[IAEP] Teacher in Uruguay enchanted to see his ideas integrated, into global Sugar update

[Greg Smith]

Hi Eben,

There's already a lot of feedback. Start sifting :-) Please post
anything you aggregate and think we should work on to the 9.1 page:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0

In addition, a feedback activity seems like an easy short term win.
Could be posted and shared quickly and easily. If it gets traction it
would help motivate a solution built in the core OS/UI.

Thanks,

Greg S

Eben Eliason wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 12:53 PM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> On this:
>>  > Perhaps you would be interested in http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6950.  I
>>  > > think all these things would go together nicely.
>>
>> "Changed 2 months ago by gregorio
>> milestone deleted Milestone Never Assigned deleted "
>>
>> When I started at OLPC one of the first things I did was clean up the
>> roadmap in Trac. There were a handful of vague "may want to do it in the
>> future" milestones. I deleted a few of those before I realized that it
>> would also remove them from the bug IDs. That's why you see these messages.
>>
>> We do need to figure out where to put it on the roadmap and I'm not
>> opposed to this idea.
>>
>> On the subject of gathering input from users its been a recurring theme
>> of the lists and I have commented on it several times. Its an important
>> problem which we must grapple with. Initially I thought "we need more
>> input and information". Then in December I started to realize how much
>> input is already available. I collected some of them on my talk page at:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User_talk:Gregorio
>>
>> There are wikis, forums, moodles and other sites already full of
>> suggestions and comments about the product. Aside from the ones on my
>> talk page I can mention
>> - Moodle out of Peru: http://www.innovavirtual.org/moodleperu/
>> - Forum in Uruguay http://www.mediagala.com/rap/foro/
>> - Our OLPC forum http://en.forum.laptop.org/
>> and of course the olpc-sur list.
> 
> This is fantastic; was I among few who didn't know of their existence?
>  I might be, but we could probably do a better job exposing this kind
> of information.
> 
>> Also I understand that kids in Uruguay and elsewhere have been
>> downloading this activity: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XoIRC and it has a
>> default channel which has been very active. There is also a spanish IRC
>> channel which has seen a lot of use.
>>
>> Even the question of which is the right tool to gather more suggestions
>> is something we should ask people to suggest! If you want people to give
>> input, its better to ask them what works best for them than to decide
>> that yourself. I have been mulling over the best communication channels
>> with Pablo out of Uruguay for 9 moths and we still don't have a
>> definitive answer.
>>
>> For me, the question is not so much how do we gather more input as how
>> do we respond to the input already expressed.
> 
> I think this misses a very crucial element, which is
> locating/aggregating the data.  If there's no channel through which
> the data can be collected, searched, or organized, we have little hope
> of responding to it.  The main reason I think that something in the
> realm of a "Suggestion Box" activity is needed is not *only* so that
> kids and teachers have a place to express their thoughts, but just as
> much so that their efforts can be collected and reviewed by all who
> are interested, in a common place. (Which, in turn, should ensure that
> their thoughts are more likely to effect change.)
> 
>> The requests do not generally come in like: I want a button on the
>> right. The people using the XO are teaching or learning so the request
>> is usually more like: its too slow make it faster or I need better tools
>> to teach geometry. See the Sur list for some comments like  that.
> 
> This is true, of course.  It could lead to a lot of feedback, much of
> it not succinct or strictly targeted, but at least we'd have it in a
> place where all can find it.  If our biggest problem is sifting
> through *too much* feedback, then we're in good shape.  Let's find a
> way to put it all to good use!
> 
> - Eben
> 
>> After an intial suggestions, you need a further discussion befoe it gets
>> to exactly what code needs to be written. In terms of how we engage that
>> dialog, I wrote a brief explanation of how I think it should work at:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Gregorio
>>
>> We're now engaged in the practice of it and we need that piece along
>> with the theory to get it right.
>>
>> In terms of building in a "please fix it" button, I'm in favor of that.
>> I think it should be an activity not a piece of the OS until we can
>> prove the concept and show that we can collect good feedback, generate a
>> meanigful dialog and most importantly respond in a constructive way to
>> the requests.
>>
>> Lastly, if a user has asked for something which is documented and well
>> defined and we think it should be built then go ahead and put it on the
>> 9.1 page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0 I just ask that you sign it or
>> put it on the talk page.
>>
>> To Christoph's original point. They already asked, now we need to
>> deliver on that. How about starting with this one:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0#Touchpad
>> or this one:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0#Longer_Battery_Life
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> I hope that's constructive. I want to see more feedback and more
>> responsiveness to requests. My main point is that the ball is in our
>> court. Once we find people to engage with the only way to get there is
>> with a rich dialog where we learn about the users and they learn about
>> building software.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Greg S
>>
>>
>>
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>