[IAEP] Doc for Making Mission Statement and Stated Goals

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi All….


I was hoping someone else would step in and create this document, but since 
there were to takers, I have done it!  Here is what should happen next…


Before going on to the Stated Goals, the Mission Statement should be revised 
and refined to reflect exactly what Sugar Labs members (not just Board Members) 
want Sugar Labs to be and represent. All members should feel free to work on 
this.


At the same time, be thinking about the Stated Goals. At this point they are 
just an example of what they could be. But, they should not be made and 
finalized until the Mission Statement is agreed upon.


No “Objectives” or activities are listed yet. They come after the goals which, 
in turn, come after the Mission Statement.


So…. Please… play with the Mission Statement. Share your ideas. Once you think 
it is fine, say so!


Here is the link to the document. Anyone with the link can both edit and 
comment. Feel free to do both as you see fit.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fvR8Qr3CVI_n8ccho0dEW81hvAhgoWmJJl6ACgDvBNY/edit?usp=sharing



Have fun,

Caryl


P.S. This in no way devalues the work many of you did last year making the very 
extensive list of objectives or activities you put in the wiki. After the 
Stated Goals are agreed upon, it will be time to fit them into the structure. 
You will probably find that many can be combined and that, perhaps, some will 
not meet any of our agreed upon goals and should not be included.

___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Tony Anderson]

I am afraid we are going down another rathole.

Walter has taken the time to write a set of proposed goals, so why are 
we talking about 2016 goals or writing new ones. As I think it should be 
clear, I want us to move past academic studies, discussing potential 
goals, writing detailed proposals and get on with the job.


While I get no response, I still believe it is clear to even the most 
casual observer that Sugar is locked into its association with the XO. 
Our primary goal should be to make Sugar available as supported software 
for the widest range of platforms.


Walter has suggested that making Sugar available as a supported release 
for the Raspberry Pi should be easy. Great! Then let's do it. If a Sugar 
release were available for the Pi, I would be happy to exhibit it at the 
Pi and More meeting in Trier on June 24, 2017. Before Walter can 
approach the Raspberry Pi Foundation to have Sugar included in NOOBS, it 
first has to be released and supported by Sugar Labs and proven through 
deployment.


Having Sugar distributed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation would be a much 
more important marketing step than anything I have seen mentioned in the 
past two years.


Walter believes that the Trisquel version of Sugar is supportable. If 
so, then let's put the image on Sugar Labs and document how to install it


The current SOAS image can be downloaded and installed by dd to a usb 
stick but you wouldn't know that from the Sugar Labs website. This is 
really easy to fix, so let's do it.


I can't believe there is no one in this community who knows enough about 
Windows 10 to suggest a method to implement Sugar there. So far the only 
technical suggestions I have seen came from Sean Daly many months ago. 
Microsoft has a partnership with Ubuntu to provide a Bash shell on 
Windows 10. I have yet to see an technical analysis of this opportunity 
as an approach to implement Sugar on Windows 10.


None of this will be easy. For example, many of our activities assume a 
1200x900 screen. If Sugar is to be supported on a range of platforms, 
this needs to be addressed. Sugar depends on wifi for collaboration. 
Supporting networking on a range of platforms will not be easy (the 
current Sugar on Ubuntu does not provide any networking support). The 
Record activity is our interface to a camera and microphone. This will 
not be easy to extend to support a range of hardware. PC hardware is 
moving to the amd64 architechture. This will affect Sugar releases - 
probably requiring arm, i686 and amd64 versions.


But all of this is a matter of doing, not talking.

Tony

On 04/11/2017 04:55 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote:


Sorry Laura, but I don't think you actually read what I wrote. Most of 
the "Goals" you refer and the objectives you refer to are really 
"activities." Please re-read my letter below and, if you think I am 
wrong, I suggest you Google "Goals vs Objectives vs Activities" to see 
what they really are.



As an educator I have spent many hours writing goals, objectives, and 
activities (many of the latter were actually to qualify for grant 
money). It was part of my job and that of many other educators.



Now, back to goals... We should start with 4 - 5 clear, concise, goal 
statements (each may cover a fairly broad topic). I suggest something 
simple, such as Google Docs as a place to start. When we have 
something concrete that most folks can agree with and support, it will 
then be time to move them to the wiki.



Remember the KISS principle. It is how to get things done! (also can 
be Googled or searched for in Wikipedia if you need clarification).



Caryl



*From:* Laura Vargas 
*Sent:* Monday, April 10, 2017 11:45:26 AM
*To:* Caryl Bigenho
*Cc:* Samson Goddy; sameer verma; Lionel Laské; Adam Holt; 
igna...@sugarlabs.org; walter.ben...@gmail.com; Tony Anderson; George 
Hunt; José Miguel García; SLOBs; iaep; sugar-devel; Dave Crossland

*Subject:* Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs
Hi Caryl and all,

Last year we - as a community - made the exercise to document a list 
of technical and organizational goals here at the wiki:


https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/2016_Goals

It may be the logical start point for an updated version.


As for Objectives, and according with our mission*, earlier this year 
I suggested:


[1] To sponsor any motivated, active individuals in need to continue 
doing the best they can to support our mission.


[2] To make sure our servers are safe and our systems are distributed.

[3] To maintain domains and trademarks.


As for the official mission I would be on favor of eliminating the 
text "Originally part of the One Laptop Per Child project" just 
because it is irrelevant.


From https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mission


  *Mission

Sugar Labs^®  is a 
volunteer-driven member project of Software Freedom Conservancy 

[IAEP] Fwd: Re: [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs%

[Tony Anderson]

Sorry, this didn't get copied to IAEP as I intended but only webt to 
Sugar-Devel


Tony


 Forwarded Message 
Subject:Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs%
Date:   Mon, 10 Apr 2017 10:52:04 +0800
From:   Tony Anderson 
To: sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org



Hi, Walter

Thanks for this. I feel at long last the community may actually get 
involved in a serious discussion about what we are about and what we 
need to do.


Discussion about whether to support Trisquel or Raspberry Pi or Windows 
is a distraction. The fundamental requirement is that Sugar be available 
on mainstream platforms. The perception that Sugar is software limited 
to the XO should be replaced by Sugar as a effective learning platform 
available to anyone and usable on their own computer, free and 
unencumbered by eulas. Naturally, this requires that we make it so.


If a credible Raspberry Pi image is easy to do, for God's sakes do it! 
if it can be distributed as a part of NOOBs, do it! If Trisquel is a 
viable Sugar distribution, then for God's sake document where it can be 
obtained and how to install it.


Aslam Kishwer told me, 'Make Sugar available on Windows.' It doesn't 
matter if Windows is installed on 99% or 10%. Like it or not, Microsoft 
has made learning 'Office' the sine qua non of using computers in the 
classroom. It needs a Sugar image, installable as a Windows application 
(a la wubi).


A Sugar image needs to be a file that can be installed from a local 
computer. In remote locations, the internet may not be available. Even 
with available broadband access, downloading software directly to each 
of 40 computers is not practical.


A Sugar image needs to be supported by Sugar Labs and its community. 
Currently, the XO provides 0.110 while SOAS and Ubuntu 16.04 provide 
earlier versions. So the a Sugar release needs to be images for the 
supported platforms. Sugar activities need to work on supported releases 
(which will involve significant community effort to test in the release 
cycle).


Our intended users are not software developers and so the installation 
technique needs to be comfortable and not require steps unfamiliar to 
the average computer user.There are simple gui versions of dd which 
could be used. SOAS is installable by dd from an image. This is not a 
conclusion you would reach from the Sugar Labs site which starts with 
requiring the installation of Fedora!


In the context of 'making', I think we need to consider who are the 
'makers'. The makers are our Sugar users - primary school children. 
Unfortunately, Sugar Labs seems to be moving to a closed community of 
software developers and computer science students. As a result our 
support environment is evolving to tools not available to our users - 
translate.sugarlabs.org, github, and our current mantra: 'build a 
development environment'. All of these isolate our users from the 
'making' of Sugar (esp. activities and localization).


Our focus in programming in visual languages. This is a great start. 
However, it is what educators call scaffolding. We need to use the tools 
we have and develop others to help our users program in text languages - 
Python and Javascript (with HTML and CSS). Currently our focus is 'View 
Source'. This is not a path to encourage making and violates the 
constructionist principle to start from what the user knows. More 
effective would be to focus on 'Making Your Own Sugar Activity' and the 
supporting tools (PyTute, HelloWorld, HelloWebWorld, Pippy). Programming 
today in text languages is not more difficult than it was in Basic or 
Pascal on the Apple II.


One vehicle which supports the maker community is the Makerfaire. Adam 
Holt and his team have effectively represented Sugar at some of these. 
One requirement is to provide an opportunity for visitors to use the 
available computers to do something with the computer. There ia a Pi and 
More conference in Trier on June 24, 2017. I would love to be able to 
show Sugar on the Raspberry Pi there. The essential requirement is a 
viable and supported image that is available to the attendees. Ideally 
such an exhibit would show a Raspberry Pi as a server with XSCE and 
others as Sugar systems with monitors, keyboards, and mouses.


Tony

On 04/10/2017 08:03 AM, Walter Bender wrote:



On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland > wrote:


Hi

Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional
context before diving in :)

Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning
process you started, and we should not expect you to restart it again?

At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we 
were still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get 
the conversation going again.



Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your
proposal for the goals for this year?


Not sure 

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Laura Vargas]

>
>
> As an educator I have spent many hours writing goals, objectives, and
> activities (many of the latter were actually to qualify for grant money).
>

Not sure if I should also bring my credentials and say I'm also an
educator, an industrial engineer and have more than 15 years formulating
and executing successful projects. Lot's of those projects are libre
software deployed on field.

Last week I just had the most enlightening learning sessions just watching
my children to have tons of fun learning to write while playing with the
"hangman activity" [1] we developed with the children of Chia.

My email's intention was to point out the fact that Dave and *lots of
community members took a lot of time and patience last year* *putting
together the list of Goals*, and therefore it is logic to consider it a
starting point for a new one.

https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/2016_Goals

Regards

PS: Your help at the Funding Committee  will be
highly appreciated. We haven't heard from you in a while.

Regards
Laura V


[1] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4741


It was part of my job and that of many other educators.
>
>
> --
> *From:* Laura Vargas 
> *Sent:* Monday, April 10, 2017 11:45:26 AM
> *To:* Caryl Bigenho
> *Cc:* Samson Goddy; sameer verma; Lionel Laské; Adam Holt;
> igna...@sugarlabs.org; walter.ben...@gmail.com; Tony Anderson; George
> Hunt; José Miguel García; SLOBs; iaep; sugar-devel; Dave Crossland
>
> *Subject:* Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs
>
> Hi Caryl and all,
>
> Last year we - as a community - made the exercise to document a list of
> technical and organizational goals here at the wiki:
>
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/2016_Goals
>
> It may be the logical start point for an updated version.
>
>
> As for Objectives, and according with our mission*, earlier this year I
> suggested:
>
> [1] To sponsor any motivated, active individuals in need to continue doing
> the best they can to support our mission.
>
> [2] To make sure our servers are safe and our systems are distributed.
>
> [3] To maintain domains and trademarks.
>
>
> As for the official mission I would be on favor of eliminating the text 
> "Originally
> part of the One Laptop Per Child project" just because it is irrelevant.
>
> From https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mission
>
> *Mission
> 
> 
>
> Sugar Labs®  is a
> volunteer-driven member project of Software Freedom Conservancy
> , a nonprofit corporation. Originally part
> of the One Laptop Per Child project, Sugar Labs coordinates volunteers
>  around the
> world who are passionate about providing educational opportunities to
> children through the Sugar Learning Platform. Sugar Labs® is supported by
> donations and is seeking funding  to
> accelerate development.
>
>
>
> Regards and looking forward for your comments,
>
> Laura Victoria
>
>
> 2017-04-10 11:58 GMT-05:00 Caryl Bigenho :
>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>>
>> First, thanks go to Walter for the very comprehensive review of Sugar
>> Labs and what has been done and is currently being done. It is very
>> helpful. However, it, in no sense of the words, represents goals and
>> objectives for SL going forward.
>>
>>
>> I know Sameer really does want to share more with us to assist in
>> developing a viable list of goals and objectives, but I also know he is
>> very busy with his teaching job.  So, I have taken the time to find a
>> couple of resources from education that show what goals and objectives
>> really are and how the activities we choose to undertake are related. These
>> resources are attached.
>>
>>
>> The next thing that needs to be done is to go through Walter's fine
>> document and identify all the specific areas Sugar Labs works with and
>> write one goal for each. Don't do anything else until these goals are
>> written. These should be done in a sharable online document. Everyone who
>> wants to participate should be encouraged to do so. There should be no
>> special priority attached to any of these goals. At this point they would
>> be of equal value.
>>
>>
>> There should be one goal for each area... I suggest we start with these 4
>> broad areas:
>>
>>
>>
>>1. Sugar
>>2. Sugarizer
>>3. Stand Alone Projects
>>4. School Server
>>
>>
>> Each goal should be concise and precise. *Preferably one sentence.*
>> Under each goal go objectives. There can be *more than one* objective
>> per goal.
>>
>>
>> An objective should follow the form of *Who* is going to do *What* by
>> *When* and *How* will success be measured.
>>
>>
>> A goal can have several objectives under it... for example, the
>> objectives for Sugar could have 

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Laura Vargas]

Hi Caryl and all,

Last year we - as a community - made the exercise to document a list of
technical and organizational goals here at the wiki:

https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/2016_Goals

It may be the logical start point for an updated version.


As for Objectives, and according with our mission*, earlier this year I
suggested:

[1] To sponsor any motivated, active individuals in need to continue doing
the best they can to support our mission.

[2] To make sure our servers are safe and our systems are distributed.

[3] To maintain domains and trademarks.


As for the official mission I would be on favor of eliminating the
text "Originally
part of the One Laptop Per Child project" just because it is irrelevant.

>From https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mission

*Mission



Sugar Labs®  is a volunteer-driven
member project of Software Freedom Conservancy
, a nonprofit corporation. Originally part
of the One Laptop Per Child project, Sugar Labs coordinates volunteers
 around the
world who are passionate about providing educational opportunities to
children through the Sugar Learning Platform. Sugar Labs® is supported by
donations and is seeking funding  to
accelerate development.



Regards and looking forward for your comments,

Laura Victoria


2017-04-10 11:58 GMT-05:00 Caryl Bigenho :

> Hi Folks,
>
>
> First, thanks go to Walter for the very comprehensive review of Sugar Labs
> and what has been done and is currently being done. It is very helpful.
> However, it, in no sense of the words, represents goals and objectives for
> SL going forward.
>
>
> I know Sameer really does want to share more with us to assist in
> developing a viable list of goals and objectives, but I also know he is
> very busy with his teaching job.  So, I have taken the time to find a
> couple of resources from education that show what goals and objectives
> really are and how the activities we choose to undertake are related. These
> resources are attached.
>
>
> The next thing that needs to be done is to go through Walter's fine
> document and identify all the specific areas Sugar Labs works with and
> write one goal for each. Don't do anything else until these goals are
> written. These should be done in a sharable online document. Everyone who
> wants to participate should be encouraged to do so. There should be no
> special priority attached to any of these goals. At this point they would
> be of equal value.
>
>
> There should be one goal for each area... I suggest we start with these 4
> broad areas:
>
>
>
>1. Sugar
>2. Sugarizer
>3. Stand Alone Projects
>4. School Server
>
>
> Each goal should be concise and precise. *Preferably one sentence.* Under
> each goal go objectives. There can be *more than one* objective per goal.
>
>
> An objective should follow the form of *Who* is going to do *What* by
> *When* and *How* will success be measured.
>
>
> A goal can have several objectives under it... for example, the objectives
> for Sugar could have objectives addressing both Raspian and Trisquel (two
> separate categories).
>
>
> Once the objectives are filled in, it will be time to start working on
> activities. These will include actual activities like producing a new
> version of Sugarizer, conducting a Music Blocks workshop, showing Sugar
> Labs "products" and recruiting users and volunteers at Linux conferences
> and educational conferences, etc.
>
>
> After this every project proposed can be analyzed with the question in
> mind, "How does this project help Sugar Labs achieve its stated objectives
> (and thus its goals as well).
>
>
> Please! Someone start a doc for this to all happen. Begin with just the 4
> (or 5 if you want to separate Raspian and Trisquel). Make a simple goal for
> each. Then collaborate on getting the goals "just right" before moving on
> to objectives.
>
>
> Then do the same thing for objectives.
>
>
> This may seem like a lot of "busy work." But, trust me it isn't. It will
> give Sugar Labs a strong platform to work from, enabling the best use of
> limited time and resources.
>
>
> Caryl
>
>
>
> --
> *From:* IAEP  on behalf of Laura Vargas
> 
> *Sent:* Monday, April 10, 2017 7:31:18 AM
> *To:* Samson Goddy
> *Cc:* SLOBs; iaep; sugar-devel; Dave Crossland
> *Subject:* Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs
>
> Thank you Samson
>
>
> Then I guess the email format is not the best choice. Could you please
> document it on a wiki page at the Sugar Labs wiki?
>
> Blessings and a nice week to all
>
> Laura Victoria
>
>
>
> 2017-04-10 8:25 GMT-05:00 Samson Goddy :
>
>> If i am wrong, walter made 

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Laura Vargas]

Thank you Samson


Then I guess the email format is not the best choice. Could you please
document it on a wiki page at the Sugar Labs wiki?

Blessings and a nice week to all

Laura Victoria



2017-04-10 8:25 GMT-05:00 Samson Goddy :

> If i am wrong, walter made it clear earlier that this is a "draft
> proposal" meaning you can input.
>
> Samson
>
> On Apr 10, 2017 2:15 PM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:
>
>
>
> 2017-04-09 19:03 GMT-05:00 Walter Bender :
>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional context
>>> before diving in :)
>>>
>>> Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning process you
>>> started, and we should not expect you to restart it again?
>>>
>>
>> At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we were
>> still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get the
>> conversation going again.
>>
>
> Thanks for doing this Walter,
>
> After a quick read, I have to confess I feel sad and excluded because none
> of the projects I have worked on [1] is mentioned on your view of Sugar's
> history.
>
>
> Regards and blessings,
>
> Laura V
>
>  [1] http://pe.sugarlabs.org/ir/Proyectos
>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your proposal for
>>> the goals for this year?
>>>
>>
>> Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a draft of goals
>> but they are not "the goals" until we agree to them.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>>>
 As per the discussion in the last Suagr Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I
 had agreed to write a draft statement of goals for 2017. The document below
 includes feedback from Samson G. I hope this document can serve to
 revitalize our discussion from 2016 that never reached resolution.

 Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations

 What is Sugar Labs?

 Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and maintains learning software for
 children. Our approach to learning is grounded in Constructionism, a
 pedagogy developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the 1960s and
 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the use of the computer by children to help
 engage them in the “construction of knowledge.” His long-time colleague
 Cynthia Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing the concept of
 engaging children in debugging as a pathway into problem-solving. Their
 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with a computer”, is arguably the genesis
 of contemporary movements such as the Maker Movement and Hour of Code.

 At the core of Constructionism is “learning through doing.” If you want
 more learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs we provide tools to
 promote doing. (We focus almost exclusively on tools, not instructional
 materials.) However, we go beyond “doing” by incorporating critical dialog
 and reflection into the Sugar learning environment, through mechanisms for
 collaboration, journaling, and portfolio.

 Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project and
 consequently it has inherited many of its goals from that project. The goal
 of OLPC is to bring the ideas of Constructionism to scale in order to reach
 more children. A particular focus is on children in the developing world.
 In order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was originally developed for OLPC,
 was by necessity a small-footprint solution that required few resources in
 terms of CPU, memory, storage, or network connectivity. The major change on
 focus from the OLPC project is that Sugar Labs strives to make the Sugar
 desktop available to multiple platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware.

 Who develops Sugar?

 Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort (although we do occasionally
 raise money for paid student internships). Sugar development and
 maintenance is incumbent upon volunteers and hence we strive to provide as
 much control as possible to our community members, including our end-users.
 (In fact, one of our assertions is that by enabling our users to
 participate in the development of the tools that they use will lead to
 deeper engagement in their own learning.) Towards these ends, we chose the
 GPL as our primary license. It has been said of the GPL that it “restricts
 my right [as a developer] to restrict yours [as a user and potential
 developer]”, which seems ideal for a project that wants to engage a broad
 and diverse set of learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond the usual goals
 of FOSS: a license to make changes to the code is not enough to ensure that
 users make changes. We also strive to provide the means to make changes.
 Our success 

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Samson Goddy]

If i am wrong, walter made it clear earlier that this is a "draft proposal"
meaning you can input.

Samson

On Apr 10, 2017 2:15 PM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:



2017-04-09 19:03 GMT-05:00 Walter Bender :

>
>
> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional context
>> before diving in :)
>>
>> Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning process you
>> started, and we should not expect you to restart it again?
>>
>
> At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we were
> still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get the
> conversation going again.
>

Thanks for doing this Walter,

After a quick read, I have to confess I feel sad and excluded because none
of the projects I have worked on [1] is mentioned on your view of Sugar's
history.


Regards and blessings,

Laura V

 [1] http://pe.sugarlabs.org/ir/Proyectos


>
>
>>
>> Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your proposal for
>> the goals for this year?
>>
>
> Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a draft of goals but
> they are not "the goals" until we agree to them.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>>
>>> As per the discussion in the last Suagr Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I
>>> had agreed to write a draft statement of goals for 2017. The document below
>>> includes feedback from Samson G. I hope this document can serve to
>>> revitalize our discussion from 2016 that never reached resolution.
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations
>>>
>>> What is Sugar Labs?
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and maintains learning software for
>>> children. Our approach to learning is grounded in Constructionism, a
>>> pedagogy developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the 1960s and
>>> 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the use of the computer by children to help
>>> engage them in the “construction of knowledge.” His long-time colleague
>>> Cynthia Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing the concept of
>>> engaging children in debugging as a pathway into problem-solving. Their
>>> 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with a computer”, is arguably the genesis
>>> of contemporary movements such as the Maker Movement and Hour of Code.
>>>
>>> At the core of Constructionism is “learning through doing.” If you want
>>> more learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs we provide tools to
>>> promote doing. (We focus almost exclusively on tools, not instructional
>>> materials.) However, we go beyond “doing” by incorporating critical dialog
>>> and reflection into the Sugar learning environment, through mechanisms for
>>> collaboration, journaling, and portfolio.
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project and
>>> consequently it has inherited many of its goals from that project. The goal
>>> of OLPC is to bring the ideas of Constructionism to scale in order to reach
>>> more children. A particular focus is on children in the developing world.
>>> In order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was originally developed for OLPC,
>>> was by necessity a small-footprint solution that required few resources in
>>> terms of CPU, memory, storage, or network connectivity. The major change on
>>> focus from the OLPC project is that Sugar Labs strives to make the Sugar
>>> desktop available to multiple platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware.
>>>
>>> Who develops Sugar?
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort (although we do occasionally raise
>>> money for paid student internships). Sugar development and maintenance is
>>> incumbent upon volunteers and hence we strive to provide as much control as
>>> possible to our community members, including our end-users. (In fact, one
>>> of our assertions is that by enabling our users to participate in the
>>> development of the tools that they use will lead to deeper engagement in
>>> their own learning.) Towards these ends, we chose the GPL as our primary
>>> license. It has been said of the GPL that it “restricts my right [as a
>>> developer] to restrict yours [as a user and potential developer]”, which
>>> seems ideal for a project that wants to engage a broad and diverse set of
>>> learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond the usual goals of FOSS: a license
>>> to make changes to the code is not enough to ensure that users make
>>> changes. We also strive to provide the means to make changes. Our success
>>> in this goal is best reflected in the number of patches we receive from our
>>> community. (We achieve this goal through providing access to source code
>>> and development tools within Sugar itself. We also actively participate in
>>> workshops and internship programs such as Google Summer of Code,
>>> Outreaching, and Google Code-In.)
>>>
>>> Who uses Sugar?
>>>
>>> Ultimately, 

Re: [IAEP] 2017 Goals for Sugar Labs

[Laura Vargas]

2017-04-09 19:03 GMT-05:00 Walter Bender :

>
>
> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Thanks Walter. I'd like to better understand some additional context
>> before diving in :)
>>
>> Does this mean Sameer you have stopped the project planning process you
>> started, and we should not expect you to restart it again?
>>
>
> At the most recent SLOB meeting Samson brought up the fact that we were
> still waiting and so I volunteered to write something up to get the
> conversation going again.
>

Thanks for doing this Walter,

After a quick read, I have to confess I feel sad and excluded because none
of the projects I have worked on [1] is mentioned on your view of Sugar's
history.


Regards and blessings,

Laura V

 [1] http://pe.sugarlabs.org/ir/Proyectos


>
>
>>
>> Walter, are these the goals for this year, or are they your proposal for
>> the goals for this year?
>>
>
> Not sure I understand what you are asking. I wrote up a draft of goals but
> they are not "the goals" until we agree to them.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 9, 2017 3:31 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>>
>>> As per the discussion in the last Suagr Labs Oversight Board Meeting, I
>>> had agreed to write a draft statement of goals for 2017. The document below
>>> includes feedback from Samson G. I hope this document can serve to
>>> revitalize our discussion from 2016 that never reached resolution.
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs Plans, Goals, Aspirations
>>>
>>> What is Sugar Labs?
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs creates, distributes, and maintains learning software for
>>> children. Our approach to learning is grounded in Constructionism, a
>>> pedagogy developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues in the 1960s and
>>> 70s at MIT. Papert pioneered the use of the computer by children to help
>>> engage them in the “construction of knowledge.” His long-time colleague
>>> Cynthia Solomon expanded up his ideas by introducing the concept of
>>> engaging children in debugging as a pathway into problem-solving. Their
>>> 1971 paper, “Twenty things to do with a computer”, is arguably the genesis
>>> of contemporary movements such as the Maker Movement and Hour of Code.
>>>
>>> At the core of Constructionism is “learning through doing.” If you want
>>> more learning, you want more doing. At Sugar Labs we provide tools to
>>> promote doing. (We focus almost exclusively on tools, not instructional
>>> materials.) However, we go beyond “doing” by incorporating critical dialog
>>> and reflection into the Sugar learning environment, through mechanisms for
>>> collaboration, journaling, and portfolio.
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs is a spinoff of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project and
>>> consequently it has inherited many of its goals from that project. The goal
>>> of OLPC is to bring the ideas of Constructionism to scale in order to reach
>>> more children. A particular focus is on children in the developing world.
>>> In order to meet that goal, Sugar, which was originally developed for OLPC,
>>> was by necessity a small-footprint solution that required few resources in
>>> terms of CPU, memory, storage, or network connectivity. The major change on
>>> focus from the OLPC project is that Sugar Labs strives to make the Sugar
>>> desktop available to multiple platforms, not just the OLPC XO hardware.
>>>
>>> Who develops Sugar?
>>>
>>> Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer effort (although we do occasionally raise
>>> money for paid student internships). Sugar development and maintenance is
>>> incumbent upon volunteers and hence we strive to provide as much control as
>>> possible to our community members, including our end-users. (In fact, one
>>> of our assertions is that by enabling our users to participate in the
>>> development of the tools that they use will lead to deeper engagement in
>>> their own learning.) Towards these ends, we chose the GPL as our primary
>>> license. It has been said of the GPL that it “restricts my right [as a
>>> developer] to restrict yours [as a user and potential developer]”, which
>>> seems ideal for a project that wants to engage a broad and diverse set of
>>> learners. But at Sugar Labs we go beyond the usual goals of FOSS: a license
>>> to make changes to the code is not enough to ensure that users make
>>> changes. We also strive to provide the means to make changes. Our success
>>> in this goal is best reflected in the number of patches we receive from our
>>> community. (We achieve this goal through providing access to source code
>>> and development tools within Sugar itself. We also actively participate in
>>> workshops and internship programs such as Google Summer of Code,
>>> Outreaching, and Google Code-In.)
>>>
>>> Who uses Sugar?
>>>
>>> Ultimately, our goal is to reach learners (and educators) with powerful
>>> tools and engage them in Constructionist learning. Currently we reach them
>>> in many ways: the majority of our users