[Sugar-news] Sugar Digest 2015-08-25

[Walter Bender]

==Sugar Digest==

1. Google Summer of Code 2015 is wrapping up. The students have been
writing their final blog reports, submitting last-minute patches, and
uploading their code to Google. I want to take this opportunity to
thank all of our students and their mentors for all their hard work
this summer. (Also, thanks once more to Google for supporting this
program.) Great strides along many fronts were made. Specifically,

* Michaël Ohayon worked on Web versions of some core activities for
the Sugarizer project: Calculate, Paint (with collaboration, Record,
and Memorize. He also submitted patches to Turtle Blocks to make it
compatible with Sugarizer. Michaël's blog [1] and git repo [2] are
worth visiting. (Mentor: Lionel Laske)

* Yash Khandelwal worked on Music Blocks AKA Mouse Music. This is a
powerful, playful model for music in a block language. Yash's blog [3]
and git repo [4] are also worth visiting. (Mentors: Devin Ulibarri and
Marnen Laibow-Koser)

* Ishan Sharma revisited the Turtle 3D concept, rewriting it in
Javascript. His results (blog [5], demo and git repo [6]) are robust,
scalable, and extensible. (Mentor: Walter)

* Amit Kumar Jha worked on extensions to Turtle programming this
summer. He added argument passing and return values to procedures,
passing arguments to and returning values from Turtle programs so that
Turtle Blocks can be used for in-line programming by all Javascript
activities, and he developed a unit=test framework for Turtle Blocks
JS that can be extended to all of our Javascript activities. See his
blog [7] and the master Turtle Blocks JS repo [8] for more details.
(Mentor: Walter)

* Richa Sehgal worked on a framework to support off-line Web
programming, an interactive Javascript shell. She's submitted patches
to the upstream Browse activity. Meanwhile, checkout her git
repository [9]. (Mentor: Tony Anderson)

* Vibhor Sehgal and Utkarsh Dhawan, although not officially GSoC
students, worked with Tony and Richa on a parallel project, Web
Confusion, a series of programming challenges in the spirit of Turtle
Confusion to encourage students. The code can be found at [10].
(Mentor: Tony Anderson)

* Abhinav Anurag made some progress on a Web collaboration framework
for our Javascript activities. See his blog [11] and code [12].
(Mentors: Martin Abente and Lionel Laske)

=== In the Community ===

2. We will be holding an election for the Sugar Labs oversight board
(SLOB) at the end of the calendar year. If you are interested (or know
someone who is interested) in running for a board seat (all seven
seats will be open), please see [13]. Also, whereas ballots are only
available to "members", please offically join Sugar Labs [14].

3. Mariah Noelle Villarreal has submitted a panel proposal, "Building
Free and Open Education Communities", to the South by Southwest
Conference (SXSW). The panelpicker voting period is now open until
September 4th. If you have time, please vote and share [15] with any
appropriate channels as well as a video that was created for the
proposal [16].

4. Sweet: Sugar contributors Mariah Noelle Villarreal and Ruben
Rodriguez got married this summer!!!

5. There were three RED (Revista de Educación a Distancia [17])
submissions from Sugar community members:
* Going from Bits to Atoms: Programming in Turtle Blocks JS and
Personal Fabrication in Youth Maker Projects, Josh Burker
* Visualizing Learning in Open-Ended Problem Solving in the Arts,
Walter Bender and Claudia Urrea
* Sensores Tortuga 2.0: Cómo el hardware y software abiertos pueden
empoderar a las comunidades de aprendizaje (Turtle Sensors 2.0: How
open hardware and software empower learning communities) by Guzmán
Trinidad, Andrés Aguirre, Alan Aguiar, Tony Forster, Walter Bender,
Facundo Benavides, and Federico Andrade

6. The Sugar/OLPC program in Caacupe is expanding!!!

=== Tech Talk ===

7. Peter Robinson announce quite some time ago that the Sugar on a
Stick 21 Beta [18] is now out as part of Fedora 21 Beta (Details at
[19]), but I think I neglected to ever pass on the information to the
Sugar community.

8. Also worth mentioning again: Ruben Rodriguez released Trisquel 7.0
released. TOAST (Trisquel with Sugar) is an official edition [20].

=== Sugar Labs ===

9. Please visit our planet at [21].

----

[1] http://sugarizingparis2015.blogspot.fr/
[2] https://github.com/mikklfr
[3] https://sugarizingmusic.wordpress.com/
[4] https://github.com/ishan28mkip/turtle3D
[5] https://turtle3d.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/final-update/
[6] http://ishan28mkip.github.io/turtle3D/
[7] http://sugarlabs-artista.blogspot.in/
[8] http://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs/
[9] https://github.com/richaseh
[10] https://github.com/sehgalvibhor/WebConfusion
[11] https://summerofcode2015.wordpress.com/
[12] https://github.com/abhinavanurag18/turtleblocksjs
[13] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/2014-2015-candidates
[14] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Members#Applying_for_membership
[15] http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/48985
[16] https://youtu.be/jh_3taqRPEc
[17] http://www.um.es/ead/red/46
[18] https://fedoraproject.org/get-spin-prerelease
[19] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/announce/2014-November/003238.html
[20] http://trisquel.info/en/download
[21] http://planet.sugarlabs.org


-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org