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Line 13: + − Walter Bender is founder of Sugar Labs, a+ − member project of the non-profit foundation Software Freedom − Conservancy. Sugar Labs develops educational software used by more − than three-million children in more than forty countries. In 2006, − Bender co-founded the One Laptop per Child, a non-profit association − with Nicholas Negroponte and Seymour Papert. As director of the MIT − − as tangible media to affective computing to lifelong kindergarten. In − 1992, Bender founded the MIT News in the Future consortium, which − launched the era of digital news. − + − 1977 and a masters degree from MIT in 1980, where he founded the − Electronic Publishing research group. He was a founding member of the − MIT Media Lab, where he was a Senior Scientist and holder of the − Alexander W Dreyfoos Chair. Bender has served on numerous boards and − − − − − − − + + Line 55:
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→OWF talk
== Sugar Stable/Sugar Future ==
Sugar Labs has been pulled in two directions the past few years. On the one hand, it is getting much more stable, much more robust, and easier to maintain. The maintenance itself is being provided in large part by a dedicated group of youths and a small handful of professional developers. On the other hand, the world of educational technology continues to move in directions that make it more difficult for the typical individual or school to adopt Sugar as their core platform. While OLPC still stands behind Sugar -- indeed, FZT has launched a program for Sugar development at a university in Managua, the growth potential outside of OLPC for a GNU/Linux-based platform is smaller than it was a few years ago. I do think that the "tablet" meme has been discredited and increasing momentum behind the Maker movement has shifted things somewhat in our favor. We need to be aggressive in reaching out to potential new user communities. At the same time, it is also clear that mobile devices and the Web are going to be the predominant points of access to technology for much of the world, so we are also obliged to try to bring some of our ideas (if not our entire platform) to those worlds. We have some momentum there as well, with the Sugarizer platform and the various JavaScript initiatives underway, e.g., [http://walterbender.github.io/musicblocks Music Blocks]. I don't see any way to avoid splitting our efforts between these two worlds -- GNU/Linux desktop and Web/native Android. Not ideal, but we have things to contribute to both worlds and an opportunity to learn and grow as a community going forward.
As a member of the Sugar community, I have been active as: (1) a [http://github.com/walterbender developer] -- more on the activity side than the platform side; (2) a liaison to the SFC; (3) the coordinator for both [[Summer_of_Code/2015|Google Summer of Code]] and [[Google_Code_In_2015|Google Code In]]; (4) promoting Sugar within academic circles -- most recently a [[File:MusicBlocks-Constructionism-2016.pdf|paper]] that Devin, Yash, and I wrote for the Constructionist 2016 conference on the work we did together during GSoC; (5) raising funds for internationalization and workshops; and (6) running the monthly SLOB meetings. I don't need to be a member of the oversight board in order to be a developer, but for the other activities, it is important to have a voice within the community. If I am returned to the board, I hope to hand off responsibility for running meeting to another board member. And the role of liaison to the SFC. I think continuity within the Google programs is important, and I plan to continue in that sphere. I will also continue to manage the Trip Advisor grant, which has been really helpful for outreach -- most recently I was able to get some new [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs/blob/master/po/ar.po Arabic] translations done and we are making great inroads in places like Jamaica through that grant.
One final note: I am in the process of launching a new college for industrial design. I am instilling Free/Libre Software as a core principle of the college and I hope to be able to make Sugar be at the core of the educational technology section of the school. More on that effort soon.
==Walter Bender==
==Walter Bender==
I was at OLPC for several years and now I am a volunteer on the project. My home page can be found here: [http://www.media.mit.edu/~walter]
I was at OLPC for several years and now I am a volunteer on the project. My home page can be found here: [http://www.media.mit.edu/~walter]
=== bio ===
=== bio ===
Walter Bender is founder of Sugar Labs, which develops educational software used by more than three-million children in more than forty countries. Sugar Labs is a member project of the non-profit foundation Software Freedom Conservancy. In 2006, Bender co-founded the One Laptop per Child, a non-profit association with Nicholas Negroponte and Seymour Papert. As director of the MIT Media Laboratory from 2000 to 2006, Bender led a team of researchers in fields as varied as tangible media to affective computing to lifelong kindergarten. In 1992, Bender founded the MIT News in the Future consortium, which launched the era of digital news. Currently, he is launching a new initiative at MIT, the Open Learning Program, a forum for collaborative research among universities globally.
Bender received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1977 and a masters degree from MIT in 1980, where he built the Electronic Publishing research group. He was a founding member of the MIT Media Lab, where he was a Senior Scientist and holder of the Alexander W Dreyfoos Chair.
Media Laboratory, Bender led a team of researchers in fields as varied
Bender received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in
Bender serves or has served on numerous boards and committees, including IBM's mobile computing advisory board and the GNOME technical advisory board. He is on the advisory board of the Squeak Foundation, the Center for Educational Technology (CET) in Israel, and Libre Corps, a new program at RIT that builds long-term, on-going relationships between university students and humanitarian organizations. He has held visiting faculty appointments at international universities, including the University of Tampere, and continues to serve on university research advisory boards and on occasion teaches at Hult and MIT Sloan business schools. Bender's book, ''Leaning to Change the World'', on technology. learning, and social entrepreneurship was published in 2012.
committees, including IBM's mobile computing advisory board and the
GNOME technical advisory board. He has held visiting faculty
appointments at international universities, including the University
of Tampere, and continues to serve on university research advisory
boards and on occasion teaches at Hult and MIT Sloan business schools.
Bender He has written a book, ''Leaning to Change the World'', on social
entrepreneurship that was published in Q4 2012.
=== bio en es ===
=== bio en es ===
<small>'''Nota:''' ''Walter tiene una biografia en la Wikipedia en español, la misma es [https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Bender esta]''</small>
Walter Bender es el director de la Fundación Sugar Lab, una organización sin fines de lucro, desde donde ha diseñado el sistema operativo SUGAR que utilizan las computadoras XO de la organización OLPC (One Laptop per Child) Una Computadora por estudiante. Uno de los objetivos de Sugar Lab es ofrecer un espacio de reunión y apoyo para una creciente comunidad de educadores y desarrolladores de software que quieran extender la plataforma de Sugar y quienes han estado creando aplicaciones compatibles con esta. Antes de fundar el Sugar Lab, Walter fue parte de la organización OLPC todavía apoya los esfuerzos de esa organización en el desarrollo y diseminación de tecnologías que puedan revolucionar el mundo de los niños y niñas y los atraigan hacia el aprendizaje. Entre los años 2000 y 2006 Walter fue el Director Ejecutivo del Laboratorio de Medios Media Lab, del Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts MIT donde además, por muchos años dirigió el grupo de investigación llamado Las Noticias de Futuro que se fundó en 1996 y su proyecto Publicación Electrónica. En el marco de las investigaciones Publicación Electrónica Walter ayudó a desarrollar en el siglo pasado las herramientas tecnológicas para promover lo que hoy en el siglo XXI conocemos como periodismo ciudadano.
Walter Bender es el director de la Fundación Sugar Lab, una organización sin fines de lucro, desde donde ha diseñado el sistema operativo SUGAR que utilizan las computadoras XO de la organización OLPC (One Laptop per Child) Una Computadora por estudiante. Uno de los objetivos de Sugar Lab es ofrecer un espacio de reunión y apoyo para una creciente comunidad de educadores y desarrolladores de software que quieran extender la plataforma de Sugar y quienes han estado creando aplicaciones compatibles con esta. Antes de fundar el Sugar Lab, Walter fue parte de la organización OLPC todavía apoya los esfuerzos de esa organización en el desarrollo y diseminación de tecnologías que puedan revolucionar el mundo de los niños y niñas y los atraigan hacia el aprendizaje. Entre los años 2000 y 2006 Walter fue el Director Ejecutivo del Laboratorio de Medios Media Lab, del Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts MIT donde además, por muchos años dirigió el grupo de investigación llamado Las Noticias de Futuro que se fundó en 1996 y su proyecto Publicación Electrónica. En el marco de las investigaciones Publicación Electrónica Walter ayudó a desarrollar en el siglo pasado las herramientas tecnológicas para promover lo que hoy en el siglo XXI conocemos como periodismo ciudadano.
==== 2011 ===
==== 2011 ====
Follow this link to my [[User:Walter/2011_position_statement|2009 Position Statement]].
Follow this link to my [[User:Walter/2011_position_statement|2009 Position Statement]].
:This is much the same... although I am perhaps coding more now than ever.
:This is much the same... although I am perhaps coding more now than ever.
===LibrePlanet 2016===
[[File:Education-needs-free-software.pdf]]
===OWF talk===
===OWF talk===