[IAEP] May MiniCamp

[David Farning]

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 10:46 AM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> I would like to recommend the we plan on holding the May MiniCamp in
> Paris around the weekend of May 16.
>
> The primary benefit of Paris is co-locating with a scheduled OLPC
> France event being held that weekend.  The opportunity to meet with
> OLPC France presents some great opportunities to work together; Going
> to meet the community in their homes,  identifying lead users,
> receiving vital feedback.
>
> By going to work with OLPC France, we can communicate that while Sugar
> Labs is an upstream part, it is not the central part of the 'iaep'
> project.  The most important part is where the student and teacher
> come together to learn.  Sugar Labs is focused on creating a great
> learning platform to benefit the entire ecosystem.  In this role,
> Sugar Labs serves as a hub for communication and collaboration.
>
> Secondly, Sugar Labs needs to identify and engage _lead_users_.  Sugar
> in not yet ready to be sold in retail stores nor is it ready for
> _easy_ deployment around the world.  There is still a lot of work in
> making sure the software works on your hardware, setting up a
> collaboration server, and creating the learning content to match daily
> lesson plans.  Lead users are people with passion or a particular
> expertise who have the motivation and ability to help improve the
> Sugar experience... for everyone.
>
> Finally,  working for the weekend with OLPC France allow us both to
> observe and receive feedback.  Sugar Labs can learn more about what
> OLPC France is doing and what their needs are.  OLPC France can learn
> that Sugar Labs is _just_ a group of volunteers with a working
> knowledge of computer science, education theory, and a bit of
> economics trying to help kids learn more effectively.  Sugar Labs
> success is based on the premise of creating and fostering a ecosystem
> to build on top of the learning platform.
>
> There may be limited travel stipends available to people willing to
> hold workshops.
>
> david

It looks like we are on for Paris weekend of May 16!  Thanks for
coming to a consensus so quickly.  It is far from prefect for
everyone.  But, over all, it should be a very valuable opportunity for
the project. (On a totally selfish note, I was really looking forward
to seeing Prague.)

It looks like OLPC France is having their big day on Saturday.  So
let's learn about what they are working on by taking part in those
events.  Then Let's plan the Sugar Labs developers events on the days
surrounding Saturday.

Sean is your apartment open for extended stays?  I can arrive early
and leave late to insure things get set up and cleaned up.

There is now a wiki page for arranging the event itself at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team/Events/MiniCamp_Paris_2009 .

Enjoy and see you soon.
david