Re: [Sugar-devel] [sfconservancy.org #1322] For Approval: Jaskirat Singh funding and advance for travel to GSoC mentor summit

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 3:38 PM Samson Goddy  wrote:

> Seconded
>
> On Sat, Aug 18, 2018, 1:32 AM Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>
>> A bit of context:
>>
>> We are assigned 3 slots for GSoC mentors to attend the mentor summit. I
>> am hoping that Devin and Jaskirat will be able to attend, along with one
>> TBD. We will get $3300 from Google to cover all of the expenses, which
>> should easily cover Devin (domestic travel)  and Jaskirat (international)
>> and one more domestic traveler. (Google will also be covering the local
>> hotel and meal expenses.)
>>
>> Motion: To approve a travel advance for Jaskirat to attend the Google
>> Summer of Code mentor summit in October 2018.
>>
>> Regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 5:15 PM Brett Smith via RT <
>> approv...@tix.sfconservancy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi SLOBs,
>>>
>>> Jaskirat Singh is traveling to the GSoC mentor summit.  Because he's
>>> coming from India, he's asked us to prepay a number of expenses, which
>>> we're happy to do as long as you approve.
>>>
>>> First, he has requested an advance of 43,700.00 INR (about $625) to
>>> cover expenses related to getting his visa and ground transportation in
>>> India.  He provided this budget:
>>>
>>> VISA Fees - 11200 INR
>>> Travelling agent and Consultant charges - 7000 INR
>>> As i have to travel for the VISA Documentation and Interview to other
>>> states so for that i have 2 dates consecutively ( VISA appointment letter
>>> attached), So for that Hotel Charge for 1 night and 2 days - 7000 INR
>>> Meals for this purpose ( 2 days ) - 2000 INR (approx.)
>>> Taxi fare from my location to the US Embassy - 4000 INR + toll and taxes
>>> ( approx ).
>>> As per the rules VISA Documentation and Interview takes place at
>>> different place and VISA Collection gets issued from the different location
>>> which is the part of another state, so for that Taxi Fare - 2500 INR
>>> Taxi fare from Home to Airport - 5000 INR + toll and taxes ( approx )
>>> Taxi fare from airport to back Home - 5000 INR + toll and taxes ( approx
>>> )
>>>
>>> Please let us know whether or not you approve sending him money for
>>> these expenses ahead of time.  We'll still ask him to provide receipts
>>> after the fact as required for all travel under our policies.
>>>
>>> Note that, between this advance and the flight he's asking us to book,
>>> Jaskirat's travel is likely to exceed $1,000, meaning some of it will be
>>> paid out of Sugar's general fund and not covered by the money coming from
>>> Google for GSoC.  Please let us know what total travel budget you're
>>> willing to set for Jaskirat.
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> --
>>> Brett Smith
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> 
>>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] Action required: Devin Ulibarri travel/stipend

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer


On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 10:05 AM, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:
> Community feedback here
>
> I wondered about the original $50 allowed for expenses... it seemed
> unrealistically low at the time... guess I should have said something then!
>
> Of course he should be able to use the honorarium to defray his costs!
>
>
> GrannieB
>
>
> 
> From: IAEP  on behalf of Samson Goddy
> 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2018 8:33:25 AM
> To: Walter Bender
> Cc: iaep; Sugar-dev Devel; OLPC para usuarios, docentes, voluntarios y
> administradores; SLOBs
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [SLOB] Action required: Devin Ulibarri travel/stipend
>
> Seconded
>
>
>
>
>
> - Samson
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:35 PM, Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>
> I was hoping to discuss this at the May meeting, but no one was able to
> attend that meeting.
>
> Devin went to Japan to run some Music Blocks workshops. We had allocated a
> budget for him was US $1200 for his ticket and US $50 for local expenses
> (See [1]). Devin incurred some additional expenses above and beyond what we
> budgeted -- extra local travel and some equipment needed for the workshops
> (speakers).
>
> One of the schools he visited -- the Yokohama Science Frontiers school --
> offered Devin an honorarium of ~US $500, which they sent to the SFC.  ,These
> funds would cover his additional costs. The SFC won't release this money
> without our approval. It would amount to US $450 after the 10% allocation by
> the SFC.
>
> Motion: Approve the payment of US $450 as an honorarium to Devin Ulibarri
> for his workshops in Japan.
>
> I don't think there is anything controversial here, but of course, your
> feedback (and community feedback) is most appreciated.
>
> Someone would have to second this motion so that we can vote on it.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -walter
>
> [1] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions#2018-01-09
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
> ___
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> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
>
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>



-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
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[Sugar-devel] Gathering ideas for Sugarlabs

[Sameer Verma]

If you haven't already, can you post your ideas/suggestions here?

https://goo.gl/forms/PV3SV8opzBnb1eqw2

Original discussion at
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2018-January/020379.html

Cheers,
Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar Labs 2018 Goals idea

[Sameer Verma]

If you haven't already, can you also post it here?
https://goo.gl/forms/PV3SV8opzBnb1eqw2

Sameer

On Feb 3, 2018 7:23 AM, "Jaskirat Singh"  wrote:

> Hello ,
>
> I am Jaskirat Singh, SL community member.
> Seeking towards Sugar labs Goals 2018 Well, it will be good to have a
> program like  showcase Schools , that means we could make an event or
> program named as SHOWCASE SUGAR LABS SCHOOLS in which our marketing team
> should get involved and  target schools , and other educational centers ,
> conducting seminars and guiding teachers, getting introduced about the
> Sugar labs and how it can be beneficial to them . We could have some type
> of achievements in that so that if a particular school satisfy that
> criteria will be given a title of SL authorized labs .
> Moreover for this we can conduct online competitions . Because as far i
> have observed is that schools involve only when they are benefitted in some
> way . So it is also necessary to conduct some programs competitions
> then only we will be able to promote and spread SL across the globe
> ...!
> So for this  The schools which will become SL showcase schools ,will have
> those seminars and also later we can make STUDENT EXPERTS in those
> particular schools so that those students after going through all the
> things in SL will conduct seminars and all other events and teach others
> about the things like activities ( music blocks ,turtle, etc) and when they
> will tell about this to others then they will seek more users.
> But as far i know that this could only be possible if we develop some
> program and allow more school comp department teachers to compete in those
> ( by documentation work that they have to pick an activity or something
> related to sugar,  use sugar things ,and develop something with help of
> those resources and then send to us ...so will go through it and select the
> work according to it we can select schools for showcase and also these type
> of schools can be given some type of rewards ) i think it will be good to
> outreach ...! And yes will be interested too also for this we can go for
> special website named as education center for it where users can have
> different courses for it and go through it. Even i have started to get SL
> introduced in nearby schools.
> I hope this idea would work and please feel free to talk about these for
> suggestions as well as opinions
>
> Thanks
>
> JASKIRAT SINGH
>
> ___
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] workshop travel motion

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Jan 7, 2018 6:26 PM, "Samson Goddy"  wrote:

> Outreach programs like this is healthy to the community. I am very happy
> for movement  in Asia.
>
> Thanks Devin.
>
>
> I second the Motion.
>
>
>
> -Samson
>
> On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 2:50 AM, Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>
>> Devin Ulibarri is returning from Japan, where he ran a number of Music
>> Blocks workshops. While he was there, he also met with METI (the Japanese
>> ministry of economics, trade, and industry), which has a interest in STEM
>> education and with whom he initiated talks about doing a large-scale
>> initiative in Japan. He has been invited back to follow up on the work at a
>> school in Yolohama and to have follow-up meetings with METI. He is
>> requesting funds to support his travel:
>>
>> * between US $800-1200 for airfare; and
>> * approximately $40 for local transportation in Japan
>>
>> He has accomodations accounted for and hence does need funds for a hotel.
>>
>> Motion 2018-02: Provide Devin Ulibarri with travel money for March
>> workshops and follow-up meetings in Japan of an amount not exceeding US
>> $1250.
>>
>> 
>>
>> Additional background on the trip privided by Devin can be found below:
>>
>> The main gist is that the Yokohama Frontier High School (
>> http://www.edu.city.yokohama.lg.jp/school/hs/sfh/index.cfm/37,html) does
>> special science festivals about once a year and they would like me to be
>> their special guest in March (3/16). For planning purposes (and for the
>> best airfare rate), it is important to know whether the airfare would be
>> paid for in advance. I asked if they have a budget to pay for airfare for
>> their guests and they do not.
>>
>> I will try to schedule one or two additional meetings around that time as
>> well, if possible. For example, I would like to meet with METI (Ministry of
>> Economics, Trade, and Industry) once, perhaps the Friday before, and try to
>> do a couple workshop at a middle school in Tokyo that expressed interest.
>>
>> It is the same school as described in these blogs:
>>
>> https://musicblocks.net/2018/01/02/translation-of-yokohama-s
>> cience-frontier-blog-article-of-devins-visit-on-12-16-2017/
>>
>> https://musicblocks.net/2018/01/02/devins-travels-in-japan/
>>
>> (They were impressed with the initial showcase, so they asked me back to
>> be the special guest in March. That is how this got started.)
>>
>> The school is asking for various information (e.g. translated bio,
>> translated C.V. and Resume), which I am preparing right now. I am almost
>> complete with all of the documents, including a "What is Music Blocks?"
>> slideshow presentation in Japanese, of which the most recent draft(s) may
>> be accessed at:
>>
>> https://owncloud.libretools.com/index.php/s/huL6h3MgPf7e9g8
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> 
>>
>> ___
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> i...@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOB] GSoC 2018

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Jan 5, 2018 6:46 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> I made a motion at today's meeting regarding Sugar Labs participation in
> Google Summer of Code 2018. As I mentioned, Google has pushed up the
> application process: we need to get our application in by January 23. I
> think GSoC is well worth the effort and I hope we can agree to participate
> again this year.
>
> Motion: Sugar Labs will apply for Google Summer of Code 2018
>
> The motion was seconded by Adam. Samson, Adam, and I voted in favor of
> participating, but we have yet to hear from the rest of you. Please respond
> at your earliest convenience as we don't have much time to prepare our
> application.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] email motion 2017-19

[Sameer Verma]

I second.

+1

Sameer

On Dec 1, 2017 11:35 AM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> Motion: To appoint Claudia Urrea to the oversight-board seat that opened
> due to the resignation of Laura Vargas. This temporary appointment would
> last until the next oversight board election in 2018.
>
> This was discussed at today's oversight-board meeting [1], but since we
> lacked a quorum we could not take a vote. Hence this email. Please respond
> ASAP.
>
> The gist of the discussion was:
>
>  #topic replacing Laura on the board
>  Laura Vargas has resigned her seat on the board. I think we
> should fill the vacancy with a temporary appointment.
>  Her seat was up in fall 2018.
>  So it would be a 9-10 month appointment.
>  I propose Claudia Urrea
>  for several reasons:
>  (1) she got the most votes in the last election (missing a
> seat on the board by just one vote)
>  (2) she is very experienced with Sugar and our target
> audience
>  (3) she brings academic and education experience to the mix
>  (4) she is a thoughtful, long-term contributor to the
> community
>  (5) and she is a very respectful colleague
>
> Her state of objects from the last election can be found at [2].
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> [1] http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings/
> 2017-12-01T19:05:26
> [2] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/2017-
> 2019-candidates#Claudia_Urrea
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [IAEP] [SLOB] Motion regarding xo-computer icon

[Sameer Verma]

Hi Caryl,

Free and open source software projects allow for forking by design as a way
out of major disagreements. However if this disagreement is due to an
intellectual property issue (as it appears to be in the current
discussion), it is best handled by our legal counsel. Most of us are not
qualified enough to offer that judgment. I'm certainly not.

Sameer

On Sep 15, 2017 10:46 AM, "Caryl Bigenho"  wrote:

> The XO icon in modified form is used on Sugarizer. It appears elsewhere on
> other current versions of Sugar. It is a well known icon and, as such,
> carries considerable intrinsic value.
>
>
> If some people want to completely divorce themselves from all the hard
> work of their predecessors and the good will they have built up, perhaps it
> would be better for them to leave Sugar Labs entirely and strike out on
> their own.
>
>
> Caryl
>
>
> --
> *From:* IAEP  on behalf of Sean DALY <
> sdaly...@gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Friday, September 15, 2017 9:17 AM
> *To:* Sebastian Silva
> *Cc:* Sugar-dev Devel; Samson Goddy; OLPC para usuarios, docentes,
> voluntarios y administradores; Laura Vargas; Sugar Labs Marketing; Sugar
> Labs Oversights Board; iaep; Ignacio Rodríguez
> *Subject:* Re: [IAEP] [SLOB] Motion regarding xo-computer icon
>
> So your idea is: no trademarks at all? Do you think Sugar Labs should give
> up its trademark?
>
> Is your goal to undermine Sugar Labs and/or OLPC?
>
> Sean
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 12:02 PM, Sebastian Silva <
> sebast...@fuentelibre.org> wrote:
>
>> On 15/09/17 10:59, Sean DALY wrote:
>> > The copyrights are licensed under the GPL, and OLPC's trademark has a
>> > long history of use in Sugar with OLPC's cooperation - a formal
>> > license may be superfluous (a determination which can only be made by
>> > a lawyer). The artwork file itself is GPL'd. So this is just an
>> > underhanded way to bypass the community (and the SLOBs) and impose a
>> > change.
>> You are not reading carefully. Perhaps Sugar Labs has permission. Do
>> downstream distributors? Do downstream service providers? Do OLPC
>> competitors?
>>
>> Sebastian
>>
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] Motion regarding xo-computer icon

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Sep 15, 2017 7:15 AM, "Samson Goddy"  wrote:

>
>
> On Sep 15, 2017 3:12 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>
> The discussion regarding the status of the xo-computer icon seems to be
> going around  in circles. In my opinion, this makes it even more imperative
> that the Sugar Labs oversight board respond to Tony's questions so that
> Tony can proceed with his investigation in to our options.
>
> To state the obvious, this discussion is not about whether or not we can
> change the xo-computer icon -- we can do that at any time in consultation
> with our design team. The discussion is about whether or not we make that
> decision on our own terms or be forced into a change.
>
> Motion: To answer the questions posed by the SFC regarding the xo-computer
> icon as follows:
> (Q1) Why is the XO logo included in the sugar-artwork repo now -- and does
> the SLOBs want to keep it there?
> (A1) The xo-computer icon has been part of Sugar since we first designed
> and built Sugar (beginning in 2006) and we would like to keep it there
> until such time as the design team decides there is a reason to change it.
> (Q2) Assuming the SLOBs want to keep the XO logo in sugar-artwork: what
> outcome would the SLOBs *prefer* to see happen?  E.g.,
> - Does Sugar want downstream users to be able to redistribute and modify
> Sugar's codebase with or without the XO trademark file included in the
> program?
> - Does the SLOBs want downstream users to be able to modify and
> redistribute the XO trademark image itself, or is that less important to
> Sugar?
> (A2) Sugar Artwork, including the xo-computer icon, is currently licensed
> under the GPL and we would like our downstream users to be able to use all
> of our artwork under the terms of that license. As far as the use of any
> trademark image outside of the context of Sugar, we have no opinion.
>
> I'd appreciate if someone would second this motion and, if it passes, the
> results be reported to Tony by Adam, our SFC liaison. Of course, if the
> motion does not pass, we will need to continue the discussion.
>
> I second the motion.
>
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Walter Bender 
> Date: Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 8:48 PM
> Subject: [SLOB] xo-computer icon
> To: SLOBs 
> Cc: Sugar-dev Devel 
>
>
> As probably most of you are aware, yesterday one of our community members
> unilaterally changed the xo-computer icon in sugar-artwork. The ensuing
> discussion about the change is in the github pull request, "Urgent fix
> logos", [1]
>
> The gist of his concern is that OLPC has a trademark on the XO artwork [2]
> and there was concern that we were infringing and consequently downstream
> users would also be infringing.
>
> As Sean Daly points out, this is not the first time that the topic has
> come up [3, 4]. "In the past, OLPC was amenable to the use of the xo logo
> in Sugar, but asked we not use it in marketing materials without a formal
> co-branding licensing agreement."
>
> Personally, I think that OLPC was explicit in making the Sugar artwork
> available under a GPL licence and that this is hence moot. But I am not
> qualified to make that assessment. Consequently, I asked Adam Holt, our SFC
> liaison, to raise the issue with the legal team. Tony asked us to consider
> the following questions:
>
> 1) Why is the XO logo included in the sugar-artwork repo now -- and does
> the SLOBs want to keep it there?
> 2) Assuming the SLOBs want to keep the XO logo in sugar-artwork:  what
> outcome would the SLOBs *prefer* to see happen?  E.g.,
> - Does Sugar want downstream users to be able to redistribute and modify
> Sugar's codebase with or without the XO trademark file included in the
> program?
> - Does the SLOBs want downstream users to be able to modify and
> redistribute the XO trademark image itself, or is that less important to
> Sugar?
>
> The answer to the first part of Tony's first question is that the XO logo
> was part of Sugar from the very beginning -- before Sugar Labs was split
> from OLPC. We've never changed it.
>
> Regarding the second part: does the SLOBs want to keep it there?  is
> something we  need to discuss. Personally, I think it serves its purpose
> well -- a childcentric interface and it is "iconic" of Sugar. I see no
> reason to change it.
>
> Regarding Tony's second question, I would want downstream users to have as
> much freedom as possible: to use or not use the XO icon as they choose.
> However, I don't see the need to expand beyond the context of Sugar. If
> someone downstream wants to use the artwork for some other purpose, that is
> not our issue (although I that the GPL license would be the relevant
> determinant.)
>
> What do others think?
>
> Note, I think we should defer the discussion of what we would use as
> replacement artwork until we resolve the current issue.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> [1]  https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-artwork/pull/96
> [2]  http://www.trademarkia.com/xo-78880051.ht

Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOBS] Motion: To apply to GCI 2017.

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Sep 14, 2017 8:36 AM, "Adam Holt"  wrote:

> +1
>
> On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 2:50 AM, Lionel Laské 
> wrote:
>
>> +1
>>
>>  Lionel
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 8:13 AM +0200, "Samson Goddy" <
>> samsongo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 14, 2017 3:37 AM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello SLOBs,
>>>
>>> Walter has mentioned we as SLOB's should decide whether or not Sugar
>>> Labs will participate in GCI 2017.
>>>
>>> I was a Code In mentor back in 2013 and I remember it was a nice
>>> experience with a lot of work but rewarded to see Ignacio winning :D
>>>
>>> So, I think we should keep supporting this program.
>>>
>>> Motion: Sugar Labs to participate on GCI 2017.
>>>
>>> Any second?
>>>
>>> I Second the motion, it is important we participate.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Laura V.
>>> * I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org*
>>>
>>> “Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
>>> ~ L. Victoria
>>>
>>> Happy Learning!
>>> #LearningByDoing
>>> #Projects4good
>>> #IDesignATSugarLabs
>>> #WeCanDoBetter
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>> --
>> 
>> 
>> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @
>> http://unleashkids.org !
>>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

Couldn't make it. Meeting conflict at work.

Sameer

On Aug 31, 2017 5:22 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> We have a meeting on Friday, 1 September at 19UTC. Please join us in
> irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting. Note that one option to connect is via
> chat.sugarlabs.org in your web browser.
>
> Among other topics of discussion:
> * Summary of GSoC/Outreachy
> * SLOB election
> * Google Code-in
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [IAEP] URGENT action needed

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 11:50 AM, Laura Vargas  wrote:
>
>
> 2017-08-11 9:23 GMT-05:00 Samson Goddy :
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 3:08 PM, Laura Vargas 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2017-08-11 8:54 GMT-05:00 Avni Khatri :



 On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 9:05 AM, Samuel Cantero 
 wrote:
>
> mind-boggling indeed. SL has been in GSoC and GCI for years. I'm not a
> board member but +1 for sure.
>

 +1
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello Avni,
>>>
>>> I agree with you it should be clearly defined who in Sugar Labs is
>>> responsible for Google's collections.
>>>
>>> Resources in Sugar Labs are limited and historically we had lost a lot of
>>> opportunities because uncollected grant, please research on Trip Advisor's
>>> case when lack of clear responsibility for collection let to an unbelievable
>>> lack of collection of US$40.000 for internationalization's projects.
>>>
>>> Responsibility isn't clear at this point.
>>>
>>> About the Financial Manager role, it was created by the Board on July's
>>> decisions last year, still they never appointed anyone for the role.
>>>
>>> In the meanwhile, Adam has continue serving as the representative for
>>> Sugar Labs with the Software Freedom Conservancy since last period. Still,
>>> this role doesn't account for any financial responsibility according to
>>> current Governance.
>>>
>>> I'm sorry we still don't have a wiki page that would easily resolve any
>>> financial question to the community. It is a tendency I'm hoping to revert
>>> by proposing the Motion 2017-08-10: Sugar Labs Financial Manager to have a
>>> monthly compensation.
>>>
>>>
>> First i see no reason for this decision, after the comments from walter's
>> and i quote.
>>
>> "Google has been consistently paying us for almost 10 years. The fact that
>> we have not yet seen the $7000 from GCI is an SFC interface issue."
>>
>> Sugar Labs not receiving $7k from GCI was a problem from SFC. This
>> discussion is unhealthy for this motion because it serves as a distraction.
>
>
>
> Samson,
>
> On the contrary I would have no problem to vote +1 on this motion if we had
> already a clearly defined and fairly compensated Financial Manager
> responsible for the numbers (this includes tracking collections and
> payments) on our quarterly reports.

The two motions are separate. Let's keep those that way.

Sameer

>
> I hope the best for you.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> --
> Laura V.
> I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org
>
> “Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
> ~ Laura Victoria
>
> Happy Learning!
> #LearningByDoing
> #Projects4good
> #IDesignATSugarLabs
> #WeCanDoBetter
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] URGENT action needed

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Aug 10, 2017 4:44 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> I presume we need a motion and a vote on this. Time is of the essence, so
> please respond ASAP.
>
> Motion: Samson Goddy has been selected as a Sugar Labs representative to
> the Google Summer of Code mentor summit. He has requested a travel advance
> to cover the costs of his visa application. The advance, including wire
> fees comes to $US 627.05. This motion is to approve the travel advance. (As
> additional background, Google will be covering up to $2200 in travel
> expenses for two representatives to attend the summit. Since our other
> representative is local to the SF area, the bulk of that money would be
> available to cover Samson's travel, so the net impact on SL funds will be
> negligible.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Accounting at Software Freedom Conservancy <
> account...@sfconservancy.org>
> Date: Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 4:16 PM
> Subject: URGENT request for Sugar Labs to approve of US$627.05 advance for
> Goddy for GSoC Mentor Summit (was: Is Goddy actually requesting $160 ?)
> To: su...@sfconservancy.org
> Cc: Martin Michlmayr , Samson Goddy <
> samsongo...@gmail.com>
>
>
> Sugar Labs PLC,  please urgently page down to the all caps section below.
>
> Samson,
>
> Samson Goddy wrote at 08:52 (EDT) on Wednesday:
> > it has been 5 days, i already made request to su...@sfconservancy.org
> for
> > funding. Since it takes up to 15 working days(3 weeks) for the embassy to
> > accept appointment for interview.
> >
> > I haven't heard anything from both parties.
>
> Unfortunately, We are waiting for someone from Sugar Labs to reply to
> approve the expense.  I don't know why they haven't replied.
>
> SUGAR LABS PLC: By my calculation, Samson is asking for this:
>
>   FOR TRAVEL TO GET A VISA, AND FOR THE VISA FEES ITSELF, SAMSON GODDY ASKS
>   FOR A CASH ADVANCE OF TRAVEL EXPENSES (TO COME TO GSOC MENTOR SUMMIT
>   2017).  The totals are as follows:
>
>   If we use western union, N202,350 = $570 (rate set by WU)
>
>   If we use wire, he's asking for 561+(561*.05)+13+25 = US$627.05 to be
> wired.
>wire fees
>
> If Sugar Labs PLC replies with approval before Sunday night US/Eastern, we
> can likely process a payment by wire on Monday.
>
>
> We don't typically use Western Union, and it would be substantial effort
> for
> us to do that, so we'd like Sugar to approve the additional wire fees as
> it will make payment more rapid for Samson and easier for Conservancy.
>
> Samson, your request was a bit ramble-y, so if I gleaned the wrong totals
> above, please correct them.
>
> Samson, in preparation for Sugar Labs PLC hopefully approving this request,
> could you let me know if the wire instructions I used for you before are
> still correct, and if not, send me new ones?
>
> --
> Bradley M. Kuhn
> Distinguished Technologist of Software Freedom Conservancy
>  |--> & also, de-facto Bookkeeper for the moment
> Pls support Conservancy!: https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [IAEP] MOTION: French visa for Samson Goddy to attend 10-year Anniversary Scratch Conf / 50-year Anniversary of Logo

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Samuel Greenfeld  wrote:
> My experience with the SFC is that while they like to do license
> enforcement, they are not platform purists.  If you look at the bottom of
> sfconservancy.org they have their own social media accounts.
>

I completely agree with this. To say that it's all Free Software and
nothing else is a mis-characterization. To take this extreme
fundamentalist viewpoint would imply not being able to use web servers
like Apache (Open Source, but not Free software).

Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/

>
> The ".fla" file at least in #4758 actually may be the source code in binary
> format.  I do not have access to a copy of Shockwave to verify that.
> But without knowing the license for the flash content (unless Samson knows
> the source; the README is for a different .fla, and I cannot find it) it is
> unclear if the bundle as a whole can be GPL v3 licensed.
>
> I do not recall having an active ASLO account to check the other activity in
> question.
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 2:11 PM, Sebastian Silva 
> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On 13/06/17 12:50, Samson Goddy wrote:
>>
>> Your mentioning Facebook, iPhone, Windows, Flash, LinkedIn etc, do not fit
>> with this agreement, so we would sincerely appreciate if you do not promote
>> these entities while representing Sugar Labs.
>>
>> Could you explain more, because i dont understand. And also how did you
>> think i might breach the agreement?
>>
>>
>> While your promoting these entities does not breach the wording of the
>> agreement, I believe it goes against the spirit of it. Please review
>> information on GNU.org such as the following articles, to understand why
>> such technologies are distributed in bad faith.
>>
>> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/keep-control-of-your-computing.html
>> https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html
>> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
>>
>> On the other hand, these Sugar Activities (by you) don't have proper
>> sources available. This actually is a breach of the agreement, and they
>> should have been removed:
>>
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4759
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4758
>>
>> In accordance to the license file on those .xo bundles, I request that you
>> share the source for the .swf Flash components embedded if you wrote them,
>> otherwise please make sure they are removed from ASLO.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Sebastian
>>
>> ___
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>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] MOTION: French visa for Samson Goddy to attend 10-year Anniversary Scratch Conf / 50-year Anniversary of Logo

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer

On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 3:30 AM, Adam Holt  wrote:
> On Jun 7, 2017 7:59 AM, "Adam Holt"  wrote:
>
> Lionel, Sameer, Laura & Ignacio,
>
> Can you please try to vote yes or no
>
>
> Or please formally abstain, but do vote your opinion please!
>
> (As you we're elected to do, setting a tone for forward action — in whatever
> direction your conscience takes you — Thanks All!)
>
>
> today
>
> as Samson would need to fly to Lagos immediately this wkd (or Monday latest,
> to get everything in motion) so does need to know what's happening ASAP as
> the wkd approaches, Thanks All for your consideration!
>
>
> On Jun 5, 2017 3:28 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 2:32 PM, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 2:17 PM, Samson Goddy 
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I will take sole responsibility for the lost and if it happen, i didn't
>>>> get the visa.
>>>
>>>
>>> My apologies I misunderstood earlier, among the many emails.  That makes
>>> things very clear, thank you Samson.  Be it then resolved:
>>>
>>> "To support Samson Goddy's attending 2017 Scratch conference in Bordeaux,
>>> France (19-21 July 2017) to strengthen our relationship with Scratch, Sugar
>>> Labs should allocate up to $500 in support of his obtaining a French visa,
>>> including (as nec) travel from Port Harcourt to Lagos for as many days as
>>> required.  Any receipts to this end, Samson will submit to the Software
>>> Freedom Conservancy.  It is understood that if the French government very
>>> unfortunately turns down his visa application, preventing him from attending
>>> Bordeaux, these lost funds will be borne by Samson Goddy."
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance to any board members who can second this motion,
>>> thereby helping Samson/Scratch/Sugar move forward!
>>>
>>> ___
>>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>>> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>>
>>
>> While I think it is unconscionable for Sugar Labs not to shoulder the
>> responsibility of the visa on behalf of one of our members, I will
>> nonetheless second the motion, bad precedent and all, as it seems to be the
>> only way to get unstuck.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>



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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] ping

[Sameer Verma]

+1

Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 6:21 PM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> Does anyone have anything to say regarding my Outreachy motion?
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

Sorry, I couldn't make it. Too many meetings, plus OLPC SF Community
Summit begins this evening.

Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/


On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 4:09 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> My apologies for not sending this out earlier. We have a Sugar Labs
> oversight board meeting today at 19UTC (15 EST) (See [1]). Please join us on
> irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting
>
> Among the discussion topics will be:
> Google Code In (See [2]).
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> [1]
> http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20161104T15&p0=43&msg=Sugar+Labs+oversight+board+meeting1&font=cursive
> [2] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Google_Code_In_2016
>
> --
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> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

Missed the meeting. Sat on the tarmac at Miami instead. There's also been
an island wide Internet outage in Jamaica, which is where I'm now. It comes
and goes. Heading back. I did get to catch up on the logs, and it looks
like I got volunteered for something :-) Will catch up in a day or so.
Traveling back to San Francisco today.

Sameer

On Sep 1, 2016 11:08 PM, "Sameer Verma"  wrote:

I plan to attend, but I'm traveling (flying tonight) into Miami, and there
may be flight delays due to the hurricane situation.

Sameer

On Sep 1, 2016 10:32 AM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> We have a Sugar Labs oversight board meeting tomorrow at 19UTC [1]. Please
> join us on irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting
>
> Among other discussion topics:
>
> Report from the i18n manager;
> Discussion re Finance manager appointment;
> Election 2016 (for three SLOB positions);
> SLOB representation on the membership committee;
> Final results from GSoC;
> Turtle Art Day (Abuja, Asuncion, Montevideo)
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> [1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r14L2-Eyq2NSSPH6n79v
> PNuYpYU2tUfUtpUsbIMHQZQ/edit?usp=sharing
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> <http://www.sugarlabs.org>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

I plan to attend, but I'm traveling (flying tonight) into Miami, and there
may be flight delays due to the hurricane situation.

Sameer

On Sep 1, 2016 10:32 AM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> We have a Sugar Labs oversight board meeting tomorrow at 19UTC [1]. Please
> join us on irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting
>
> Among other discussion topics:
>
> Report from the i18n manager;
> Discussion re Finance manager appointment;
> Election 2016 (for three SLOB positions);
> SLOB representation on the membership committee;
> Final results from GSoC;
> Turtle Art Day (Abuja, Asuncion, Montevideo)
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> [1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r14L2-
> Eyq2NSSPH6n79vPNuYpYU2tUfUtpUsbIMHQZQ/edit?usp=sharing
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

On Jun 30, 2016 3:08 AM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>
> We have a Sugar Labs oversight meeting on Friday, 1 July at 19:00 UTC
(See [1]). Please join us on 1rc.freenode.net #sugar-meetring
>
Typo.

#sugar-meeting

Sameer

> See [2] for the current list of agenda items.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> [1]
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20160701T15&p0=43&msg=Sugar+Labs+oversight+board+meeting&font=sanserif
> [2] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board#Agenda_items
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOB] Motion (1 of 2) GSoC Stipends

[Sameer Verma]

Aye.

Sameer
On Jun 4, 2016 6:36 AM, "Tony Anderson"  wrote:

> I second the motion and approve it.
>
> Tony
>
> On 06/04/2016 03:02 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
>
> We did not have time to take action on two motions at yesterday's meeting.
> Please review the motion below. If an oversight board seconds the motion,
> then we can bring it up for a vote by email.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> Motion regarding GSoC mentoring stipends
>
> Motion: Whereas it is the general policy of Sugar Labs to retain all GSoC
> mentoring stipends in the General Fund, if a mentor asks a GSoC Admin (for
> example in 2016, Walter or Lionel) to pay a stipend to a mentor, their
> share of the stipend amount will be disbursed without further motions to
> approve the spending. The share is calculated from the total awarded for
> the GSoC slot by Google, minus 10% (as all Sugar Labs income is donated to
> Software Freedom Conservancy for organisational services), minus 5%
> (retained for Sugar Labs General Funds),  divided by the number of mentors
> for the project. For example, in a year with 6 slots and 10 mentors at
> $500, the total revenue is $3,000; 10% for Conservancy is $300 and 5% for
> Sugar Labs is $150, leaving a total of $2,550 or $255 per mentor.
>
> 
>
> Note that an earlier version of this motion failed:
>
> Failed Motion
>
> Motion: To allow the mentors participating in Google Summer of Code to
> disperse the mentor stipend among themselves as they see fit.
>
> Further discussion of this motion can be found beginning at [1].
>
> [1] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2016-May/018130.html
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] GSoC mentor stipend motion

[Sameer Verma]

Approve.

Sameer
On May 6, 2016 4:49 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> At today's Sugar Labs oversight board meeting [1], we discussed the motion
> submitted by Sebastian Silva to allow the mentors participating in Google
> Summer of Code to disperse the mentor stipend among themselves as they see
> fit. I second the motion and bring it to you in an email vote.
>
> Background: Every year, Google provides mentoring organizations with a
> stipend for the mentors. In our first year of participation in the program,
> Sugar Labs mentors agreed to have the stipend directed to the Sugar Labs
> general funds. We have followed the same procedure in subsequent years.
> This year, however, several mentors asked if they could have access to the
> stipends (which are allocated per student internship). We discussed this at
> the meeting and agreed that it would be appropriate to offer these funds as
> compensation and thanks to the mentors for their time and expertise (there
> were no objections raised). We need to vote on this however, since the
> funds are given to the mentoring organization, not the individual mentors.
>
> Members of the oversight board, please reply to this email solicitation
> for a vote on the following motion. (Note that since I am a mentor, I think
> I must recuse myself from the vote.)
>
> Motion: to allow the mentors participating in Google Summer of Code to
> disperse the mentor stipend among themselves as they see fit.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> [1]
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Meeting_Minutes-2016-05-06
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [SLOB] Yoruba i18n motion

[Sameer Verma]

Approve.

Sameer
On May 6, 2016 6:40 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> At today's Sugar Labs oversight board meeting [1], we discussed the motion
> submitted by Chris Leonard to fund a program for translation of Sugar into
> Yoruba, one of the three main languages spoken in Nigeria. I second the
> motion and bring it to you in an email vote.
>
> Members of the oversight board, please reply to this email solicitation
> for a vote on the following motion.
>
> Motion: To fund a program to initiate the translation of Sugar into
> Yoruba. The specific milestones and costs are detailed below. A description
> of the rationale for the project is found at [2]. The work would be led by
> Samson Goddy and reviewed by Chris Leonard, in his role as Translation
> Community Manager.
>
> This proposal is for the translation of Sugar user interface and
> certain Sugar Activities into the Yoruba language (ISO-639 code - yo).
>
> Milestone 1 - The initial payment of $350 USD will cover startup costs
> (internet connection fees, localizer recruitment/training, etc.).
> Payment is to be made upon successful completion of contractual
> arrangements with fiscal sponsor (SFC).
>
> Milestone 2 - Glucose - Payable upon completion and upload to Pootle
> of the PO files for sugar, sugar-toolkit-gtk3, OLPC_switch_desktop
> will be for $1,350 USD. Included in this milestone is a $300 USD
> project management fee, in addition to fees of approximately 40
> cents/word for the projects included in this milestone.  The uploaded
> files must pass all "critical" error checks (as flagged by the Pootle
> software) and be approved by the Sugar Labs Translation Community
> Manager, such approval not to be unreasonably withheld.
>
> Milestone 2 must be completed prior to Milestone 3.
>
> Milestone 3 - Fructose - Payable upon completion and upload of the PO
> files for Calculate, Chat, ImageViewer, Jukebox, Log, Paint, Pippy,
> Portfolio, Read, ReadETexts, Record, Speak, Terminal, TurtleArt, Web,
> Write will be for $2,300 USD. Included in this milestone is a $675 USD
> project management fee, in addition to fees of approximately 40
> cents/word for the projects included in this milestone.  The uploaded
> files must pass all "critical" error checks (as flagged by the Pootle
> software) and be approved by the Sugar Labs Translation Community
> Manager, such approval not to be unreasonably withheld.
>
> Total anticipated costs for all three milestone payments will be $4,000
> USD.
>
> All projects are hosted on the Sugar Labs Pootle server at
>
> http://translate.sugarlabs.org/yo/
>
> Translation may be performed off-line with subsequent upload to the
> Pootle server.
>
> regards,
>
> -walter
>
> [1]
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Meeting_Minutes-2016-05-06
> [2]
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gtqpEOmDxxUYGdpbbBMlrPLQ-T6_OVnqdyAPJpaeORw/edit?usp=sharing
> 
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> i...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Newbie on Sugar

[Sameer Verma]

Thanks!

Sameer

On Sun, May 1, 2016 at 3:03 PM, Sam P.  wrote:
> For web activities, there is:
> https://developer.sugarlabs.org/activity.md.html
>
> On 2 May 2016 5:03:57 AM AEST, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking for instructions for a newbie to get started on building HTML
>> 5 activities for Sugar.
>>
>> The students in question are in high school, and have minimal coding
>> experience. Typical equipment is either a Mac or Windows laptop. No prior
>> OLPC or Sugar experience.
>>
>> Ideas? Starting points?
>>
>> My goal is to try this out with some of our younger members at OLPC-SF,
>> and go from there.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Sameer
>>
>> 
>>
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> i...@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
> --
> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
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[Sugar-devel] Newbie on Sugar

[Sameer Verma]

I'm looking for instructions for a newbie to get started on building HTML 5
activities for Sugar.

The students in question are in high school, and have minimal coding
experience. Typical equipment is either a Mac or Windows laptop. No prior
OLPC or Sugar experience.

Ideas? Starting points?

My goal is to try this out with some of our younger members at OLPC-SF, and
go from there.

Cheers,
Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 5:23 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> Apparently we did not actually get all the votes necessary to approve a
> motion to pay Devin a $500 stipend for his time taken away from his Day Job
> to help with the Turtle Blocks workshops at the Constructionism Conference.
> The motion was made and voted on at the 2015-12-07 meeting [1]. There were
> only three votes cast. (I thought four had been cast.) There was no
> objection raised at the time and Devin did take a week off from work to
> attend the meetings and run the workshops. I'd like to reopen this motion
> with the new board and take a vote.
>
> Motion: offer Devin U. an honorarium ($500) to compensate him since he
> needed to take a week off from work to run two Turtle/Music Blocks workshops
> at the Constructionism Conference. The funds would be allocated from the
> Trip Advisor grant which are in support of promoting and advancing Turtle
> Blocks around the world.
>

Abstain.


> Please respond ASAP, as I feel we need to clarify the situation and not
> leave Devin hanging.
>
> Adam, in the future, it would be nice to get a heads up when you find
> mistakes and not just catch them by noticing a change to a wiki page.
>
> Also, I need clarity regarding the Trip Advisor grant. I believe that the
> oversight board has previously granted me approval to spend grant money on
> workshops under the conditions that (1) I inform the committee of my plans
> and (2) I don't exceed the budget. Apparently this is not the understanding
> of some of you and not the understanding of the SFC.
>
> Motion: Walter, as PI of the Trip Advisor grant, will inform the SL
> oversight board of his plans for workshops that fall under the guise
> promotion of Turtle Blocks but otherwise has discretion in organizing and
> funding these events, within the budget constraints of grant and the travel
> guidelines of the SFC.
>

Aye.

Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/

> Please take action on this ASAP as I am many months without reimbursement
> for travel for several workshops.
>
> FWIW, the large proportion of the travel and expenses associated with the
> workshops to date has been paid for by third parties. I've been able to
> stretch the budget quite far.
>
> thank you for your attention.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Sugar Labs 
> Date: Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 4:45 AM
> Subject: Sugar Labs page Oversight Board/Decisions has been changed by Holt
> To: Walter 
>
>
> Dear Walter,
>
> The Sugar Labs page Oversight Board/Decisions has been changed on
> 8 April 2016 by Holt, see
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions for the current
> revision.
>
> See
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/index.php?title=Oversight_Board/Decisions&diff=next&oldid=97963
> to view this change.
>
> See
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/index.php?title=Oversight_Board/Decisions&diff=0&oldid=97963
> for all changes since your last visit.
>
> Editor's summary:  -
>
> Contact the editor:
> mail: https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Special:EmailUser/Holt
> wiki: https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Holt
>
> There will be no other notifications in case of further activity unless
> you visit this page while logged in. You could also reset the
> notification flags for all your watched pages on your watchlist.
>
> Your friendly Sugar Labs notification system
>
> --
> To change your email notification settings, visit
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Special:Preferences
>
> To change your watchlist settings, visit
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Special:EditWatchlist
>
> To delete the page from your watchlist, visit
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/index.php?title=Oversight_Board/Decisions&action=unwatch
>
> Feedback and further assistance:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
> ___
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> sl...@lists.sugarlabs.org
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>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Sameer Verma]

Apologies for missing the meeting. I came down with the flu. Lost my
voice as well. Still loopy on meds, but will try to catch up soon.

Sameer

On Thu, Mar 3, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> We have a Sugar Labs oversight board meeting tomorrow (Friday), 4 March, at
> 16:00 UTC. Please join us on irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting (you can
> connect through chat.sugarlabs.org). Among the topics of discussion will be
> Google Summer of Code [1] and a report [2] regarding the Translation Team.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> [1] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2016
> [2] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Translation_Proposal
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
> ___
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOB] scheduling our next meeting

[Sameer Verma]

I can do 1600 UTC. I think you meant Feb 12?

Sameer
On Feb 4, 2016 1:18 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> Sounds like we are converging. For me, Fridays at 16h00-17h00 UTC would
> work. Shall we try for January 12?
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 4:08 PM, Lionel Laské 
> wrote:
>
>> BTW I could manage as well during the week (monday-friday) from 9h00 UTC
>> to 17h00 UTC.
>>
>> 2016-02-03 21:57 GMT+01:00 Lionel Laské :
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> First, thanks to all of you that give me their vote. Really appreciate
>>> your confidence.
>>>
>>> I guess that UTC 15h00-17h00 should be okay on most timezone.
>>> I can manage it if we plan meetings one or two weeks before.
>>>
>>> Best regards from France.
>>>
>>>   Lionel
>>>
>>> 2016-02-03 20:06 GMT+01:00 Sameer Verma :
>>>
>>>> I'm OK with times between 9AM and 10PM, except for 12pm to 4pm and 7pm
>>>> to 10pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (teaching schedule). Weekends are OK too,
>>>> but not as structured. All times are Pacific.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Sameer
>>>> On Feb 2, 2016 12:17 PM, "Walter Bender" 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> It being 3AM in Thailand, I forgot to say thank you for Carly,
>>>>> Sebastian, and Samson for there efforts in the membership drive and 
>>>>> running
>>>>> the election. Thanks :)
>>>>>
>>>>> regards.
>>>>>
>>>>> -walter
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Walter Bender >>>> > wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Welcome Lionel, Tony, and Sameer to the new Sugar Labs oversight
>>>>>> board. And welcome back Jose Miguel, Adam, and Claudia.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Daniel, Gonzalo, and Chris, many thanks for all that  you have done
>>>>>> for the Sugar Lab community. Your efforts and generosity are much
>>>>>> appreciated.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sam, Laura, and Ed, thank you for making the effort to become part of
>>>>>> the SL oversight board. I hope yo will participate even without a voting
>>>>>> role.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now that we have a new SLOB team, we need to find a regular time to
>>>>>> meet. We are spread across more time zones than in the past, so it may 
>>>>>> be a
>>>>>> bit more difficult to schedule a time that works for everyone (23UTC is
>>>>>> great for UY and the US East Coast, but less convenient in FR and the US
>>>>>> West Coast. And Tony is seemingly everywhere.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I suppose we could use technology to set up a survey to choose a time
>>>>>> of day, but perhaps the end points (Tony, Lionel, and Sameer) can narrow
>>>>>> the search space for us first.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please discuss it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> regards.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -walter
>>>>>>
>>>>>> PS: I will update the SLOB mailing list ASAP.
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Walter Bender
>>>>>> Sugar Labs
>>>>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Walter Bender
>>>>> Sugar Labs
>>>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [SLOB] scheduling our next meeting

[Sameer Verma]

I'm OK with times between 9AM and 10PM, except for 12pm to 4pm and 7pm to
10pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (teaching schedule). Weekends are OK too,
but not as structured. All times are Pacific.

Cheers,
Sameer
On Feb 2, 2016 12:17 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> It being 3AM in Thailand, I forgot to say thank you for Carly, Sebastian,
> and Samson for there efforts in the membership drive and running the
> election. Thanks :)
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>
>> Welcome Lionel, Tony, and Sameer to the new Sugar Labs oversight board.
>> And welcome back Jose Miguel, Adam, and Claudia.
>>
>> Daniel, Gonzalo, and Chris, many thanks for all that  you have done for
>> the Sugar Lab community. Your efforts and generosity are much appreciated.
>>
>> Sam, Laura, and Ed, thank you for making the effort to become part of the
>> SL oversight board. I hope yo will participate even without a voting role.
>>
>> Now that we have a new SLOB team, we need to find a regular time to meet.
>> We are spread across more time zones than in the past, so it may be a bit
>> more difficult to schedule a time that works for everyone (23UTC is great
>> for UY and the US East Coast, but less convenient in FR and the US West
>> Coast. And Tony is seemingly everywhere.
>>
>> I suppose we could use technology to set up a survey to choose a time of
>> day, but perhaps the end points (Tony, Lionel, and Sameer) can narrow the
>> search space for us first.
>>
>> Please discuss it.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> PS: I will update the SLOB mailing list ASAP.
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
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[Sugar-devel] Candidacy for Sugar Labs Oversight Board

[Sameer Verma]

Greetings!

I'm happy to post my candidacy for the Sugar Labs Oversight Board
(SLOB). You can find my listing at
https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/2015-2016-candidates and
my statement at https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Sverma

Looking forward to your support and continuing to work with you all
for the years to come.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar DIgest 2015-05-26

[Sameer Verma]

Just saw the news as well.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2015-May/msg00027.html

I exchanged a few notes with him about his illness some time ago (my mother
had the same. She passed away a few months ago). Marco seemed to be doing
better.

His work will live on.

Sameer
On May 26, 2015 6:28 AM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> 1. It is with great sadness that write these words: Marco Presenti Gritti,
> the principal Sugar developer from Red Hat from 2006 to 2008 and one of the
> founders of Sugar Labs, passed away this past weekend after a long illness.
> Marco was a brilliant engineer whose work still reverberates throughout the
> Sugar stack and a warm, personable colleague, father, and husband. We will
> miss you Marco.
>
> == Sugar Digest ==
>
> 2. For those of you who are interested, we hold our GSoC group meetings on
> Fridays, 11:00 EST (Boston), 14:00 UTC on irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting.
>
> === Tech Talk ===
>
> 3. Peter Robinson, Sam Parkinson, Sean Daly, and Iain Brown Douglas have
> done a great job of revamping the Sugar on a Stick spin site for Fedora.
> Please see [1].
>
> === Sugar Labs ===
>
> 4. Please visit our planet [2].
>
> ---
>
> [1] http://spins.stg.fedoraproject.org/en/soas/
> [2] http://planet.sugarlabs.org
>
> -walter
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Planning for the future (Samuel Greenfeld)

[Sameer Verma]

etie pi. Remember, marketing is
key, and branding a huge part of it. Speaking of branding,
Sugar/Sugarlabs has none. It is still a vestige of OLPC, which
continues to enjoy a high brand status around the world (good, bad,
it's all publicity).

This may be a lot to digest, but unless we address of these issues,
this project will go nowhere fast.

best,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 1:10 AM, Lionel Laské  wrote:
>
> Hi Samuel,
>
>
>
> Thanks to share your vision. I think you're right, SugarLabs lack of a clear
> long-term vision that we could share with all contributors. Hope that your
> mail we'll give us opportunity to share our thought on that.
>
> Here's mine.
>
>
>
> If Sugar want live, it can't be limited to a niche platform: neither the XO,
> neither a Fedora computer. I'm sure we're all convinced that the better
> platform for education is a computer but today all others decision maker in
> the world seems to think that it's a tablet or even a mobile.
>
>
>
> So the question is how we could answer to requests for these new platforms
> thought keeping our roots: an unique UI for children, a reflection tool
> (Journal), a collaborative platform (Presence) and the most important - free
> an open source contents.
>
>
>
> My point of view is that we must not invest time to think how we could be
> compliant with a new platform, we need to think in another way: how we could
> port Sugar on Any platform ? Any computer (from the bigger one to the tiny
> one: raspberryPI), any laptop, any tablet, any mobile.
>
>
>
> And the answer is simple: web technologies allow every device to run very
> complex software. It's the only solution to be compliant with any device.
> It's where we need to put our investments.
>
>
>
> It's why I've got a personal engagement on Sugar for the Web from years:
>
> First to allow Sugar activities to be written using web technologies. From
> Sugar 0.100 thanks to Sugar Web, every developer could write new Sugar
> activities using exclusively HTML5/JavaScript - without any line of
> Python/Gtk.
> Second to create a Sugar container for the web - named Sugarizer - that
> could host any Sugar Web activities and that reproduce the unique Sugar
> features: Sugar UI, Journal and Presence.
>
>
>
> Sugar for the Web is not the Sugar successor, Sugar for the Web is a way to
> do a transition from Sugar for the XO to an universal version of Sugar that
> could run on any device so that could be used by any children anywhere on
> the world.
>
> Most important with Sugar for the Web we don't leave alone our current base
> of Sugar users, with Sugar 0.100+: any new Sugar Web activities will be
> usable both on Sugar on "old" devices and Sugar on new devices.
>
>
>
> With Sugarizer and Sugar Web, Sugar for any device already exist. But to
> become a reality, we need to invest more on it:
>
> Have a clear roadmap of transition between "old" Sugar activities to Sugar
> Web activities.
> Convince a more important community to join us. Sugar is the better learning
> platform, with Sugar for the Web, it should be easy to convince other
> communities to help us. I think specifically to Mozilla because they have a
> clear engagement on web and open source and Google because of their wish to
> embrace education with Chrome. We need to ask help from them.
> Experiment: we need to start deployment as soon as possible to demonstrate.
> At OLPC France, we've got ambition to start a first experimental deployment
> of Sugarizer before the end of the year.
>
>
>
> All of us spent years on promoting the Sugar philosophy. We have the choice
> to look backward or look forward. My choice is clear: with Sugar for the Web
> I will give to every children the same opportunities I gave to XO users.
>
>
> Best regards from France.
>
>
>Lionel.
>
>
>
>>
>> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:36:34 -0500
>> From: Samuel Greenfeld 
>> To: IAEP SugarLabs 
>> Subject: [IAEP] Planning for the future
>> Message-ID:
>>
>> 
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> Disclaimer: The following are my views, and not the views of my current or
>> past employers.
>>
>> About a year ago, I privately expressed concern that Sugar needed to
>> ensure
>> it had long-term sponsorship and a long-term user base.
>>
>> Since then, both the historical US-based OLPC organizat

Re: [Sugar-devel] Testing images with SUgar 0.102

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 7:42 AM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> I have uploaded new 41002SL* images, with fixes to the activities updater
> (thanks tch),
> web activities support, and new versions of Speak and Story activities.

So, do we now have any OLPC-signed Sugar 102 images or are they still unsigned?

cheers,
Sameer

>
> James, I added short instructions to install the SD images based in the info
> you sent,
> feel free to change if there are some mistake.
>
> Feedback is appreciated.
>
> Gonzalo
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 7:56 PM, James Cameron  wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 09:48:55AM -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>> > On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 12:37 AM, James Cameron 
>> > wrote:
>> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 11:08:36PM -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>> > > On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 7:36 PM, James Cameron 
>> > wrote:
>> > > > Are there any patches in the SL102 branch [1] that you'd like to
>> > > > push upstream?  I've looked at them.
>> > >
>> > > I would love to see official OLPC images with Sugr 0.102, in that
>> > > case you can use everything you want :)
>> >
>> > We're looking into the feasibility of Fedora 20 with Sugar 0.102
>> > now,
>> > so please continue to be involved.  ;-)
>> >
>> > These are great news! Maybe we can do  chat to coordinate?
>> > The next OLPC AU image will be based on F20 too,
>> > then we can join forces...
>>
>> I've used qemu-arm with a Fedora 20 image to run olpc-os-builder to
>> make an XO-4 image without Sugar and Gnome, and have booted this
>> on XO-4.  Next task is to run olpc-os-builder on the XO-4 to achieve
>> self-hosting.
>>
>> apt-get install qemu-system-arm libguestfs-tools
>>
>> wget
>> http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Images/armhfp/Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-20-1-sda.raw.xz
>>
>> sudo virt-copy-out -a Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-20-1-sda.raw
>> /boot/vmlinuz-3.11.10-301.fc20.armv7hl .
>> sudo virt-copy-out -a Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-20-1-sda.raw
>> /boot/initramfs-3.11.10-301.fc20.armv7hl.img .
>>
>> sudo qemu-system-arm -machine vexpress-a9 -m 1024 -nographic -net nic -net
>> user  -append "console=ttyAMA0,115200n8 rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p3 rootwait
>> physmap.enabled=0"  -kernel vmlinuz-3.11.10-301.fc20.armv7hl  -initrd
>> initramfs-3.11.10-301.fc20.armv7hl.img  -sd
>> Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-20-1-sda.raw
>>
>> > > The sugar rpms are the Fedora 20 rpms rebuilded in F18.  I just
>> > > needed do a single change in the sugar rpm (I am working with
>> > > pbrobinson to push it upstream) and needed remove libwebkit2gtk
>> > from
>> > > the Requires on sugar-toolkit-gtk3
>> >
>> > Thanks.  The OLPC RPM dropbox is available now on dev.laptop.org.
>> > Should we use that or use yours in personal directory?  To use the
>> > dropbox, place them in public_rpms/{f18,f20} (noarch) or
>> > {f18,f20}-{xo1,xo1.5,xo1.75,xo4} (i686 and armv7hl).
>> >
>> > Ok, I need check how will work with the AU images, where we use
>> > patched rpms. I will try to make it work with the standard (dropbox)
>> > if possible.
>>
>> Add an additional repository to the .ini file.
>>
>> > > > Can you also publish the 41001SL0.zd{,.md5} files for use with
>> > > > external SD card?  If not, you might remove [sd_card_image] from
>> > > > your .ini file and save some time.
>> > >
>> > > Ahh, that is the use of these files :)
>> > > Uploading
>> >
>> > Thanks, I see them uploading.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Uploaded now. There are info about how to install them, right?
>>
>> Yes.
>>
>> Underlying problem is XO-1 firmware does not have fs-update support.
>>
>> For signed builds, where the firmware contains the deployment key:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/13.2.1/Installation/XO-1/SD
>>
>> For unsigned builds, you may use fs-update on an XO-1.5, XO-1.75, or
>> XO-4, and then move the SD card.
>>
>> Alternatively, this Open Firmware fragment:
>> http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/z/1XCG63.txt can be added to the top of
>> the 41001SL0.zd.zsp file (generated by olpc-os-builder), and then
>> manually loaded from the ok prompt:
>>
>> ok fl u:\41001SL0.zd.zsp
>>
>> This will then read the 41001SL0.zd file and store it on an SD card.
>>
>> Perhaps olpc-os-builder should add this fragment.
>>
>> --
>> James Cameron
>> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
>
>
>
>
> --
> Gonzalo Odiard
>
> SugarLabs - Software for children learning
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Testing images with SUgar 0.102

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:11 AM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> Hi Sameer,
> These images don't have harvest installed.
> That is one of the reasons I call them "clean images",
> don't have any customization.

Thx. Good to know.

Sameer

>
> Gonzalo
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 5:48 AM, Gonzalo Odiard 
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 12:37 AM, James Cameron 
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 11:08:36PM -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>> >> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 7:36 PM, James Cameron 
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> > > Are there any patches in the SL102 branch [1] that you'd like to
>> >> > > push upstream?  I've looked at them.
>> >> >
>> >> > I would love to see official OLPC images with Sugr 0.102, in that
>> >> > case you can use everything you want :)
>> >>
>> >> We're looking into the feasibility of Fedora 20 with Sugar 0.102 now,
>> >> so please continue to be involved.  ;-)
>> >
>> >
>> > These are great news! Maybe we can do  chat to coordinate?
>> > The next OLPC AU image will be based on F20 too,
>> > then we can join forces...
>>
>> James,
>>
>> Just a minor point: Address the harvest-client RPM issue for OLPC
>> builds, if you can. I know AU needs it, but I don't think the others
>> will. Uninstalling harvest-client.rpm on a machine or three is ok, but
>> on several will become cumbersome.
>>
>> It is encouraging to see effort streams coming together.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
>>
>> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > The changes are mostly related with the change in Sugar from GConf
>> >> > to GSettings, added dconf as a dependency (we need add it to sugar
>> >> > rpm as Requires) and a few configs.
>> >>
>> >> Yes, I've reviewed the patches, we have some of them in master branch
>> >> already, and will take the new ones as needed, but I'm wondering if
>> >> _you_ would like to push any of them before I do so?  I've added you
>> >> to the xobuild group on crank, so you can rebase on master and push on
>> >> /git/projects/olpc-os-builder/
>> >
>> >
>> > Ok, I will look at that.
>> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > The sugar rpms are the Fedora 20 rpms rebuilded in F18.  I just
>> >> > needed do a single change in the sugar rpm (I am working with
>> >> > pbrobinson to push it upstream) and needed remove libwebkit2gtk from
>> >> > the Requires on sugar-toolkit-gtk3
>> >>
>> >> Thanks.  The OLPC RPM dropbox is available now on dev.laptop.org.
>> >> Should we use that or use yours in personal directory?  To use the
>> >> dropbox, place them in public_rpms/{f18,f20} (noarch) or
>> >> {f18,f20}-{xo1,xo1.5,xo1.75,xo4} (i686 and armv7hl).
>> >>
>> >
>> > Ok, I need check how will work with the AU images, where we use
>> > patched rpms. I will try to make it work with the standard (dropbox)
>> > if possible.
>> >
>> >>
>> >> > > What effect did the removal of Gnome [2] have on the available
>> >> > > disk space on XO-1?  It seemed negligible when I tried it.
>> >> >
>> >> > I tried to build a XO-1 image with gnome,and just at start Sugar
>> >> > show a message of Journal full. Removing gnome solved the problem,
>> >> > but I found dconf was not installed, then the configuration were not
>> >> > saved. Also gstreamer-python was needed by some activities.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks.
>> >>
>> >> For 13.2.0 and 13.2.1 we had been building for XO-1 with a smaller
>> >> activity set, G1G1Lite, and your Sugarlabs/0.102 set is same on all
>> >> laptop models, so somewhat larger.
>> >>
>> >> The free disk space on your build may be even less than 13.2.1; 729MB
>> >> vs 723MB for the .img file.
>> >>
>> >> You might solve this with a 0.102Lite, but that increases the activity
>> >> list maintenance load unless you use Wiki templates.
>> >>
>> >
>> > True. I preferred start with the same group of activities and remove
>> > Gnome.

Re: [Sugar-devel] Testing images with SUgar 0.102

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 5:48 AM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 12:37 AM, James Cameron  wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 11:08:36PM -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 7:36 PM, James Cameron  wrote:
>> > > Are there any patches in the SL102 branch [1] that you'd like to
>> > > push upstream?  I've looked at them.
>> >
>> > I would love to see official OLPC images with Sugr 0.102, in that
>> > case you can use everything you want :)
>>
>> We're looking into the feasibility of Fedora 20 with Sugar 0.102 now,
>> so please continue to be involved.  ;-)
>
>
> These are great news! Maybe we can do  chat to coordinate?
> The next OLPC AU image will be based on F20 too,
> then we can join forces...

James,

Just a minor point: Address the harvest-client RPM issue for OLPC
builds, if you can. I know AU needs it, but I don't think the others
will. Uninstalling harvest-client.rpm on a machine or three is ok, but
on several will become cumbersome.

It is encouraging to see effort streams coming together.

cheers,
Sameer

>
>>
>>
>> > The changes are mostly related with the change in Sugar from GConf
>> > to GSettings, added dconf as a dependency (we need add it to sugar
>> > rpm as Requires) and a few configs.
>>
>> Yes, I've reviewed the patches, we have some of them in master branch
>> already, and will take the new ones as needed, but I'm wondering if
>> _you_ would like to push any of them before I do so?  I've added you
>> to the xobuild group on crank, so you can rebase on master and push on
>> /git/projects/olpc-os-builder/
>
>
> Ok, I will look at that.
>
>>
>>
>> > The sugar rpms are the Fedora 20 rpms rebuilded in F18.  I just
>> > needed do a single change in the sugar rpm (I am working with
>> > pbrobinson to push it upstream) and needed remove libwebkit2gtk from
>> > the Requires on sugar-toolkit-gtk3
>>
>> Thanks.  The OLPC RPM dropbox is available now on dev.laptop.org.
>> Should we use that or use yours in personal directory?  To use the
>> dropbox, place them in public_rpms/{f18,f20} (noarch) or
>> {f18,f20}-{xo1,xo1.5,xo1.75,xo4} (i686 and armv7hl).
>>
>
> Ok, I need check how will work with the AU images, where we use
> patched rpms. I will try to make it work with the standard (dropbox)
> if possible.
>
>>
>> > > What effect did the removal of Gnome [2] have on the available
>> > > disk space on XO-1?  It seemed negligible when I tried it.
>> >
>> > I tried to build a XO-1 image with gnome,and just at start Sugar
>> > show a message of Journal full. Removing gnome solved the problem,
>> > but I found dconf was not installed, then the configuration were not
>> > saved. Also gstreamer-python was needed by some activities.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> For 13.2.0 and 13.2.1 we had been building for XO-1 with a smaller
>> activity set, G1G1Lite, and your Sugarlabs/0.102 set is same on all
>> laptop models, so somewhat larger.
>>
>> The free disk space on your build may be even less than 13.2.1; 729MB
>> vs 723MB for the .img file.
>>
>> You might solve this with a 0.102Lite, but that increases the activity
>> list maintenance load unless you use Wiki templates.
>>
>
> True. I preferred start with the same group of activities and remove Gnome.
> In general deployments do not include Gnome in the XO1
> (at least, Uy and Py don't do it)
> and request for activities as TuxPaint and TuxMath. I am not a fan of them,
> but the idea is make something useful.
>
>>
>> > > Can you also publish the 41001SL0.zd{,.md5} files for use with
>> > > external SD card?  If not, you might remove [sd_card_image] from
>> > > your .ini file and save some time.
>> >
>> > Ahh, that is the use of these files :)
>> > Uploading
>>
>> Thanks, I see them uploading.
>>
>
> Uploaded now. There are info about how to install them, right?
>
>
>>
>> I've also begun reproducing the build locally.
>>
>> For your interest, hacked [2] kspost.60.nochroot.activities.py and scp
>> words-21 and turtleblocks-207 from sunjammer because
>> download.sugarlabs.org 302 redirects to an .au mirror which is out of
>> sync.
>>
>> References:
>>
>> 1.  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/RPM_Dropbox
>>
>> 2.  http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/z/1XBy9a.txt
>>
>> --
>> James Cameron
>> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
>
>
>
>
> --
> Gonzalo Odiard
>
> SugarLabs - Software for children learning
>
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[Sugar-devel] Sugar on the "Android image"

[Sameer Verma]

This came up on a Facebook post from OLPC France, where they created a
custom image for the XO (1.75, I think) using Sugar 0.96, and Walter
Bender suggested build 102. That reminded me of the Android image
that's been made available for testing. It also carries an older
version of Sugar. I think packaging a newer version such as 102 would
help.

Passing this along before I forget :-)

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
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[Sugar-devel] XOVis posts

[Sameer Verma]

Two blog posts are up for XOVis. These should do a good job as an
intro to XOVis.

http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/902
http://www.olpcsf.org/node/208

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Video demonstration of Sugarizer server features

[Sameer Verma]

Excellent progress! I'm impressed at how you typed in the user ID on
Android :-) Perhaps that part should be an easier to remember id, or
we need to re-think the workflow.

cheers,
Sameer

On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 7:25 AM, Lionel Laské  wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Since the last version, Sugarizer allow to use a server to store settings
> and contents. In this short video I show you how you could use this features
> to share settings and content between a computer and an Android tablet.
>
>
> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zypes_sugarizer-server-features_school
>
>
>
> Hope you'll enjoy it.
>
>
>
> Best regards from France.
>
>
>
>Lionel.
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] seeking help to enable nepali keyboard input for XO-4

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 6:19 PM, John Watlington  wrote:
>
> On Jun 16, 2014, at 9:05 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 9:03 PM, John Watlington  wrote:
>>
>>
>> Walter,
>>You remember correctly.  The hard/clicky/crunchy keyboards are not
>> rated
>> for as long a lifetime as the membrane/chewy keyboards.   While the
>> membrane
>> keyboard design was tested to 5 million key presses, IIRC the clicky
>> keyboard is
>> only rated to 1 million key presses.   (On the other hand, it takes one
>> minute
>> to replace a clicky keyboard versus twenty for a membrane keyboard.)
>
>
> ..if you have a replacement keyboard... any insight into how easy it would
> be to make replacement keys in the field?
>
>
> I would say impossible, but that would be underestimating the creativeness
> of
> our deployments.
>
> At the electrical level, the crunchy and chewy keyboards have the same
> contacts,
> so I don't expect that to be the failure mechanism.   Failure should be due
> to the
> mechanical parts (as it is with the membrane keyboards).   If you pull off
> the keycap
> and the guide mechanism, the key still activates when you press on the
> membrane
> or the rubber cap (which provides both the spring action and presses on the
> contacts)
> glued to it.
>

Back in January 2013, while visiting Khairat (India) I saw a couple of
girls using the eraser end of a pencil to push the torn keys on their
XO-1s from 2007 (which BTW still hold charge and run the mesh!).

Sameer

> Cheers,
> wad
>
>> WARNING:  The clicky keyboard was not approved for use by small children
>> by UL.   The reason is that if the keys are pulled off they present a
>> choking
>> hazard.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> wad
>>
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] seeking help to enable nepali keyboard input for XO-4

[Sameer Verma]

On a related note, I was curious about deployment experiences with the
new membrane design with plastic grid in between keys. Although this
does help with premature peeling of keys, I've always had trouble with
these keyboards - the outer edges of my fingers get in the way of a
full key depress. Then again, the keys aren't designed for me, so I'm
curious how these do in the field.

cheers,
Sameer

On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 6:03 PM, John Watlington  wrote:
>
> Walter,
>You remember correctly.  The hard/clicky/crunchy keyboards are not rated
> for as long a lifetime as the membrane/chewy keyboards.   While the membrane
> keyboard design was tested to 5 million key presses, IIRC the clicky
> keyboard is
> only rated to 1 million key presses.   (On the other hand, it takes one
> minute
> to replace a clicky keyboard versus twenty for a membrane keyboard.)
>
> WARNING:  The clicky keyboard was not approved for use by small children
> by UL.   The reason is that if the keys are pulled off they present a
> choking
> hazard.
>
> Cheers,
> wad
>
> On Jun 16, 2014, at 7:13 AM, Walter Bender wrote:
>
> James,
>
> Do we have any data re the mechanical reliability/durability/repairability
> of the "hard/clicky" keyboards? We do know that although there were some
> issues with membrane pealing (presumably resolved with the newer design)
> there numerous ingenious local repairs such that most are still working
> after 7 years.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 5:35 AM, James Cameron  wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 01:54:19PM +0545, Basanta Shrestha wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> > We are planning on ordering the next lot of XO-4s and I need some
>> > suggestions on which keyboard model to choose -membrane  or
>> > hard/clicky one.
>>
>> I think it is great to seek input from the community, but don't forget
>> to ask your OLPC contact for help as well.
>>
>> > We had membrane one for our first lot and keyboard switching was
>> > very convenient on that model.  One reason not to choose hard/clicky
>> > one is that it doesn't have key for language switching ( correct me
>> > if I am wrong) -I have one spanish hard/clicky and it doesn't have
>> > that key - key 56 at
>> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Keyboard_layouts.
>>
>> Yes, that's a good reason not to choose the mechanical keyboard; you
>> would have to customise your operating system build again, to add a
>> key combination for keyboard language switch.  If the cost of
>> customising is too high, you should order membrane keyboard.  I don't
>> know the relative costs of the keyboards, and their replacement rates,
>> but it might be factored in to your decision.
>>
>> You identified the lack of language switch key in this same thread on
>> sugar-devel@ back in November 2013, from which I'll draw some status:
>>
>> Walter says use a key combination:
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045724.html
>>
>> And says that customisation will be needed:
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045800.html
>>
>> Then you suggest alt+space:
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045807.html
>>
>> Daniel Drake says to use olpc-os-builder:
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045851.html
>>
>> And you asked about the alt+space:
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045857.html
>>
>> But the thread dried up on that subject because the units you received
>> had a membrane keyboard, not a mechanical keyboard.
>>
>> I think you need to change the xkb files, but I'm not sure.  Do you
>> have a mechanical keyboard you can test with?  If not, you'll have to
>> get someone else to do this.
>>
>> > Hard/Clicky on the other hard is more convenient while typing.
>> > Please suggest.
>>
>> I don't understand why you think it is more convenient.  To me the
>> keyboards are equally convenient for an inexperienced child.  Perhaps
>> you intended to mention some characteristic?
>>
>> --
>> James Cameron
>> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar 0.102 testing images (34002)

[Sameer Verma]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 1:56 PM, Martin Abente
 wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I have created new testing images for all XO models. To help us test,
> please, download these images from [1].
>
> What changed since 34001?
>
> Solved problems with sound palette.
> Web activities work again.
> Changes in OOB to write gsettings overwrites instead of gconf defautls, this
> solved many issues including too-big fonts.
>
> More detailed information can be found at [1].
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Regards,
> tch.
>
> Refs:
> 1. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.102/Testing
>
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Catching up on this thread after a while. Are these images harvest
enabled, where they send metadata to the harvest server in AU? If so,
how do we disable it?

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] A note on diffusion and adoption

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 12:52 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> I've written about the diffusion and adoption of an innovation before
> (the XO/Sugar being the innovation). Here's an interesting summary I
> found in context of another project, but I thought I'd pass it along.
>
> http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf
>
> Note that apart from the mechanism itself (which was the topic of my
> Ph.D. dissertation http://verma.sfsu.edu/profile/phd.proposal.pdf) two
> points are relevant here:
>
> 1) Persuasion is not the way to go.
> 2) Each group has its own personality, and thus its motivators.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
> --
> Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Professor, Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://commons.sfsu.edu/
> http://olpcsf.org/
> http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/

It seems the article is gone from the link. Hope it's disappearance is
temporary! In the mean time, if anyone wants a copy, write back
offlist.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
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[Sugar-devel] A note on diffusion and adoption

[Sameer Verma]

I've written about the diffusion and adoption of an innovation before
(the XO/Sugar being the innovation). Here's an interesting summary I
found in context of another project, but I thought I'd pass it along.

http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf

Note that apart from the mechanism itself (which was the topic of my
Ph.D. dissertation http://verma.sfsu.edu/profile/phd.proposal.pdf) two
points are relevant here:

1) Persuasion is not the way to go.
2) Each group has its own personality, and thus its motivators.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 3:02 PM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>> On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 6:33 AM, Walter Bender  
>> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>>> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>>>> On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>>>>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>>>>>> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but 
>>>>>>> neither of
>>>>>>> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond 
>>>>>>> some a few
>>>>>>> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript 
>>>>>>> libraries, which
>>>>>>> are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google 
>>>>>>> Charts, which
>>>>>>> I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with 
>>>>>>> Google
>>>>>>> Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit
>>>>>>> (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). 
>>>>>>> Then,
>>>>>>> there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local
>>>>>> XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online
>>>>>> library.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, that's a very good point.  Originally, I was only thinking about 
>>>>> collecting
>>>>> and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it
>>>>> couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the 
>>>>> schoolserver
>>>>> itself. Thanks for the warning.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want
>>>> to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the
>>>> government would want to see, with interesting overlaps.
>>>
>>> You left out one important constituent: the learner. Ultimately we are
>>> responsible for making learning visible to the learner. Claudia and I
>>> touched on this topic in the attached paper.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the paper. While we did point out to Portfolio and Analyze
>> Journal activities in our session at OLPC SF Summit in 2013, I didn't
>> include it in the scope of the blog post. I'll go back and update it
>> when I get a chance.
>>
>>> Just to place all my cards on the table, as much as I hate to suggest
>>> we head down this route, I think we really need to instrument
>>> activities themselves (and build analyses of activity output) if we
>>> want to provide meaningful statistics about learning. We've done some
>>> of this with Turtle Blocks, even capturing the mistakes the learner
>>> makes along the way. We are lacking in decent visualizations of these
>>> data, however.
>>>
>>
>> I haven't had a chance to read the paper in depth (which I intend to
>> do this afternoon), but how much of this approach would be shareable
>> across activities? Or would the depth of analysis be on a per activity
>> basis? If the latter, then I'd imagine it would be simpler for
>> something like the Moon activity than the TurtleBlocks activity.
>>
>>> Meanwhile, I remain convinced that the portfolio is our best tool.
>>>
>>
>> I think the approaches differ in scope and purpose. In the RFPs I've
>> been involved in, the funding agencies and/or the decision makers
>> either request or outright require "dashboard style" features to
>> report frequency of use, time of day, and in some cases even GPS-based
>> location in addition to theft-deterrence, remote provisioning, etc.
>> The same goes for going back to an agency to get renewed funding or to
>> raise funds for a new site expansion. In a way, the scope of the
>> "learner<->teacher" bubble is significantly different from that of the
>> "principal<->minister of edu". One is driven by learning and pedagogy,
>> while the other is driven by administration. Accordingly, the reports
>> they want to see are also different. While the measurements from the
>> Activity may be distilled into coarser indicators for t

Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 6:33 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>> On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>>>> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but 
>>>>> neither of
>>>>> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some 
>>>>> a few
>>>>> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript 
>>>>> libraries, which
>>>>> are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, 
>>>>> which
>>>>> I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with 
>>>>> Google
>>>>> Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit
>>>>> (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). 
>>>>> Then,
>>>>> there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal.
>>>>
>>>> Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local
>>>> XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online
>>>> library.
>>>
>>> Yes, that's a very good point.  Originally, I was only thinking about 
>>> collecting
>>> and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it
>>> couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the schoolserver
>>> itself. Thanks for the warning.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want
>> to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the
>> government would want to see, with interesting overlaps.
>
> You left out one important constituent: the learner. Ultimately we are
> responsible for making learning visible to the learner. Claudia and I
> touched on this topic in the attached paper.
>

Thanks for the paper. While we did point out to Portfolio and Analyze
Journal activities in our session at OLPC SF Summit in 2013, I didn't
include it in the scope of the blog post. I'll go back and update it
when I get a chance.

> Just to place all my cards on the table, as much as I hate to suggest
> we head down this route, I think we really need to instrument
> activities themselves (and build analyses of activity output) if we
> want to provide meaningful statistics about learning. We've done some
> of this with Turtle Blocks, even capturing the mistakes the learner
> makes along the way. We are lacking in decent visualizations of these
> data, however.
>

I haven't had a chance to read the paper in depth (which I intend to
do this afternoon), but how much of this approach would be shareable
across activities? Or would the depth of analysis be on a per activity
basis? If the latter, then I'd imagine it would be simpler for
something like the Moon activity than the TurtleBlocks activity.

> Meanwhile, I remain convinced that the portfolio is our best tool.
>

I think the approaches differ in scope and purpose. In the RFPs I've
been involved in, the funding agencies and/or the decision makers
either request or outright require "dashboard style" features to
report frequency of use, time of day, and in some cases even GPS-based
location in addition to theft-deterrence, remote provisioning, etc.
The same goes for going back to an agency to get renewed funding or to
raise funds for a new site expansion. In a way, the scope of the
"learner<->teacher" bubble is significantly different from that of the
"principal<->minister of edu". One is driven by learning and pedagogy,
while the other is driven by administration. Accordingly, the reports
they want to see are also different. While the measurements from the
Activity may be distilled into coarser indicators for the MoE, I think
it is important to keep the entire scope in mind.

I am mindful of the "garbage in, garbage out" problem. In building
this pipeline (which is where my skills are) I hope that the data that
goes into this pipeline is representative of what is measured at the
child's end. I am glad that you and Claudia are the experts on that
end :-)

cheers,
Sameer

> regards.
>
> -walter
>
>
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
>> ___
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>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

We had our January meeting at OLPCSF (and our 6th birthday). We talked
about contributions to this project. Introducing Nina Stawski to the
thread. She works with HTML and Javascript and is familiar with
visualization. She suggested d3js.org as one of the options.

Has anyone created the wiki page as yet?

cheers,
Sameer

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 12:37 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>> On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>>> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither 
>>>> of
>>>> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a 
>>>> few
>>>> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript libraries, 
>>>> which
>>>> are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, 
>>>> which
>>>> I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with 
>>>> Google
>>>> Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit
>>>> (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). 
>>>> Then,
>>>> there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal.
>>>
>>> Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local
>>> XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online
>>> library.
>>
>> Yes, that's a very good point.  Originally, I was only thinking about 
>> collecting
>> and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it
>> couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the schoolserver
>> itself. Thanks for the warning.
>>
>>
>
> In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want
> to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the
> government would want to see, with interesting overlaps.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:26 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
> On 7.1.2014 01:49, Sameer Verma wrote:
>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>>> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither 
>>> of
>>> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a 
>>> few
>>> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript libraries, 
>>> which
>>> are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, 
>>> which
>>> I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with 
>>> Google
>>> Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit
>>> (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). Then,
>>> there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal.
>>
>> Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local
>> XS[CE] you may have to rely on a local js method instead of an online
>> library.
>
> Yes, that's a very good point.  Originally, I was only thinking about 
> collecting
> and visualizing the information centrally, but there is no reason why it
> couldn't be viewed by teachers and school administrators on the schoolserver
> itself. Thanks for the warning.
>
>

In fact, my guess would be that what the teachers and principal want
to see at the school will be different from what OLE Nepal and the
government would want to see, with interesting overlaps.

cheers,
Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

share data can each setup one Bridge and
>> connect these two nodes to each other. The Bridges will then collect and
>> exchange data coming from the Contributors. These bridges are not
>> Contributors themselves, they are just used to ship data (named graphs)
>> around and can be shut-down or replaced without any data-loss. Lastly, the
>> third component we define in our architecture is the "Aggregator". This is
>> a special node every Bridge may push content to and get updated content
>> from. As its name suggests, an Aggregator is used to aggregate entity
>> descriptions that are otherwise scattered among all the Contributors. When
>> deployed, an aggregator can be used to access and expose the global content
>> of the knowledge space or a subset thereof.
>>
>> One could use ERS to store (part of) the content of the Journal on an XO
>> (Contributor), cluster information as the school level (Bridge put on the
>> XS) and provide higher level analysis (Aggregator). The best things about
>> ERS, I think is that:
>> * It can store and share any data that consists of property/values about
>> a given thing identified with a unique identifier
>> * It is "off-line by default", all the upper level components are
>> optional. So is the connectivity to them
>> * It's conservative in terms of bandwidth used
>>
>> The creation of graphs could be done at every level to get some
>> statistics on the XO, on the XS and at a more global level. All these
>> potentially using the same code as the data is always stored using the same
>> model (a variant of JSON-LD).
>>
>> We are now finalising a small social-networking activity to demo&test
>> ERS. You can easily play with it using the virtual images we put on the
>> site. Here is a video showing it running: https://vimeo.com/81796228
>>
>> Please have a look and let us know how what you think of it :-) The
>> project is still funded for a bit less than three months and we would
>> really like it to be useful for the OLPC community (that's why we targeted
>> the XO) so don't hesitate to ask for missing features!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Christophe
>>
>> On 6 January 2014 02:03, Andreas Gros  wrote:
>>
>>> Great utilization of CouchDB and its views feature! That's definitely
>>> something we can build on. But more importantly, to make this meaningful,
>>> we need more data.
>>> It's good to know what the activities are that are used most, so one can
>>> come up with a priority list for improvements, and/or focus developer
>>> attention.
>>> CouchDB allows to pull data together from different instances, which
>>> should make aggregation and comparisons between projects possible. And for
>>> projects that are not online, the data could be transferred to a USB stick
>>> quite easily and then uploaded to any other DB instance.
>>>
>>> Is there a task/todo list somewhere?
>>>
>>> Andi
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 11:16 AM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>>
>>>>  On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 4:15 AM, Martin Abente
>>>>  wrote:
>>>> > Hello Sameer,
>>>> >
>>>> > I totally agree we should join efforts for a visualization solution,
>>>> but,
>>>> > personally, my main concern is still a  basic one: what are the
>>>> important
>>>> > questions we should be asking? And how can we answer these questions
>>>> > reliably? Even though most of us have experience in deployments and
>>>> their
>>>> > needs, we are engineers, not educators, nor decision makers.
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> Agreed. It would be helpful to have a conversation on what the various
>>>> constituencies need (different from want) to see at their level. The
>>>> child, the parents/guardians, the teacher, the
>>>> principal/administrator, and educational bureaucracy. We should also
>>>> consider the needs of those of us who have to fundraise by showing
>>>> progress of ongoing effort.
>>>>
>>>> > I am sure that most of our collection approaches cover pretty much the
>>>> > trivial stuff like: what are they using, when are they using it, how
>>>> often
>>>> > they use it, and all kind of things that derive directly from journal
>>>> > metadata. Plus the extra insight that comes when consideri

Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>> On 3.1.2014 04:09, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>> Happy new year! May 2014 bring good deeds and cheer :-)
>>>
>>> Here's a blog post on the different approaches (that I know of) to data
>>> gathering across different projects. Do let me know if I missed anything.
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>> Sameer
>>>
>>> http://www.olpcsf.org/node/204
>>
>> Thanks for putting together the summary, Sameer. Here is more information 
>> about
>> my xo-stats project:
>>
>> The project's objective is to determine how XOs are used in Nepalese
>> classrooms, but I am intending for the implementation to be general enough, 
>> so
>> that it can be reused by other deployments as well. Similarly to other 
>> projects
>> you've mentioned, I separated the project into four stages:
>>
>> 1) collecting data from the XO Journal backups on the schoolserver
>> 2) extracting the data from the backups and storing it in an appropriate 
>> format
>> for analysis and visualization
>> 3) statistically analyzing and visualizing the captured data
>> 4) formulating recommendations for improving the program based on the 
>> analysis.
>>
>> Stage 1 is already implemented on both the server side as well as the client
>> side, so I first focused on the next step of extracting the data. Initially, 
>> I
>> wanted to reuse an existing script, but I eventually found that none of them
>> were general enough to meet my criteria. One of my goals is to make the 
>> script
>> work on any version of Sugar.
>>
>> Thus, I have been working on process_journal_stats.py, which takes a '/users'
>> directory with XO Journal backups as input, pulls out the Journal metadata 
>> and
>> outputs them in a CSV or JSON file as output.
>>
>> Journal backups can be in a variety of formats depending on the version
>> of Sugar. The script currently supports backup format present in Sugar 
>> versions
>> 0.82 - 0.88 since the laptops distributed in Nepal are XO-1s running Sugar
>> 0.82. I am planning to add support for later versions of Sugar in the next
>> version of the script.
>>
>> The script currently supports two ways to output statistical data. To produce
>> all statistical data from the Journal, one row per Journal record:
>>
>> process_journal_stats.py all
>>
>> To extract statistical data about the use of activities on the system, use:
>>
>> process_journal_stats.py activity
>>
>> The full documentation with all the options are described in README at:
>>
>> https://github.com/martasd/xo-stats
>>
>> One challenge of the project has been determining how much data processing 
>> to do
>> in the python script and what to leave for the data analysis and 
>> visualization
>> tools later in the workflow. For now, I stopped adding features to the script
>> and I am  evaluating the most appropriate tools to use for visualizing the 
>> data.
>>
>> Here are some of the questions I am intending to answer with the 
>> visualizations
>> and analysis:
>>
>> * How many times do installed activities get used? How does the activity use
>> differ over time?
>> * Which activities are children using to create files? What kind of files are
>> being created?
>> * Which activities are being launched in share-mode and how often?
>> * Which part of the day do children play with the activities?
>> * How does the set of activities used evolve as children age?
>>
>> I am also going to be looking how answers to these questions vary from class 
>> to
>> class, school to school, and region to region.
>>
>> As Martin Abente and Sameer mentioned above, our work needs to be informed by
>> discussions with the stakeholders- children, educators, parents, school
>> administrators etc. We do have educational experts among the staff at OLE, 
>> who
>> have worked with more than 50 schools altogether, and I will be talking to 
>> them
>> as I look beyond answering the obvious questions.
>>
>
> We should start a list on the wiki to collate this information. I'll
> get someone from Jamaica to provide some feedback as well.
>
>> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither of
>> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a 
>> few
>> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascri

Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:28 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
> On 3.1.2014 04:09, Sameer Verma wrote:
>> Happy new year! May 2014 bring good deeds and cheer :-)
>>
>> Here's a blog post on the different approaches (that I know of) to data
>> gathering across different projects. Do let me know if I missed anything.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
>>
>> http://www.olpcsf.org/node/204
>
> Thanks for putting together the summary, Sameer. Here is more information 
> about
> my xo-stats project:
>
> The project's objective is to determine how XOs are used in Nepalese
> classrooms, but I am intending for the implementation to be general enough, so
> that it can be reused by other deployments as well. Similarly to other 
> projects
> you've mentioned, I separated the project into four stages:
>
> 1) collecting data from the XO Journal backups on the schoolserver
> 2) extracting the data from the backups and storing it in an appropriate 
> format
> for analysis and visualization
> 3) statistically analyzing and visualizing the captured data
> 4) formulating recommendations for improving the program based on the 
> analysis.
>
> Stage 1 is already implemented on both the server side as well as the client
> side, so I first focused on the next step of extracting the data. Initially, I
> wanted to reuse an existing script, but I eventually found that none of them
> were general enough to meet my criteria. One of my goals is to make the script
> work on any version of Sugar.
>
> Thus, I have been working on process_journal_stats.py, which takes a '/users'
> directory with XO Journal backups as input, pulls out the Journal metadata and
> outputs them in a CSV or JSON file as output.
>
> Journal backups can be in a variety of formats depending on the version
> of Sugar. The script currently supports backup format present in Sugar 
> versions
> 0.82 - 0.88 since the laptops distributed in Nepal are XO-1s running Sugar
> 0.82. I am planning to add support for later versions of Sugar in the next
> version of the script.
>
> The script currently supports two ways to output statistical data. To produce
> all statistical data from the Journal, one row per Journal record:
>
> process_journal_stats.py all
>
> To extract statistical data about the use of activities on the system, use:
>
> process_journal_stats.py activity
>
> The full documentation with all the options are described in README at:
>
> https://github.com/martasd/xo-stats
>
> One challenge of the project has been determining how much data processing to 
> do
> in the python script and what to leave for the data analysis and visualization
> tools later in the workflow. For now, I stopped adding features to the script
> and I am  evaluating the most appropriate tools to use for visualizing the 
> data.
>
> Here are some of the questions I am intending to answer with the 
> visualizations
> and analysis:
>
> * How many times do installed activities get used? How does the activity use
> differ over time?
> * Which activities are children using to create files? What kind of files are
> being created?
> * Which activities are being launched in share-mode and how often?
> * Which part of the day do children play with the activities?
> * How does the set of activities used evolve as children age?
>
> I am also going to be looking how answers to these questions vary from class 
> to
> class, school to school, and region to region.
>
> As Martin Abente and Sameer mentioned above, our work needs to be informed by
> discussions with the stakeholders- children, educators, parents, school
> administrators etc. We do have educational experts among the staff at OLE, who
> have worked with more than 50 schools altogether, and I will be talking to 
> them
> as I look beyond answering the obvious questions.
>

We should start a list on the wiki to collate this information. I'll
get someone from Jamaica to provide some feedback as well.

> For visualization, I have explored using LibreOffice and SOFA, but neither of
> those were flexible to allow for customization of the output beyond some a few
> rudimentary options, so I started looking at various Javascript libraries, 
> which
> are much more powerful. Currently, I am experimenting with Google Charts, 
> which
> I found the easiest to get started with. If I run into limitations with Google
> Charts in the future, others on my list are InfoVIS Toolkit
> (http://philogb.github.io/jit) and HighCharts (http://highcharts.com). Then,
> there is also D3.js, but that's a bigger animal.

Keep in mind that if you want to visualize at the school's local
XS[CE] you may have to rely on a loc

Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 4:50 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 3:48 AM, Martin Dluhos  wrote:
>> On 4.1.2014 10:44, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>
>>> True. Activities do not report end times, or whether the frequency
>>> count is for the number of times a "new" activity was started, or if
>>> it was simply a resumption of the previous instance. Walter had
>>> indicated that thre is some movement in this direction to gather end
>>> times.
>>
>> This would be indeed very useful. Is anyone working on implementing these 
>> features?
>
> The frequency count is a count of the number of times an instance of
> an activity has been opened. There number of new instances can be
> determined by the number of instance entries in the Journal.
>

Walter,
>From a conversation we had some time ago, you had pointed out that
TuxMath does not necessarily stick to this regimen. Every time a one
resumes an instance, it gets counted as a new instance. I haven't gone
back to verify this, but how consistent is this behavior across
activities? Can this behavior be standardized?

>>
>>> Yes, the methods that use the datastore as a source rely on the
>>> Journal, but the sugar-stats system does not. I believe it collects in
>>> GNOME as well.
>>
>> Have you done any processing, analysis, or visualization of the sugar-stats
>> data? Is that something that you are planning to integrate into OLPC 
>> Dashboard?
>
> There is an app for letting the user visualize their own stats.
> (Journal Stats). Could use some love and attention.
>

This is an excellent example of providing meaningful feedback with
respect to the scope. To borrow the Zoom metaphor, I see the Journal
stats to be at the level when the scope is local to the child. The
same scope zooms out at the level of the teacher, principal, district
education officer, MoE, etc.

cheers,
Sameer

>>
>>> 4) The reporting can be done either via visualization, and/or by
>>> generating periodic reports. The reporting should be specific to the
>>> person(s) looking at it. No magic there.
>>
>> I think that many questions (some of which we already mentioned above) can be
>> answered with reports and visualizations, which are not deployment specific. 
>> For
>> example, those you are targeting with OLPC dashboard.
>>
>>>
>>> How the data will be used remains to be seen. I have not seen it being
>>> used in any of the projects that I know of. If others have seen/done
>>> so, it would help to hear from them. I know that in conversations and
>>> presentations to decision makers, the usual sore point is "can you
>>> show us what you have so far?" For Jamaica, we have used a basic
>>> exploratory approach on the Journal data, corroborated with structured
>>>  interviews with parents, teachers, etc. So, for instance, the data we
>>> have shows a relatively large frequency of use of TuxMath (even with
>>> different biases). However, we have qualitative evidence that supports
>>> both usage of TuxMath and improvement in numeracy (standardized test).
>>> We can support strong(er) correlation, but cannot really establish
>>> causality. The three data points put together make for a compelling
>>> case.
>>
>> I think this is a really important point to emphasize: None of these 
>> approaches
>> to evaluation provides the complete picture, but all of these used in 
>> aggregate
>> can provide useful insights. Here at OLE Nepal, we already use standardized
>> testing to compare students performance before and after the program launch. 
>> We
>> also follow up with teachers through conversations using surveys on regular
>> support visit. I agree with Sameer that supplementing those with statistical
>> data can make for a much stronger case.
>>
>> Martin
>>
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>
>
>
> --
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> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 5:03 PM, Andreas Gros  wrote:
> Great utilization of CouchDB and its views feature! That's definitely
> something we can build on. But more importantly, to make this meaningful, we
> need more data.

I like this approach as well because the aggregation is offloaded to
CouchDB through views and reduce/rereduce so we can have a fairly
independent choice of Javascript-based visualization frontend, be it
Google Charts (https://developers.google.com/chart/) or D3.js
(http://d3js.org/).

> It's good to know what the activities are that are used most, so one can
> come up with a priority list for improvements, and/or focus developer
> attention.
> CouchDB allows to pull data together from different instances, which should
> make aggregation and comparisons between projects possible. And for projects
> that are not online, the data could be transferred to a USB stick quite
> easily and then uploaded to any other DB instance.
>

True. CouchDB will allow for aggregation across classes, schools,
districts, etc. Depending on the willingness of participation of
different projects, we can certainly go cross-project. Even if these
views are not made public, they will be useful. For instance, I would
love to compare my Jamaica projects with my India projects with my
Madagascar projects.

> Is there a task/todo list somewhere?
>

Not that I know of, but we can always start one on the sugarlabs wiki.
Anybody have suggestions?

Sameer

> Andi
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 11:16 AM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 4:15 AM, Martin Abente
>>  wrote:
>> > Hello Sameer,
>> >
>> > I totally agree we should join efforts for a visualization solution,
>> > but,
>> > personally, my main concern is still a  basic one: what are the
>> > important
>> > questions we should be asking? And how can we answer these questions
>> > reliably? Even though most of us have experience in deployments and
>> > their
>> > needs, we are engineers, not educators, nor decision makers.
>> >
>>
>> Agreed. It would be helpful to have a conversation on what the various
>> constituencies need (different from want) to see at their level. The
>> child, the parents/guardians, the teacher, the
>> principal/administrator, and educational bureaucracy. We should also
>> consider the needs of those of us who have to fundraise by showing
>> progress of ongoing effort.
>>
>> > I am sure that most of our collection approaches cover pretty much the
>> > trivial stuff like: what are they using, when are they using it, how
>> > often
>> > they use it, and all kind of things that derive directly from journal
>> > metadata. Plus the extra insight that comes when considering different
>> > demographics
>>
>> True. Basic frequency counts such as frequency of use of activities,
>> usage by time of day, day of week, scope of collaboration are a few
>> simple one. Comparison of one metric vs the other will need more
>> thinking. That's where we should talk to the constituents.
>>
>> >
>> > But, If we could also work together on that (including the trivial
>> > questions), it will be a good step forward. Once we identify these
>> > questions
>> > and figure out how to answer them, it would be a lot easier to think
>> > about
>> > visualization techniques, etc.
>>
>> If the visualization subsystem (underlying tech pieces) are common and
>> flexible, then we can start with a few basic templates, and make it
>> extensible, so we can all aggregate, collate, and correlate as needed.
>> I'll use an example that I'm familiar with. We looked at CouchDB for
>> two reasons: 1) It allows for sync over intermittent/on-off
>> connections to the Internet and 2) CouchDB has a "views" feature which
>> provides selective subsets of the data, and the "reduce" feature does
>> aggregates. The actual visual is done in Javascript. Here's the
>> example Leotis had at the OLPC SF summit
>> (http://108.171.173.65:8000/).
>> >
>> > What you guys think?
>> >
>>
>> A great start for a great year ahead!
>>
>> > Saludos,
>>
>> cheers,
>> > tch.
>> Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 2:23 PM, James Cameron  wrote:
> Metrics can direct action.
>
> Unfortunately, in the absence of meaningful metrics, the meaningless
> metrics will also direct action.
>

True. In fact, the reliability of the whole thing is dependent on the
reliability of the generated data. For instance, if the time stamp is
corrupt, then so will be the analysis, unless the data are treated for
that bias.

> One of the assertions inherent in OLPC is that merely using a device
> can have an effect on a brain, regardless of what activities are used.

Brain, perhaps. I'm leaning more on the learning side ;-)

>
> In the data listed, I haven't seen any use of more fundamental
> measurements like how long a device is used for.  OLPC's builds
> have a power log.  This captures time spent using a device.

True. Activities do not report end times, or whether the frequency
count is for the number of times a "new" activity was started, or if
it was simply a resumption of the previous instance. Walter had
indicated that thre is some movement in this direction to gather end
times. The sugar-stats system does record end times. We still have an
assumption (to be addressed by the researcher) that x number of
seconds actually lead to a delta of y in learning. Usually we
establish correlation, and support a case for causality with proxy
observations.

>
> It is especially relevant for a device that might also be used in
> Gnome rather than Sugar.  Harvest seems to have arisen out of the
> availability of the Journal.
>

Yes, the methods that use the datastore as a source rely on the
Journal, but the sugar-stats system does not. I believe it collects in
GNOME as well.

The way I see it, there are four parts to this supply chain:
measurement, collection, analysis and report (see
http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/penetrating-fog-analytics-learning-and-education).

1) The data has to be generated at the source (Sugar activity or dbus)
and must be done with required granularity and reliability. So, for
instance, TurtleArt can record the type of blocks, or Maze can record
the number of turns. This will vary by activity. We also have to be
mindful of the reliability, for instance, of internal clock variation
for timestamps.

2) We need a way to collect data on an ongoing basis on the laptop.
This may be in the Journal datastore, or in the RRD file, as in the
case of sugar-stats. We then continue the collection either by
aggregating the data at the XS/XSCE and/or a central location (as with
the Harvest system) so that the data can be analyzed.

3) The analysis stage can be done with the raw data (basic statistics,
correlation, qualitative), or it can be aggregated (as with the
Jamaica CouchDB system doing basic stats) and made ready for
reporting. Some of this may be automated, but to go beyond "Powerpoint
pie charts", it's really on a case-by-case basis.

4) The reporting can be done either via visualization, and/or by
generating periodic reports. The reporting should be specific to the
person(s) looking at it. No magic there.

Now, of course, if the data at the source is corrupt, then it may
reflect in the report. There are ways to address missing data and
biases, but it would be better to have a reliable way to generate data
at the source.

> On the other hand, use of metrics tends towards standardised testing,
> with the ultimate implementation being an examination that must be
> completed each time before using a device for learning.  Imagine
> having to delay learning!

How the data will be used remains to be seen. I have not seen it being
used in any of the projects that I know of. If others have seen/done
so, it would help to hear from them. I know that in conversations and
presentations to decision makers, the usual sore point is "can you
show us what you have so far?" For Jamaica, we have used a basic
exploratory approach on the Journal data, corroborated with structured
 interviews with parents, teachers, etc. So, for instance, the data we
have shows a relatively large frequency of use of TuxMath (even with
different biases). However, we have qualitative evidence that supports
both usage of TuxMath and improvement in numeracy (standardized test).
We can support strong(er) correlation, but cannot really establish
causality. The three data points put together make for a compelling
case. As an aside, I did encounter a clever question in one of the
presentations: "What's constructivist about TuxMath?". That's a
discussion for another thread :-)

>
> I don't like the idea of standardised testing.  I've seen the damage
> that it does.  Sir Ken Robinson had a few things to say about that, in
> his talk Changing Education Paradigms.
>

It plays a role in the education-industrial complex, and it is
difficult to entirely walk way from it, but yes, YMMV.

cheers,
Sameer

> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 4:15 AM, Martin Abente
 wrote:
> Hello Sameer,
>
> I totally agree we should join efforts for a visualization solution, but,
> personally, my main concern is still a  basic one: what are the important
> questions we should be asking? And how can we answer these questions
> reliably? Even though most of us have experience in deployments and their
> needs, we are engineers, not educators, nor decision makers.
>

Agreed. It would be helpful to have a conversation on what the various
constituencies need (different from want) to see at their level. The
child, the parents/guardians, the teacher, the
principal/administrator, and educational bureaucracy. We should also
consider the needs of those of us who have to fundraise by showing
progress of ongoing effort.

> I am sure that most of our collection approaches cover pretty much the
> trivial stuff like: what are they using, when are they using it, how often
> they use it, and all kind of things that derive directly from journal
> metadata. Plus the extra insight that comes when considering different
> demographics

True. Basic frequency counts such as frequency of use of activities,
usage by time of day, day of week, scope of collaboration are a few
simple one. Comparison of one metric vs the other will need more
thinking. That's where we should talk to the constituents.

>
> But, If we could also work together on that (including the trivial
> questions), it will be a good step forward. Once we identify these questions
> and figure out how to answer them, it would be a lot easier to think about
> visualization techniques, etc.

If the visualization subsystem (underlying tech pieces) are common and
flexible, then we can start with a few basic templates, and make it
extensible, so we can all aggregate, collate, and correlate as needed.
I'll use an example that I'm familiar with. We looked at CouchDB for
two reasons: 1) It allows for sync over intermittent/on-off
connections to the Internet and 2) CouchDB has a "views" feature which
provides selective subsets of the data, and the "reduce" feature does
aggregates. The actual visual is done in Javascript. Here's the
example Leotis had at the OLPC SF summit
(http://108.171.173.65:8000/).
>
> What you guys think?
>

A great start for a great year ahead!

> Saludos,

cheers,
> tch.
Sameer
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[Sugar-devel] The quest for data

[Sameer Verma]

Happy new year! May 2014 bring good deeds and cheer :-)

Here's a blog post on the different approaches (that I know of) to data
gathering across different projects. Do let me know if I missed anything.

cheers,
Sameer

http://www.olpcsf.org/node/204
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugarizer, a taste of Sugar on any device

[Sameer Verma]

On Dec 20, 2013 10:52 PM, "James Cameron"  wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 11:16:26PM +0100, Lionel Laské wrote:
> > It's already packaged as an Android App :-)
> > Click on the "Android App on Google play" to download the .apk file.
>
> Sorry, I didn't see anything with those words that would respond to a
> click.
>
> Good to know you have published it on Google Play, but that requires
> an account, and I'd rather not demand that an account be used by
> learners.
>

This is a major showstopper for the currently peddled/marketed XO Tablet.

1) the child may not have an account on Google.
2) the child may not be online/have connectivity.
3) The child may not have $2.99 for the Alchemy app (for example).

Note: I did have to enable installation from unknown sources.

cheers,
Sameer

> I've look in your git repository for a way to package this as an .apk,
> but found nothing.  Will you be publishing how you package?
>
> I'd like to be able to add to http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Android some
> pertinent information for offline use of Sugarizer.
>
> --
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> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugarizer, a taste of Sugar on any device

[Sameer Verma]

On Dec 20, 2013 9:13 PM, "Lionel Laské"  wrote:
>
>
> Hi James,
>
> Regarding the search text box, you're right it's... not yet implemented.
>
> Regarding testing on XO-4 with Android 4.3.1, seems that Sameer had more
luck than you:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151906199843752&set=pcb.10151906199923752&type=1&theater
>

I used the Android app that Lionel has on the Sugarizer site.

cheers,
Sameer
(posted from a XO-4 running Android JellyBean 4.3)

> BTW, it's true that depending of the browser it could have HTML5
compatibility issue but it's most often on activities than on the home view
itself.
>
>Lionel.
>
>
> Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 18:06:30 +1100
> From: James Cameron 
> To: sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org
> Subject: Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugarizer,a taste of Sugar
> on any device
> Message-ID: <20131220070630.gs30...@us.netrek.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> Tested on XO-4 with Android 4.3.1 using the built-in browser.
>
> I see the activity view but without any activities.  The search text
> box can typed into, but it does nothing.  The ring and list icons are
> present, and do respond to touch by highlighting, but the body of the
> page contains nothing.
>
> Any idea what is causing this?
>
> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugarizer, a taste of Sugar on any device

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 10:52 PM, Lionel Laské  wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm proud to announce the second version of my prototype of "Sugar as a web
> page". This version now include the list view of the home, datastore
> handling, popup menu on activities, and journal view.
>
> I've decided to name it "Sugarizer" and package it as a dedicated web site:
>
> http://sugarizer.org
>
> You could access to Sugarizer from the web site or download the Android.
>
> To remind you the concept, Sugarizer reproduce main features of Sugar in
> HTML5/JavaScript. Sugarizer also expose these features to allow running of
> Sugar web activities wrote for Sugar 0.100. So all activities included in
> the Sugarizer package work in the same way on Sugar 0.100.
>
> Hope you'll enjoy it, it's my Christmas gift to the Sugar community :-)
>
> Best regards from France.
>
> Lionel.
>
> P.S.: Source code is available on https://github.com/llaske/Sugarizer
>
>
>
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>

Installed the Android APK on the Android build for the XO-4 (which was
announced yesterday as well). It's all very slow (video drivers I
suppose) but it works. The Gears Activity works. It also shows up in
the Journal.

Very cool!

Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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[Sugar-devel] Unrelated, but funny remixes!

[Sameer Verma]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151878858388752&type=1&l=47b3242b14

Thx to Christoph, Bernie, Mike Lee, Martin Abente, and Adam Holt.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] editing a clone

[Sameer Verma]

Oh! I knew about the gedit part, but I thought I could edit inline. There
should be a better workflow to edit a clone.

cheers,
Sameer
On Nov 10, 2013 11:56 AM,  wrote:

> Sameer
>
> In Terminal type gedit
> navigate to home/olpc/Activities/[laptopname]copy_of_Clock.activity
> edit the source
>
> note in Sugar 0.100 you have the permissions to access the Activities
> directory, in some old Sugars and maybe future Sugars you do not
>
> chmod 777 Activities sets read and write permissions
>
> Tony
>
>  I installed Gonzalo's build for Sugar 0.100 on a XO-4 Touch. It runs
>> quite well. I was checking out the source on the Clock activity, and
>> sure enough "view source" shows the HTML and JavaScript source.
>>
>> I managed to create a copy of the activity to work with, but I'm
>> unclear as to how I would edit/change this. The "View Source" action
>> leads to a window with the source, but it's uneditable there.
>>
>> Any pointers?
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
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>> _
>> This mail has been virus scanned by Australia On Line
>> see http://www.australiaonline.net.au/mailscanning
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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[Sugar-devel] editing a clone

[Sameer Verma]

I installed Gonzalo's build for Sugar 0.100 on a XO-4 Touch. It runs
quite well. I was checking out the source on the Clock activity, and
sure enough "view source" shows the HTML and JavaScript source.

I managed to create a copy of the activity to work with, but I'm
unclear as to how I would edit/change this. The "View Source" action
leads to a window with the source, but it's uneditable there.

Any pointers?

cheers,
Sameer
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[Sugar-devel] keyboarding as a requirement

[Sameer Verma]

This was on NPR, here in San Francisco.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201311081630/c

While I don't buy into all of the Common Core mumbo jumbo in the US
(my kid has to go through this, so we are dealing with it as parents),
the importance of keyboards is interesting. They didn't point out to
onscreen vs tactile, but the importance of tactile keyboards for
children is an important consideration.

Maybe keyboarding will go away altogether once we can speak to our
computers like Captain Picard does for his "Tea, Earl Grey, hot", but
we are not there yet.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar tryout (was Re: sugarlabs.org redesign) [Sugar-devel Digest, Vol 61, Issue 55]

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 10:55 AM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> cc'ing Marketing as well.
>
> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 2:50 AM, Yioryos Asprobounitis
>  wrote:
>>>>  The larger problem is the absence of a marketing strategy, we need to know
>>>>  where we are going to communicate effectively. In particular, we need to
>>>>  choose and implement how to offer Sugar tryout to teachers and 
>>>> journalists.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I can think of a couple of approaches
>>>
>>> * Get Sugar running well on the CuBox-i. Find budget to buy a few of those
>>> to distribute to chosen journalist and teachers. Try to partner with
>>> SolidRun to offer Sugar as an out-of-the-box installation option.
>>>
>>
>> Although the hardware specs are a good target for Sugar3, I believe that 
>> suggesting a really small box with 5 cables connected to it to showcase a 
>> K-9 educational platform, may retract from the feasibility and thoroughness 
>> of the project.
>> A decent rooted tablet (ie Nexus 7) running Sugar on top of Linux, even if 
>> the performance is not the best, would be much more catchy and maybe 
>> suggestive of a Sugar-on-Android to come.
>
> I agree that to showcase Sugar, a tablet would be a better platform
> than Raspberry Pi, or Cubox-1, etc. Ruben Rodriguez showed us a Nexus
> 7 tablet running sugar at the OLPC SF summit. This build was running
> on top of Ubuntu desktop for ARM. We also had a Nexus 7 that was
> running the Ubuntu Touch (for phone and tablets) and Ruben thought it
> would perhaps be a better platform for running Sugar on a ARM tablet
> instead of his approach.
>
> I haven't followed up with him, but I'm cc'ing him as well.

Found a thread that might be helpful.
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-September/044819.html

cheers,
Sameer

>
> cheers,
> Sameer
>
>> You can still do the CuBox thing but not for journalists and teachers.
>>
>>> * Make it easy to run Sugar inside VirtualBox on Windows and OS X. Without
>>> having investigated too deeply it seems that a two step process would be
>>> both realistically implementable and easy enough for the user
>>>
>>> 1 Install virtualbox
>>> 2 Install a Sugar application (which would take care of setting up the
>>> appliance).
>>>
>>
>> This is certainly a good idea but it must work as advertised ie in 1 click 
>> after the VM software is installed.
>> I would only add Parallels-VM/VMware appliances since may already be present 
>> in these closed OSs and can really provide "a single click to Sugar".
>>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar tryout (was Re: sugarlabs.org redesign) [Sugar-devel Digest, Vol 61, Issue 55]

[Sameer Verma]

cc'ing Marketing as well.

On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 2:50 AM, Yioryos Asprobounitis
 wrote:
>>>  The larger problem is the absence of a marketing strategy, we need to know
>>>  where we are going to communicate effectively. In particular, we need to
>>>  choose and implement how to offer Sugar tryout to teachers and journalists.
>>>
>>
>> I can think of a couple of approaches
>>
>> * Get Sugar running well on the CuBox-i. Find budget to buy a few of those
>> to distribute to chosen journalist and teachers. Try to partner with
>> SolidRun to offer Sugar as an out-of-the-box installation option.
>>
>
> Although the hardware specs are a good target for Sugar3, I believe that 
> suggesting a really small box with 5 cables connected to it to showcase a K-9 
> educational platform, may retract from the feasibility and thoroughness of 
> the project.
> A decent rooted tablet (ie Nexus 7) running Sugar on top of Linux, even if 
> the performance is not the best, would be much more catchy and maybe 
> suggestive of a Sugar-on-Android to come.

I agree that to showcase Sugar, a tablet would be a better platform
than Raspberry Pi, or Cubox-1, etc. Ruben Rodriguez showed us a Nexus
7 tablet running sugar at the OLPC SF summit. This build was running
on top of Ubuntu desktop for ARM. We also had a Nexus 7 that was
running the Ubuntu Touch (for phone and tablets) and Ruben thought it
would perhaps be a better platform for running Sugar on a ARM tablet
instead of his approach.

I haven't followed up with him, but I'm cc'ing him as well.

cheers,
Sameer

> You can still do the CuBox thing but not for journalists and teachers.
>
>> * Make it easy to run Sugar inside VirtualBox on Windows and OS X. Without
>> having investigated too deeply it seems that a two step process would be
>> both realistically implementable and easy enough for the user
>>
>> 1 Install virtualbox
>> 2 Install a Sugar application (which would take care of setting up the
>> appliance).
>>
>
> This is certainly a good idea but it must work as advertised ie in 1 click 
> after the VM software is installed.
> I would only add Parallels-VM/VMware appliances since may already be present 
> in these closed OSs and can really provide "a single click to Sugar".
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [Marketing] RFC: Make Sugar 0.102 = Sugar 1.0

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> I prefer marketing guys talk about marketing,
> but _IMHO_, the numbers what have sense for us internally are not
> the same number what have sense to all other the world.
> For us have sense numbers like 102 or 1.102, but probably not for others.
> Would be good try to found a numbers with a sense we can transmit.
> For us, is another tag in git
>

True. The internal scheme is relevant to developers, and the external
scheme is relevant to the customers, and these don't need to be the
same. More importantly, there needs to be clear understanding on the
translation from one to the other.

There are examples in other industries. VW sells Passat in the US, but
also called Dasher, Santana, Quantum, Magotan, Corsar and Carat
elsewhere. These are external schemes, as relevant to different
geographies. Internally, VW calls these B1, B2, etc. The current
Passat is B7, as addressed internally.

I only know about the B5, B6 etc. because even though I've owned a
Passat for over 10 years, I had to specify the internal denomination
for getting a replacement part over the Internet. They didn't care
what marketing called it. They needed to know if it was a B5 or B5.5

I also like the SoaS approach of using fruity names. These are easy to
remember. The drawback is that just the name does not  give the user a
sense of progression unless they keep up with the version names.

Ubuntu uses both a name (silly/funny) but a number that denotes a
progression based on the time of release. I'm sporting Saucy on my
laptop, (note I usually don't say "I'm sporting Salamander on my
laptop" - this is a personal preference), but 13.10 is helpful in
knowing it's is the latest release.

I think we are headed in the right direction, but need to address both
internal development structure and timeline and external artifact
structure and timeline.

cheers,
Sameer

Oh, and while I'm at it, one more +1 for us having a Youtube channel. Please!

> Gonzalo
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 4:14 PM, Daniel Narvaez  wrote:
>>
>> Yup
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, 7 November 2013, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>>>
>>> Maybe "Sugar Web" instead of "Sugar Online"?
>>> We have web activities and Web Services in this release 
>>>
>>> Gonzalo
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 3:19 PM, Daniel Narvaez 
>>> wrote:

 This is just a gut reaction but I feel we should think more in the
 "Sugar online" direction than in the "Sugar on tablet" one, at least as a
 first step. I'd love Sugar on tablet as anyone else but I feel it's 
 somewhat
 unrealistic because it involves skills, moneys and partnerships we don't
 currently have.

 I also think we should not completely discard Sugar on netbooks (maybe
 ultrabooks feels less anachronistic? :P). The hybrids that are hitting the
 market lately might not be mature, cheap or extremely popular, but it's an
 interesting direction to explore ... Keyboards are not completely dead yet
 IMO!

 On Thursday, 7 November 2013, Sean DALY wrote:
>
> If we are talking about a version number that might make it into a
> press release at some point, this is a marketing discussion so I have cc'd
> the list.
>
> As I've explained previously, the major issue with a v1 seven years
> after entering production is that it is incomprehensible. Non-techies 
> (i.e.
> teachers) discovering Sugar will naturally assume there are 0 years of
> production behind it. Tech journalists will roll on the floor laughing at 
> a
> Slashdot post e.g. "Seven Years After OLPC's First Laptop, Sugar Reaches
> V1".
>
> We dealt with this problem when Sugar was numbered Sugar on a Stick v6
> was renamed "Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry" and the press responded to an
> easy-to-understand story - that SL had spun off from OLPC and had a first
> non-OLPC version available. That the technical version number of the
> underlying Sugar was different was made irrelevant.
>
> We need to do this again. The addition of browser support is a big
> deal. In my view Sugar should be publicly numbered v2, perhaps with a name
> i.e. "Sugar v2 Online" or "Sugar v2 Tablet" (or something - this needs
> marketing work), with a clear story: Sugar opens up a new direction after
> seven years of production.
>
> The existing technical version numbering system has the merit of being
> understandable to developers and the deployments community and could be
> associated internally with the public number, i.e. 2.102, 2.104 etc., 
> which
> would not box us into a numbering system we can't market. Or perhaps 
> become
> irrelevant as Daniel N has suggested if we go to continuous development
> mode.
>
> I have more grey hair than I did when I first proposed we go to v1 six
> years ago [1]...
>
> (!)
>
> So I think we are ready for v2

Re: [Sugar-devel] [Marketing] RFC: Make Sugar 0.102 = Sugar 1.0

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 10:12 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> The other possibility is to multiply by 100, dropping the decimal
> point, .e.g., we just released Sugar 100 and are working on Sugar 102.
>
> -walter

I did this a couple of times on Twitter, but I like it!

I had a chat with my wife this morning about version numbers. She is
very non-technical (she's an office manager), and she completely
didn't get the decimal thing. She said, give it a name or give it a
number. If you want to address perceptions of the population at large
(outside of our bubble), then go with what people can understand.

Here are some interesting perspectives:
http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/resources/version-numbers-and-project-names
http://technologizer.com/2009/07/14/version-numbers/
http://ruthlesslyhelpful.net/2012/03/05/build-numbering-and-versioning/

and of course, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning

cheers,
Sameer

>
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Daniel Narvaez  wrote:
>> What about calling it 1.102 (tech version). That shouldn't come with any
>> message attached... It would address the fact that we never released a 1.0
>> without having PR consequences. Then when we figure out what 2.0 really
>> means marketing wise, we can start releasing 2.x as you suggest...
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, 7 November 2013, Sean DALY wrote:
>>>
>>> If we are talking about a version number that might make it into a press
>>> release at some point, this is a marketing discussion so I have cc'd the
>>> list.
>>>
>>> As I've explained previously, the major issue with a v1 seven years after
>>> entering production is that it is incomprehensible. Non-techies (i.e.
>>> teachers) discovering Sugar will naturally assume there are 0 years of
>>> production behind it. Tech journalists will roll on the floor laughing at a
>>> Slashdot post e.g. "Seven Years After OLPC's First Laptop, Sugar Reaches
>>> V1".
>>>
>>> We dealt with this problem when Sugar was numbered Sugar on a Stick v6 was
>>> renamed "Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry" and the press responded to an
>>> easy-to-understand story - that SL had spun off from OLPC and had a first
>>> non-OLPC version available. That the technical version number of the
>>> underlying Sugar was different was made irrelevant.
>>>
>>> We need to do this again. The addition of browser support is a big deal.
>>> In my view Sugar should be publicly numbered v2, perhaps with a name i.e.
>>> "Sugar v2 Online" or "Sugar v2 Tablet" (or something - this needs marketing
>>> work), with a clear story: Sugar opens up a new direction after seven years
>>> of production.
>>>
>>> The existing technical version numbering system has the merit of being
>>> understandable to developers and the deployments community and could be
>>> associated internally with the public number, i.e. 2.102, 2.104 etc., which
>>> would not box us into a numbering system we can't market. Or perhaps become
>>> irrelevant as Daniel N has suggested if we go to continuous development
>>> mode.
>>>
>>> I have more grey hair than I did when I first proposed we go to v1 six
>>> years ago [1]...
>>>
>>> (!)
>>>
>>> So I think we are ready for v2.
>>>
>>> Sean.
>>>
>>> [1] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/marketing/2008-November/000425.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 1:21 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:

 We already have this discussion for Sugar 0.100,
 why not do it again? :)

 With more than 7 years of development and more than 2 million of users,
 probably we should accept a 1.0 version is deserved.

 With 6 months more, probably the web api will be more established,
 and we are not doing incompatible changes to the python api.

 Anybody have a Really Good Motive(r) to not do it?

 Gonzalo
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>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Narvaez
>>
>>
>> ___
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>> market...@lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [Sugar-devel] different perspectives

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 7:50 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> Dear Community,
>
> As I was listening to the interviews of some of the OLPC SF Summit
> attendees, I was amazed at the richness of diversity in perspectives.
> In spite of being a part of this community since July 2007, and trying
> to keep up with all that is OLPC and Sugar, these interviews threw me
> off a bit.
>
> The videos are uploading as I write this. They'll be available at
> https://www.youtube.com/user/olpcsf/videos soon. Bill Stelzer, who
> usually interviews and runs the camera asks people a handful of
> questions. So, here's a little community exercise. Why not ask you all
> the same?
>
> 1) What brought you into the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?
>

Back in 2005, most of my research was on the user perspective of free
and open source software. OLPC was promising to be a rich source. I
did not know anything about Sugar, or constructivist learning, or the
fact that these machines were largely for children. I was also looking
for a way to provide Internet access to my family in Bhagmalpur,
India, so my uncle could look up information on farming techniques. I
saw an XO at OSCON 2007 for the first time. Rob Savoye (Gnash) was
showing it around. OLPC laptops sounded a better alternative to
sending old desktops and CRT monitors to Bhagmalpur, so I jumped in. I
wrote to the developer program, and Jim Gettys send me an XO!

> 2) What keeps you going in the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?

Initially, it was the excitement of a new thing. Then, I started to
read up on the educational side of it, and got hooked. I also admired
the non-stop ability of the core team to solve difficult problems.
They wouldn't take no for an answer, and came up with novel, yet
objective ways to solve problems. That zeal, combined with my very own
personal barometer in Bhagmalpur kept me plugged (and it still does).
OLPC SF became the fun thing to do/focus on locally. Visiting Jamaica
on my sabbatical leave was the catalyst for getting a deployment going
(now grown to 4 schools). Eventually, I got enough G1G1 XOs to
populate Bhagmalpur with 26 XOs in houses across the village. Bringing
OLPC/Sugar into my teaching, research and service allows me to work on
projects and not simply pursue these projects as a personal interest.

>
> 3) What are the challenges you face in the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?
>

Over the years, the teams churn through. Each churn takes away some
ideas, and replace these with newer ideas. The trouble is with things
that get lost between the cycles. Many biases come in with each
developer pool, and not all ideas are vetted thoroughly. There was
always a lot of mystery about how decisions were made at the company,
be it in Cambridge, or at Miami. Not being an employee, I typically
resigned to whatever comes down the mailing list pipeline. I
understand that outsiders getting in the way of business is difficult,
but the OLPC community + company partnership (if there was ever one)
never really sat well with me. As OLPC transitioned from the
Foundation to the Association, the "free and open source" went
neglected. Management really didn't understand the core of why FOSS
was important. They probably saw it as a source of software, but not
as an ongoing ecosystem. FOSS does not have strategic significance it
should at OLPCA.

OLPCF on the other hand, struggled with marketing. I'm not talking
about advertising. I'm talking about getting the ideas out so people
could understand it easily. Telling people about your ideas at their
level of understanding makes a major difference. They couldn't tell
the world how important their work was. It didn't translate to the
outside. I was at PLoS.org last week, and about a third of the
staffers there came up and asked me about what that thing (my XO) was.
At least people in this sphere should have known! There was also the
blanket refusal to work with boutique projects at OLPCF. That led to a
"no room for retail" mentality. Retailing would have helped.

OLPCA on the other hand struggles with strategy. Most of what they do
is operational at best. I realize that it is hard to stay the course
when the hardware and software industries focus so much on particular
combinations (think Android and ARM), but increasingly, the tail is
wagging the dog. Letting sales run an organization doesn't last for
too long :-(

Not being a developer myself, keeping up with Sugar's roadmap has been
difficult. These projects are heavily driven by technology. I am used
to an environment where the end user has a fair bit of say in the
matter, but I never got a good sense of whether Sugar as a project was
really getting good input. It's a difficult balance between listening
to your users and going the Jobs way (users don't know what they
want). I don't perceive these to be transparency issues as much as
tr

Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar oversight board meeting

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:44 PM, Flavio Danesse  wrote:
> My humble opinion (please stick to one):
>
> To put into perspective the opinion, I should remember that besides
> developing for sugar since 2009, I am also a teacher in high school, so I've
> been inside ceibal classrooms during this time.
>
> From the beginning, I said I saw the fate of sugar linked to the xo, the one
> without the other does not seem to make sense. Now, OLPC xo 4 and
> manufactures their away strip.
>
> For those who did the port to gtk3 last year, and we have also had to deal
> with the problems of arm processors, etc.. . ., We do not easily see how
> much time is lost in these "strategic decisions" while it ignores the
> feedback from deployments.
>
> I think this whole issue of android and html5, is a very grave mistake,
> probably the last.
>

Flavio,

Can you expand on your opinion on HTML5 and Android? i am very interested.

I am a teacher, but not as fortunate as you. I teach college and
graduate level students. By that time I get them, the damage is
somewhat irreversible :-(

Sameer

> But hey, I'm just a teacher, probably the only one in this list.
>
>
> 2013/11/5 Daniel Narvaez 
>>
>> Oh, awesome, COPR seems to be exactly what we need.
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, 5 November 2013, Peter Robinson wrote:
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Daniel Narvaez 
>>> wrote:
>>> > Going a bit off topic, but a pretty major issue I see in our workflow
>>> > with
>>> > Fedora is that we don't have a good way to develop unstable Sugar on a
>>> > stable Fedora. Rawhide is, or at least is perceived as, unstable. And
>>> > I'm
>>> > not sure what would be a good way to, for example, produce and
>>> > distribute
>>> > 0.100 rpms for Fedora 19. We can setup our custom automated build
>>> > system and
>>> > repository of course, but I'm not sure that's a good approach? Part of
>>> > the
>>> > problem here is that upstream tends to depend strongly on very recent
>>> > libraries which are not yet available in the stable fedora, though
>>> > maybe now
>>> > that the gi conversion is over we can avoid that.
>>>
>>> Actually a lot of that will be solved perfectly with COPR (similar in
>>> style to Ubuntu PPA) which is being worked upon at the moment and it
>>> should solve all the problems you see by enabling newer versions to be
>>> built for older releases while maintaining the stable shipped release
>>> in mainline.
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> > On Tuesday, 5 November 2013, Peter Robinson wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 2:14 AM, Walter Bender
>>> >> 
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >> > On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 7:42 PM, Daniel Narvaez 
>>> >> > wrote:
>>> >> >> On 4 November 2013 22:53, Sean DALY  wrote:
>>> >> >>>
>>> >> >>> * It's not clear to me where we are going. The OLPC/Sugar
>>> >> >>> development
>>> >> >>> ecosystem seems to be at a crossroads. I am encouraged by the web
>>> >> >>> activity
>>> >> >>> work, but don't understand the path of transposing the value
>>> >> >>> proposition of
>>> >> >>> Sugar (interface, Journal, collaboration, Activities) to handheld
>>> >> >>> tactile
>>> >> >>> devices (tablets to smartphones). PCs (of any size) with keyboards
>>> >> >>> are
>>> >> >>> no
>>> >> >>> longer competitive with tablets for grade-school classroom use.
>>> >> >>> Perhaps the
>>> >> >>> XO-4 could still be in the running; there is no clear message from
>>> >> >>> OLPC.
>>> >> >>
>>> >> >>
>>> >> >>
>>> >> >> I'll try to express briefly my feelings about the directions the
>>> >> >> project
>>> >> >> could take. Note that I might be missing a lot of what is going on
>>> >> >> above the
>>> >> >> technical level.
>>> >> >>
>>> >> >> * The XO is not a viable hardware platform other than for existing
>>> >> >> deployments. OLPC is pretty clearly going in a different direction.
>>> >> >
>>> >> > I may be alone in thinking that there will be some runway left with
>>> >> > the XO. But deployments need alternatives regardless.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >> * Sugar web activities on the top of a full Android loses too much
>>> >> >> of
>>> >> >> the
>>> >> >> Sugar value proposition. It's great to have it in addition to
>>> >> >> Sugar-the-OS,
>>> >> >> but it's not enough alone.
>>> >> >
>>> >> > I agree.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >> * From the technical point of view there are several ways to get
>>> >> >> Sugar-the-OS running on tactile devices. Unfortunately it's not
>>> >> >> clear
>>> >> >> to me
>>> >> >> that any of these devices is open enough to be viable for
>>> >> >> deployments
>>> >> >> or
>>> >> >> "ordinary" users.
>>> >> >
>>> >> > We looked at ChromeOS a few years back, but at the time it was too
>>> >> > heavy for our hardware. Today, it is a different story. Might be a
>>> >> > viable option. Certainly running GNU/Linux/Sugar on a ChromeBook is
>>> >> > not a bad starting point.
>>> >>
>>> >> Given that ChromeOS is locked down I don't believe it's viable to ask
>>> >> a School to have to break/hack the HW to get it working OOTB.
>>> >>
>>> >> Having 

[Sugar-devel] different perspectives

[Sameer Verma]

Dear Community,

As I was listening to the interviews of some of the OLPC SF Summit
attendees, I was amazed at the richness of diversity in perspectives.
In spite of being a part of this community since July 2007, and trying
to keep up with all that is OLPC and Sugar, these interviews threw me
off a bit.

The videos are uploading as I write this. They'll be available at
https://www.youtube.com/user/olpcsf/videos soon. Bill Stelzer, who
usually interviews and runs the camera asks people a handful of
questions. So, here's a little community exercise. Why not ask you all
the same?

1) What brought you into the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?

2) What keeps you going in the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?

3) What are the challenges you face in the OLPC and/or Sugar project(s)?

4) What would you change/do differently so OLPC and/or Sugar
project(s) could do better?


Reply-all in your answers.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Private vs Public conversations.

[Sameer Verma]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 9:04 AM, David Farning
 wrote:
> I just wanted to bump this line of questions as, it is the critical
> set of questions which will determine the future viability of Sugar.
>
> If anyone as more informed, please correct me if I am sharing
> incorrect information:
> 1. The Association has dropped future development of XO laptops and
> Sugar as part of their long term strategy. I base this on the
> reduction of hardware and software personal employed by the
> Association.
> 2. The Association is reducing its roll within the engineering and
> development side of the ecosystem. I base this on the shift toward
> integrating existing technology, software, and content from other
> vendors on the XO tablet.
> 3. The Association is shifting away from its initial roll as a
> technical philanthropy to a revenue generating organization structured
> as a association. I base this on the general shift in conversations
> and decisions from public to private channels.
>

So, with regard to the points above, several concerns along these
lines were voiced at OLPC SF Summit. Most of these were in private
corridor/coffee conversations, but I got to hear a bulk of it, being
the lead organizer. Opinions and concerns varied from "I'm confused by
what OLPC is doing", to "Are we not doing XOs anymore?" to "What about
Sugar?" to "It was good ride, but it's over. Time to move along". Two
other points to note for this year's meeting: The attendance was the
lowest it's ever been, and we barely saw anyone pull out their XOs to
work with. Neither observations were encouraging, to put it mildly.

My understanding of the XO Tablet project was that it was designed as
a revenue generator ($x per unit sale goes to OLPC A) so that work on
the XO-4 could continue. In my own conversations with OLPCA, I was
always reassured that the XO continues to be the pedagogical machine.
However, I'm not seeing the evidence to that end from OLPCA. Pretty
much all the staff that worked on the XO are either laid off or have
quit.

There were other conversations at OLPC SF Summit, where the concern
was that OLPCA is quietly trying to convert requests for XO-4
purchases into XO Tablet purchases. I've raised this issue of device
cannibalization with OLPCA. If the real plan is to keep both lines
going, then the devices should have separate marketing and sales
plans. Keep in mind that the XO4 has had close to zero marketing, and
all the media I see about OLPC these days usually positions the XO
Tablet as the new thing.

Today's Wired article makes the intentions clearer:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/31/olpc-and-datawind-tablet

So, is the XO-4 dead? My first reaction would be "No", although I'm
still to very confident of my own assessment. We are seeing continued
adoption of the XO in Rwanda (I hear Rwanda is 1.75, but not 4) and
Australia. They must see some continued value in it, and perhaps that
will help in continuing to foster the ecosystem around it. We also
have the approx. 3 million machines around the world, and many are
still chugging away. Personally, the move within the Sugar community
to web services and HTML5 is very encouraging.

However, if all that OLPC remains is a vendor of cheap, proprietary
Android tablets wrapped in green silicone, then what motivation
remains to continue to plug for it? We all have different motivations
for working on this project. I'd like to hear more from others.

Here's OLPC's mission, as a reminder:

Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world's
poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost,
low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for
collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Does the current stance at OLPCA help in furthering this mission?

Sameer

> Given financial constraints, these are reasonable shifts. While
> painful, the world is better of with a leaner (and meaner) OLPC
> Association which lives to fight another day. The challenge moving
> forward is how to develop and maintain the Sugar platform, the
> universe of activities, and the supporting distributions given the
> reduction in patronage from the OLPC Association.
>
> I, and AC, would be happy to work more closely with Sugar Labs if
> there are ways to establish publicly disclosed and mutually beneficial
> relationships. In the meantime we are happy to provide deployments
> support while seeding and supporting projects we feel are beneficial
> to deployments such as School Server Community Edition and Sugar on
> Ubuntu.
>
> On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 6:11 AM, David Farning
>  wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 2:43 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
>>> I agree with your analysis about slow deployment updates versus fast
>>> community cycles.
>>>
>>> In my view, there are two alternatives:
>>>
>>> * We can slow down a little the Sugar cycle, may be doing one release by
>>> year,
>>> but I am not sure if will help. The changes will take more time to go to the

[Sugar-devel] some very cool features for a capacitive touchscreen

[Sameer Verma]

I saw some very cool features in a presentation today at the Internet
Archive. The presentation was by Eitenne Mineur, as part o the "Books
in Browsers 13" event.

They are using paper and other simple objects that have kind of
conductive patterns to create story platforms, but with interactivity.
Start with a story screen, place a paper cutout of one of the
characters, and the story comes to life. Place a second character, and
the scene changes.

All very interesting ideas for us to use on the XO-4 Touch, although
the XO4 does not use capacitance, but the idea is very cool.

http://volumique.com/

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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[Sugar-devel] A robotics session at OLPC SF?

[Sameer Verma]

We have the Uruguay Butia robot, a couple of LEGO WeDo kits and a
Mindstorms NXT box that we can provide. Any takers on running a
session on robotics at the OLPC SF Community Summit 2013?

http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/proposal

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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[Sugar-devel] Community Summit

[Sameer Verma]

We are gearing up to host the 5th OLPC SF Community Summit. Oct 18-20. The
schedule is starting to shape up at
http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/schedule All those "TBA" that you
see? That could be you :-) Submit a proposal soon!
http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/proposal

Registration is now open via Eventbrite:
http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/registration Please do sign up,
if you are planning on coming. It gives us an idea on the attendance and of
course creates revenue to host the event. We don't make any money (in fact,
we lose some money, but it's for a great cause).

If you need a letter for travel purposes, let us know. olp...@gmail.com

If you are not planning on being here, send in a poster!
http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/posters

Hope to see you all soon!

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugar on a $100 tablet!

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 7:58 AM, Ruben Rodríguez
wrote:

> 2013/9/29 Caryl Bigenho :
>
> > Will some of you be at the SF Summit?
>
> Yes, I'll be there. I'll be submitting my workshop proposal today.
>
>
Great! Do submit your proposal soon. We are sorting through things, and
earlier submissions help.

Sameer


>  > I can bring my XO Tablet if you would
> > like to test Sugar on it. All I ask is that you sweep it clean when
> finished
> > so I can re-customize it for my grand daughter. It's to be her present
> for
> > her third birthday in late December.
> >
> > Caryl
> >
> > P.S. If others can bring other Android devices they don't mind messing
> with
> > that would be great. In fact, maybe you could play with my Samsung
> phone...
> > same conditions... wipe it clean or restore it when we have finished
> > playing.
>
> Well, what I did on the Nexus was possible because GNU/Linux was
> already bootable in that particular machine, for other devices it
> would be quite more difficult and out of the scope of the workshop. We
> can check what devices are candidates for it.
>
> --
> Rubén Rodríguez
> Activity Central: http://activitycentral.com
>
> Facebook: https://activitycentral.com/facebook
> Google+: https://activitycentral.com/googleplus
> Twitter: https://activitycentral.com/twitter
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>
>
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Sugar on a $100 tablet!

[Sameer Verma]

Submit a proposal! http://www.olpcsf.org/CommunitySummit2013/proposal

cheers,
Sameer


On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 8:42 AM, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

> Can we have a session to play with this at the SFSummit? "BYOA?" (Bring
> your own Android).
> Caryl
>
> P.S. Maybe also a session on Sugar on "R-Pi"?
>
>
> Mike Lee  wrote:
>
> I also have a Gen 1 Nexus 7 and would like to try this if it can be done
> from Mac or Win OS. I'd be particularly interested in the usability of of
> the basic features of Etoys 5 and Scratch 1.4. I would imagine TurtleBlocks
> works well.
>
> With the procedure characterized as tricky, I may fast follow George on
> this.
>
> Mike
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 5:43 AM, George Hunt wrote:
>
>> I have a nexus, and I'm anxious to learn how to swap out OS, reload
>> stuff, etc.
>>
>> Does Ubuntu talk directly to the hardware? If so, how much variation is
>> there in the hardware? If most tablets are based on arm SOC's, this might
>> work across many hardware platforms.
>>
>> George
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 1:47 AM, Ruben Rodríguez wrote:
>>
>>> 2013/9/7 George Hunt :
>>> > There's a complex "Sugar on Android" solution. At this point, it's
>>> only for
>>> > hackers. But it just might help us achieve the $100 Sugar machine.
>>> >
>>> > Refer to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2151092.
>>>
>>> This sounds like fun, but maybe not that useful for real deployments
>>> as it probably works quite slowly.
>>>
>>> > I'm inclined to play with the nexus, because there's so much
>>> information
>>> > available on how to add software. Then later I can try it with a $100
>>> > machine.
>>>
>>> Good news is that I already have Sugar 0.98 running natively (no
>>> android underneath) on my Nexus 7 on top of Ubuntu.
>>>
>>> http://imgur.com/WMgm3oB
>>>
>>> As a byproduct of packaging 0.98 in deb form -which is something I'm
>>> working on this days-, and since I have a Nexus, I compiled the debs
>>> for armhf to play a little bit with them. There are some bugs but it
>>> worked overall in a very promising way: most things work, including
>>> frame gestures, maliit, journal, activities and collaboration. It is
>>> also quite fast.
>>>
>>> If somebody has a nexus and wants to give it a try I can publish the
>>> debs and a brief howto during the weekend. It is a bit tricky, though.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> --
>>> Rubén Rodríguez - SugarLabs.org
>>>
>>
>>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Gears and random thoughts

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Chris Leonard  wrote:
> Is there a way to add them to ASLO and to tag them as such?
>

+1
> Can they be localized on Pootle?
>
> Does localizing htem introduce a CLDR locale dependency?
>
> cjl
>
> On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Suraj K S  wrote:
>> Brilliant work Manuel!
>>
>> Would be nice if we could put all the web activities we've made so far,
>> together in one place.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9 August 2013 19:45, Manuel Quiñones  wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I've made an activity out of gearsket.ch .  This is a present for our
>>> friend Paul Fox, who pointed me to that excellent app.  Thanks Paul!
>>>
>>> http://manuq.github.io/gears-activity/
>>>
>>> I contacted the developer and started sending pull-requests to make
>>> GearSketch a lib we could use, and I've been also improving the icons.
>>>
>>> It works great in a touchable device.  For touch support it uses
>>> hammer.js .  So this is another option to handle for globally adding
>>> touch in sugar-web.  In previous email I've mentioned pointer.js,
>>> which abstracts input events (mouse, touchscreen, pen tablet) like
>>> latest IE does.
>>>
>>> The help inside the app is great.  It brings a demo mode, which
>>> directly shows you what can be done.  It is similar to the one found
>>> in Implode activity.  I wish we can do that as a global solution for
>>> help in web activities.
>>>
>>> It is written in coffeescript, and after playing for a bit, I can see
>>> it as a possible choice for activity developers.  Its syntax sugar
>>> makes the code look more like the gtk activities written in python.
>>>
>>> One of the reasons we went for plain js for sugar-web was because of
>>> the View Source feature.  Well, seems that since I researched a few
>>> months ago, Source Maps has improved a lot, and I can see coffee code
>>> in the web inspector. If the code breaks or if I add a breakpoint, for
>>> example.  Nice!  Also, GitHub does a nice job displaying only the
>>> coffee changes, and hidding the JS changes by default:
>>>
>>> https://github.com/frankleenaars/gearsketch/pull/6/files
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> --
>>> .. manuq ..
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>>
>>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Thank you and an update on the New Zealand XO-4 deployment

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Jul 11, 2013 at 1:20 AM, Tabitha Roder  wrote:
> This week Barry Vercoe, Nicoletta Rata-Skudder and I had the pleasure of
> spending three days with the first New Zealand school to purchase XO laptops
> for their students. This school is also the first XO-4 touchscreen
> deployment (I think in the world??).
>
> I wanted to publicly thank all the people who worked so hard to help ensure
> this deployment had a successful start, including the deployment being able
> to be in Maori, the preferred language for this school. Thanks to CJL for
> his endless support in making this happen, and for all his continuing help
> as we work towards a sustainable translation team.
>
> Thank you to Walter for helping with the keyboard issues. We hope to test
> your new keyboard preference in a future build. For those reading this email
> without knowing about the New Zealand deployment, we needed some changes to
> allow Macrons on vowels to be in single characters. We found the combining
> macron available in the standard keyboard was problematic.
>
> The laptops are being used with first year students (five year olds) with a
> teacher who has completed the "One Education" teacher training provided by
> One Laptop per Child Australia. There are other teachers within the school
> also working through this training to help them prepare to deploy XO-4
> laptops in their classes. The students in her class had access to XO-1.75
> laptops for two weeks prior to the arrival of XO-4 laptops.
>
> There are a few bugs in the build that we have identified since deployment,
> and a few activities that the students would really like to see available
> for XO-4, but overall a successful launch.
> The school is using xo-system 1a build 49 which is acquired from
> download.laptop.org.au and we customised it using Jerry's tinycore linux
> based customisation system. Many thanks to Jerry Vonau and James Cameron for
> producing this and helping us use it. This customisation meant we could have
> the laptops first start up in Maori and the children saw Maori language from
> the very first screen (where you put in your name/ingoa).
> We also bundled the following activities that the teacher had access to on
> the XO-1.75 during training (if the activity started on XO-4) - Cartoon
> builder, eToys, Get Books, Infoslicer, Maze, Story builder, the full Tam tam
> suite, Turtle machine and Typing Turtle.
> The teacher has asked us to investigate the jigsaw puzzle and slider puzzle
> activities for XO-4 as some children had made puzzles with their photos from
> Record on the XO-1.75 and enjoyed these activities.
> We noticed some performance issues with Record (the screen would freeze at
> times while they were preparing to take the photo) and we also could not get
> Undo to work in Write activity in the classroom. We will test these further
> and file bug reports when we know more.
>
> Thanks to DSD for the quick fix on the Browse performance issues.
>
> On leaving the school, the students were quickly gaining confidence in using
> the touchscreen as well as the touchpad, taking photos in Record and putting
> them in Write as part of story writing, and using the Paint activity. They
> were excited at every opportunity to use the XOs and were exploring all the
> activities with great enthusiasm.
>
> Thanks to all the others who also helped along the way. OLPC builds and
> deployments are a community effort, and we thank everyone involved. Please
> know that your efforts, advice and guidance has been worth the sharing, and
> this school is now enjoying their teaching and learning experiences with
> XO-4 laptops in the classroom.
>
> Thank you!
> Tabitha and Tom
>
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Awesome update!

cheers,
Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Another sugar lab

[Sameer Verma]

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> http://the-sugar-lab.com/about
>
> Should we ask them to not use the name?
>
> Gonzalo
>

Maybe ask them to put a link to sugarlabs.org and a link to the effect
of "In case you were looking for Sugarlabs, the learning platform,
they are at http://sugarlabs.org";

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [Marketing] Sugar 0.100 or 1.0

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 4:19 PM, Daniel Narvaez  wrote:
> On 21 May 2013 23:32, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> Speaking of "activities" in the Sugar sense, I was wondering how many
>> of the HTML5 apps from FirefoxOS would slide over to our platform with
>> little change. I just got my hands on a Geeksphone Peak
>> (http://www.geeksphone.com/) and have been following up on how Mozilla
>> does FirefoxOS apps. (As an aside, their apps live on Github, both as
>> code and as zip files, and hosted through
>> https://marketplace.firefox.com/ which looks similar on the phone as
>> it does on a laptop). If some of the FirefoxOS apps can become Sugar
>> HTML5 activities, we may be able to ramp up on the number of
>> activities relatively soon. Wishful thinking, and all that...
>
>
> Well, they won't work out of the box but it might be possible to port some
> of them if  the source code is available. Difficulty depends on how Firefox
> specific their code is, aside from the usual rendering engine
> incompatibilities Firefox OS provides system APIs which are not available in
> Webkit.

Ah! Didn't think of the system APIs. Well, then ChromeOS apps maybe?

Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [IAEP] [Marketing] Sugar 0.100 or 1.0

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 4:39 AM, Daniel Narvaez  wrote:
> On 20 May 2013 12:19, Bastien  wrote:
>>
>> Sean DALY  writes:
>>
>> > I feel that 0.100 is even more unmarketable than 0.98.
>>
>> Agreed.  Mathematically, it reads like a regression.  Instead of
>> reaching some definite level of maturity, it gives the signal that
>> Sugar is in its early alpha (which is clearly wrong IMHO.)
>
>
> The problem is that Sean is also saying a 1.0 would be hard to market
> (without html activities, which I don't think are going to be solid at the
> first iteration).
>

Speaking of "activities" in the Sugar sense, I was wondering how many
of the HTML5 apps from FirefoxOS would slide over to our platform with
little change. I just got my hands on a Geeksphone Peak
(http://www.geeksphone.com/) and have been following up on how Mozilla
does FirefoxOS apps. (As an aside, their apps live on Github, both as
code and as zip files, and hosted through
https://marketplace.firefox.com/ which looks similar on the phone as
it does on a laptop). If some of the FirefoxOS apps can become Sugar
HTML5 activities, we may be able to ramp up on the number of
activities relatively soon. Wishful thinking, and all that...

cheers,
Sameer
> So I don't really know how we should call this release. Maybe 1.0 and we
> just don't make noise about it. Feels a bit like a lost opportunity though.
>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [Marketing] Sugar 0.100 or 1.0

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 6:21 AM, Walter Bender  wrote:
> Perfection is the enemy of the good.
>
> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 9:07 AM, Daniel Narvaez  wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> we need to decide if we want the next release to be 1.0 or 0.100.
>>
>> Here is the features we are planning for it.
>>
>> * Develop an HTML5 based toolkit for activities
>>
>> * Multiple selection in the Journal
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Multi_selection
>>
>> * Enhanced support for 3G modems
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/3G_Support/Database_Support
>>
>> * Background customization
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Background_image_on_home_view
>>
>> * Multiple home views
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Multiple_home_views
>>
>> * Integration with web services
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Web_services
>>
>> * Journal comments box
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Comment_box_in_journal_detail_view
>>
>> * Icon customization
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Icon_Change
>>
>>
>> It's a bit of weird situation because code wise we are not really 1.0 ready.
>> We are developing a new toolkit and the old one could use an API cleanup. On
>> the other hand we are deployed to millions of users.
>>
>> Personally I don't really have a strong feeling. If the marketing team sees
>> an opportunity in a 1.0 in October with the above feature list I'd say to go
>> ahead with it even if from a developer point of view we are not ready.
>> Otherwise we could delay it at least another cycle.
>
> I think the marketing team had already reached consensus about 1.0.
> But maybe Sean can chime in.
>
>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Narvaez
>>
>> ___
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>>
>
> Plus, I think .100 is confusing.
>

+1

Sameer

> -walter
>
> --
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> Sugar Labs
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Sugar Framework for full HTML5 activity - subject proposal for GSoC

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 7:29 AM, James Simmons  wrote:
> Lionel,
>
> I think this is definitely a great idea for GSoC.  I like the work you've
> done in this area, but there was a fair amount of discussion on this list
> recently about different ways you could go about making an HTML 5 Activity
> and maybe this task could involve looking at several of these options.
>
> I definitely like the idea of having a sort of Phone Gap for Sugar where you
> could package up HTML 5 as an Activity without writing Python code.
>

Very interesting. I had this very same conversation with Seth
Woodworth in Cambridge a few weeks ago. We also talked about the
possibility of some of the apps from the FirefoxOS world finding their
way into re-wrapped Sugar activities.

I've cc'd Seth on this.

cheers,
Sameer

> James Simmons
>
> On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 8:16 AM,  wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m thinking to do a proposal for GSoC around “Sugar Framework for writing
>> activity in full HTML5/JavaScript”.
>>
>> My idea is to package and enhance the work I’ve done on [1], specifically
>> to fully avoid the need to write any Python code.
>>
>> I’ve got experience of student mentoring but never on GSoC mentoring.
>>
>> Plus I’m not fully aware of Sugar internal and about the capacity to build
>> something like a new sort of activity packaging.
>>
>> So, if you think that it could be a good GSoC subject for Sugar and if
>> someone is okay to co-mentoring with me, I could do a proposal.
>>
>>
>>
>> Tell me.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best regards from France.
>>
>>
>>
>> Lionel.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [1]
>> http://booki.flossmanuals.net/make-your-own-sugar-activities/_draft/_v/1.0/developing-sugar-activities-using-html5/
>>
>>
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Re: [Sugar-devel] [FEATURES][DESIGN] Network proxy configuration

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:31 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> While I understand your point about the radio checkbox,
> this show a few bugs or fails in design in Sugar too.
> Trying right now I see:
> * The text is confusing:
> "Turn off the wireless radio to save battery life"
> [] Radio
>
> Checked is on or off? What means Radio? Is not clear
>

Should be a radio button. Wi-Fi on/off.
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.education.sugar.devel/34909

Sameer

> * After uncheck the checkbox, go to the neightborview,
> the ap are not visible but the ad-hoc are.
> If there are not network, the ad-hoc is not working, right?
>
> * May be we can show a message in the neighborview.
> "The radio/wireless interface is down, go to the control panel to use it"
> or similar. The same in the device icon in the frame.
>
> All these issues probably help to make worst the situation.
>
> About the network proxy configuration, I agree is better have a automatic
> configuration _if_possible_, but there are times when is not possible,
> then we should provide a solution. Has been a request for a long time,
> and the development is already 90% done
>
> Gonzalo
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 5:15 PM, Daniel Drake  wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn
>>  wrote:
>> >>One problem that I have seen in various places, children untick the
>> >>"Radio enable" checkbox in Sugar's control panel and then return their
>> >>laptop for repair because they can't get online. I fear that proxy
>> >>configuration could become support headache like this.
>> >
>> > Thinking in the same way, we must block the command "rm" from the
>> > terminal because the childrens can remove important files. Or the
>> > command "mv" because generates that an activity no works
>>
>> I can see why you might think that way. However, I have never
>> experienced this being a problem, and I don't recall seeing other
>> reports of this, so I would not argue for any blocking of terminal
>> commands. The radio checkbox is a real headache that *actually
>> happens* though.
>>
>> Taking a guess as to why we see the radio problem but not the terminal
>> one in our field experiences, I would imagine the crucial difference
>> is that the radio checkbox is presented in a way that it is easily
>> accessible but commonly uncomprehendable to our regular user base. In
>> comparison, those dangerous commands in the terminal are in their own
>> world of inaccessibility...
>>
>> Daniel
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Re: [Sugar-devel] offline a.sl.o

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 2:59 AM, Martin Abente <
martin.abente.lah...@gmail.com> wrote:

> @sameer: What features (exactly) do you need from ASLO?
>
> IE, in Paraguay we just needed to provide a static repo of activities to
> feed the sugar updater. And we used this
> http://git.sugarlabs.org/dx-activities-server
>

This is pretty much what i'm looking for as well.

Sameer


> On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 10:46 PM, Dr. Gerald Ardito <
> gerald.ard...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Aleksey,
>> At the risk of asking a stupid question, what is the Sugar Network
>> functionality you are talking about?
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Gerald
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Aleksey Lim wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 08:20:23PM -0500, Dr. Gerald Ardito wrote:
>>> > This is very interesting.
>>> >
>>> > I have a kind of related question. Has there been any work done for a
>>> > non-internet based email server (and XO based client)?
>>> > I know that Tony Anderson (now in Rwanda) is working in a school with
>>> no
>>> > internet access, but with the need for email-type communication.
>>>
>>> Generally speaking, people (students and teachers) from Peruvian
>>> one-teachers offline schools might need the same "offline email".
>>> But the approach that was take for Sugar Network is not trying to create
>>> full featured/partial replacement of online environments (e.g., email,
>>> web, wikipedia, feedback reporting system, etc) but create one
>>> solid/robust system (that is capable for offline) with features:
>>>
>>> * content sharing (both ways, not only from deployers to deployments)
>>> * having reliable feedback from the field, i.e., fail reports, usage
>>>   statistics, questions
>>> * and social activity regarding the content in general (review,
>>> comments, etc)
>>>
>>> So, there is no direct offline-email analogy. But in my mind, designed
>>> Sugar Network functionality makes offline-email less needed (and not
>>> needed at all if we are talking about environments like rural schools
>>> with no any IT skilled people).
>>>
>>> --
>>> Aleksey
>>>
>>
>>
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[Sugar-devel] offline a.sl.o

[Sameer Verma]

Has anyone looked into running an offline copy of
activities.sugarlabs.orgon a server that isn't on the Internet (a la
XS)?

cheers,
Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] OLPC OS on Zync Z930 Tablet

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 5:37 AM, Christoph Derndorfer <
christoph.derndor...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
>
> a Google News Alert just pointed me to this thread over on the XDA
> developer forums where someone working for an NGO in India is trying to
> figure out whether it's possible to get Sugar running on a low-cost tablet:
> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2005715
>
> Not sure whether anyone has ever tried something similar but given the
> ever-improving ARM support of Fedora I thought someone here might be able
> to help the guy out.
>
>
I can think of two ways this could possibly work. One is to "dual boot" so
that the entire Fedora+Sugar stack lives on a storage medium and the tablet
boots into it. The other is to reuse the Linux part of the Android stack,
but to run a different upper stack like how Ubuntu on Android works (
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android). A similar approach is used with
Debian on Android where the Debian system lives in a chroot.
http://evilzone.org/android/debian-on-android/

cheers,
Sameer

Cheers,
> Christoph
>
>
> --
> Christoph Derndorfer
>
> volunteer, OLPC (Austria) [www.olpc.at]
> editor, OLPC News [www.olpcnews.com]
> contributor, TechnikBasteln [www.technikbasteln.net]
>
> e-mail: christ...@derndorfer.eu
>
>
>
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[Sugar-devel] table for activity ids

[Sameer Verma]

Looking for a table or list of activity ids and corresponding
activities. Does this exist?

Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] NPR story on OLPC in Peru

[Sameer Verma]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Alexandro Colorado  wrote:
> On 10/13/12, Walter Bender  wrote:
>> Alexandro,
>>
>> I think you are grossly underestimating the connectivity problem in Peru.
>
> Yes maybe, but I understand most educational systems dont have enough
> budget to acquire connectivity so getting connectivity from other
> sources like public buildings, libraries, will allow other resource to
> come through without needing to be funded by the educational budget.
>
> Now if we are talking about, the whole town not having ways on
> connecting, then the next option would be looking for alternative
> sources, in Mexico they used Satelite modems.
> http://www.scribd.com/doc/10324524/Capacitacion-Para-Maestros-Uso-Del-Aula-Enciclomedia#page=15
>
> But other mediums like DSL modems attached to a wifi router will be
> able to get some basic Internet for HTML/images, IRC, etc. The big
> question is about the level of connectivity for copper phone lines.
>

It seems that a fair number of offline requirements will be served by
the XS school server, but I don't see that show up in any of the
conversations. Does any location in Peru use any version of the XS?
(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server)

cheers,
Sameer

>
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> ___
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>> de...@lists.laptop.org
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>>
>
>
> --
> Alexandro Colorado
> PPMC Apache OpenOffice
> http://es.openoffice.org
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Thanks Buddy !!!

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 12:34 AM, Ajay Garg  wrote:
> I would like to take this opportunity, in front of all the members of our
> small family ( well.. ok, not so small a family :P ), to thank the person,
> who has been responsible for my rejuvenation, and is the reason for my
> today's well-being state. He is, of course, Anish.
>
>
> A year back, Anish was the one who picked me up when I was completely,
> morally and mentally devastated. He said just one thing :: "Ajay, please
> come back on track. I know your abilities". That was the thing that gave me
> the kick; and today, here I am -- lucky to be coding for inevitable, core
> requirements; and fully enjoying my work here at AC.
>
>
> I would also like to thank you all, for providing me the support, and
> (specifically AC) treating me so well.
>
>
> But as I say, the lion's share of my thanks, has to go to Anish :)
>
>
> Today, as Anish goes away to pursure his Masters, I recall all those fun
> moments we had in college, and thereafter.
> Lately, our weekly meet-up at our "office" at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in
> Delhi, had become a topic of fun and laughter amongst ourselves, and friends
> :D
> I will surely miss those "weekly" fun moments ... !!!
>
>
> Thanks Anish for everything ...
> Congratulations again for another feather in the cap ...
> And lastly - the most important thing - have fun :D :D :D
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Ajay
>


Anish has been great to work with. He made the effort, along with
Arjun Sarwal, to make a trip to Bhagmalpur (my little India project
http://bhagmalpur.wordpress.com/) and help out with the project. I
hope to see Anish (and others) at OLPC SF Community Summit and
SugarCamp later this year in October! http://olpcsf.org/summit

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Engadget post on XO Touch

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Mike Lee  wrote:
> Here's a cool demo of the Neonode multitouch frame:
>
> http://www.slashgear.com/neonode-3d-touch-headed-to-tablets-and-phones-hands-on-28215933/
>
> Not only multi-touch, but also entry direction and tilt. For a dollar!
>
> Seems like this would be great as a retrofit kit.

+1 on the retrofit kit. I was thinking of the same thing!

cheers,
Sameer
>
> Mike
>
> On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 11:09 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> www.engadget.com/2012/07/26/olpc-xo-touch-1-75-to-use-neonode-tech/
>>
>> The post says "as yet unreleased XO 1.75". What's the official status
>> on the 1.75? Still as yet unreleased?
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
>> --
>> Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
>> Professor, Information Systems
>> San Francisco State University
>> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
>> http://commons.sfsu.edu/
>> http://olpcsf.org/
>> http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/
>> ___
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Re: [Sugar-devel] Engadget post on XO Touch

[Sameer Verma]

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 8:15 PM, John Watlington  wrote:
>
> On Jul 26, 2012, at 11:09 PM, Sameer Verma wrote:
>
>> www.engadget.com/2012/07/26/olpc-xo-touch-1-75-to-use-neonode-tech/
>>
>> The post says "as yet unreleased XO 1.75". What's the official status
>> on the 1.75? Still as yet unreleased?
>
> It's been shipping for some time now.
> I don't know where they got that information.
>

Thanks. Do you have a list of projects that are running on the 1.75?

Sameer

> And the correct name for the new generation will probably be XO-4 and
> XO-4 Touch.
>
> Cheers,
> wad
>
>
>
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[Sugar-devel] Engadget post on XO Touch

[Sameer Verma]

www.engadget.com/2012/07/26/olpc-xo-touch-1-75-to-use-neonode-tech/

The post says "as yet unreleased XO 1.75". What's the official status
on the 1.75? Still as yet unreleased?

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
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Re: [Sugar-devel] compiled to .XO

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 8:48 PM, Mikus Grinbergs  wrote:
>> We are also able to run the binary, but I am unclear about
>> how we would package this into a .xo activity. Any pointers?
>
>
> Am attaching an copy of an email I sent earlier to someone with a question
> similar to yours.  IMHO that email provides a concise how-to guide to
> fashioning a bare-bones .xo package.
>
> [Obviously, your 'exec' line must be appropriate to your binary.]
>
> [The example had a library which was explicitly linked-to from within that
> binary.  If your binary does not need any special library, just leave out
> the library part from the attached instructions.]
>
> [If your binary *does* need to be supplied with a specific library, move
> that library into (for example) the subdirectory itself, then add this line
> (without the >) before your 'exec' line
>  >  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$SUGAR_BUNDLE_PATH/your-library-name
> to indicate *where* that library can be accessed.]
>
>
>
> To produce the .xo file, just 'pack' the subdirectory you created.
>
> mikus
>

Thanks, Mikus. Will take a look.

Sameer
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Re: [Sugar-devel] compiled to .XO

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 7:39 PM, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> You need do only make (and not make install),
> copy the generated binaries in a bin directory inside the activity
> directory,
> and probably you will need start the acivity with a .sh file and set env
> variables.
> You can look at the Tuxmath activity as a example.

OK. Will take a look.

Sameer

>
> Gonzalo
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 5:37 PM, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn
>>  wrote:
>> >
>> > Maybe I don't understand all..
>> > When activity launs, calls a sh with the commands that you need to make
>> > the
>> > binary. After, only calls the binary and start.
>> >
>> > Alan
>>
>> I was thinking about how we would package the binaries, given that the
>> .xo activity isn't supposed to install in /usr/local/bin and other
>> locations. If we bundle the RPM, the olpc user does not have rights to
>> install the binary.
>>
>> Sameer
>>
>> >
>> >> From: sve...@sfsu.edu
>> >> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:35:07 -0700
>> >> Subject: compiled to .XO
>> >> To: sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org; de...@lists.laptop.org
>> >
>> >>
>> >> We are looking at an app that goes through the classic "./configure,
>> >> make, make install" to compile from source. The compile process runs
>> >> ok (this is on a XO-1). We are also able to run the binary, but I am
>> >> unclear about how we would package this into a .xo activity. Any
>> >> pointers?
>> >>
>> >> cheers,
>> >> Sameer
>> >> ___
>> >> Devel mailing list
>> >> de...@lists.laptop.org
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>
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[Sugar-devel] getting books and media from the Internet Archive...

[Sameer Verma]

Some background here. http://olpcsf.org/node/61

fetch_IA_item script here: https://github.com/rajbot/fetch_ia_item

Try it out and see if it breaks. Then fix it or let the author
(rku...@archive.org) know :-)

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
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Re: [Sugar-devel] compiled to .XO

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 5:37 PM, Alan Jhonn Aguiar Schwyn
 wrote:
>
> Maybe I don't understand all..
> When activity launs, calls a sh with the commands that you need to make the
> binary. After, only calls the binary and start.
>
> Alan

I was thinking about how we would package the binaries, given that the
.xo activity isn't supposed to install in /usr/local/bin and other
locations. If we bundle the RPM, the olpc user does not have rights to
install the binary.

Sameer

>
>> From: sve...@sfsu.edu
>> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:35:07 -0700
>> Subject: compiled to .XO
>> To: sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org; de...@lists.laptop.org
>
>>
>> We are looking at an app that goes through the classic "./configure,
>> make, make install" to compile from source. The compile process runs
>> ok (this is on a XO-1). We are also able to run the binary, but I am
>> unclear about how we would package this into a .xo activity. Any
>> pointers?
>>
>> cheers,
>> Sameer
>> ___
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[Sugar-devel] compiled to .XO

[Sameer Verma]

We are looking at an app that goes through the classic "./configure,
make, make install" to compile from source. The compile process runs
ok (this is on a XO-1). We are also able to run the binary, but I am
unclear about how we would package this into a .xo activity. Any
pointers?

cheers,
Sameer
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[Sugar-devel] schools.sl.o broken?

[Sameer Verma]

Looks like http://schools.sugarlabs.org/ is broken...

Sameer
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[Sugar-devel] A virtual machine for Pathagar

[Sameer Verma]

A virtual machine with Pathagar Book Server preloaded and ready to
use. If you've wondered what this thing is like, try it out!

http://olpcsf.org/node/60

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
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Re: [Sugar-devel] GetBooks activity

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Chris Leonard  wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
>> Does GetBooks autodiscover a OPDS feed off the LAN or does it have to be
>> entered manually in the config?
>
> This has me thinking about the Pathagar book-server work you were
> doing.  How is that coming along?  Is it almost time for us to be
> hosting some L10n strings in Pootle?
>
> Regards,
>
> cjl
>
>

Interesting that you should ask. Hot of the press. http://olpcsf.org/node/60

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
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Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
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