will happen. We plan to have secondary (paired mentors) and tertiary (general IRC channel) support for each project as described above, and mentors will also be expected to attend the weekly check-in meetings on IRC.
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Our mentors have a history of being deeply involved and invested with the project and in constant and reliable contact with the community, so we think it is unlikely that this will happen. We also plan to pair mentors to ensure that there is an experienced "second" associated with each project. If a mentor misses the weekly check-in meetings on IRC, their "backup" will track them down as they temporarily cover for them. Finally, our IRC channel is active 24/7, and we will give all students a list of IRC handles whom they can consult specifically. There is a safety net for any software developer who needs it.  
    
===What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?===
 
===What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?===
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===What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes?===
 
===What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes?===
 
The best we can do is infect the students with enthusiasm for our project's goals. We will launch a Sugar pilot near each accepted project so that students can see immediate results and feedback from children and teachers using their work, thus investing them further in longer-term sustainability and getting their local communities involved as well.
 
The best we can do is infect the students with enthusiasm for our project's goals. We will launch a Sugar pilot near each accepted project so that students can see immediate results and feedback from children and teachers using their work, thus investing them further in longer-term sustainability and getting their local communities involved as well.
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[[Category:GSoC]]