Bernie Innocenti

not really me

e-mail: bernie AT codewiz DOT org

IRC: _bernie, hanging on #sugar on FreeNet

Jabber: bernie AT codewiz DOT org (yes, I run my own Jabber server ;-)

Contact info: http://codewiz.org/ContactInformation

Personal homepage: http://codewiz.org/

Blog: http://codewiz.org/wiki/

Resume: http://codewiz.org/wiki/CurriculumVitae (somewhat outdated)

LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=5159373 (somewhat outdated)

Old OLPC projects: http://codewiz.org/wiki/OneLaptopPerChild

I'm a volunteer working for the Sugar Labs foundation.

Before, I was a full-time volunteer developer at OLPC. My job was hacking X, the base Fedora OS, the Linux kernel, some i18n and input work. I have also worked briefly for OLPC Europe and with deployments in Nepal and Paraguay.

Oversight Board Platform

The open source method is based on participation, not consumption.

To position itself as THE educational environment of the future, Sugar needs to grow a larger user and developer base. This is only possible if we keep growing as a truly community-driven project with its own independent identity.

Goals for Sugar Labs

0. Engage deployments in leading roles within Sugar Labs

1. Further enhance our public-facing web presence and development infrastructure

2. Work with multiple hardware and OS vendors to make Sugar available to the widest-possible user base

3. Foster the creation of companies and groups offering professional Sugar consulting and outsourcing

4. Continue to enroll volunteer community members in key roles of our infrastructure and public relations

5. Raise funding to sponsor developer meetings and our presence at major international events

Anti-goals for Sugar Labs

-1. Hire a large team of software developers – this would end up discouraging outside contributors

-2. Brew a custom OS platform – we work with distributors, we don't compete against them

-3. Let Sugar Labs become unfairly biased towards specific partners – that would undermine our relationships with other partners

-4. Trade project autonomy for funding or support – we're glad to offer our services, not our souls

Personal agenda

I'm helping deployments and commercial entities interested in Sugar development build capacity. I'm coordinating small teams of Sugar hackers focused on service and support. Internet is our office. In the future, I'd like to work with hardware vendors for porting Sugar to specific more educational platforms.

Sugar has a great competitive advantage over any proprietary offering on the horizon and huge momentum. Over the next few years, computers will become central in world education. This will in turn stimulate the creation of a florid industry offering hardware, software, and contents for the specific needs of schools. This is why I see Sugar as a promising investment.

On openness

Openness will be our greatest and most lasting strength.  If we shy away
from it now it will never return.
 -- Samuel Klein