[IAEP] Sugar Labs Business Model.

[David Farning]

I have been watching the videos(1) for this years Linux Collaboration
Summit.  There are several good discussions on how to build a successful
business model around Linux and the open source model in general.

Of particular interest is the  'State of Linux Mobile Panel'.  In each
case the organizations participating in the panel are trying to develop
a mobile platform that sits on a standard Linux stack.  For the most
part, the organizations are made of groups of hardware, software, and
carriers, who work together to build common platforms on which they can
differentiate by hardware or application features.

Sugar Labs is in a very similar position.  There are several hardware
manufactures that are making education appropriate devices.  This allow
OLPC to spit the cost of developing sugar across several hardware
vendors.

Additionally, kids are big business.  I went to a Montessori picnic on
last Friday.  My nephew gradated form preschool.  Most of the parents
expressed interest in investing a few hundred dollars to purchase a
computer that had good educational activities.  The main complaints of
this group of parents was that the current selection of computer base
educational products spent as much time on creating brand loyalty as
education and the were oftern just rote memorization tools.

It seems that ISVs working in the educational field would be interested
in collaborating with Sugar Labs to build a platform on which to run
their educational applications.

Anyway, take a look at the panels and speeches. 

1 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/events/video/gallery

Dfarning