[IAEP] Identifying, engaging, and empowering

[David Farning]

The mission of Sugar Labs® is to produce, distribute, and support the
use of the Sugar learning platform; it is a support base and gathering
place for the community of educators and developers to create, extend,
and teach with the Sugar learning platform.

Every day or so, I try to take a look at the Sugar Labs mission to
help me keep my focus.  There are millions things that I want to do,
both personally and for Sugar Labs.  But, I only have so much time
(and money) I can afford to spend in a given day.  Thus, I must limit
myself.  Sugar Labs faces these same sort of decisions.  Sugar Labs is
composed of participates who have both personal and Sugar related
things they want to do.

Sometimes, when I chose _not_ to do something, it is because it is
wrong. "Don't chop down your neighbour's tree."  But, in the majority
of cases I usually _don't_ find myself choosing _not_ to do something.
 Instead, thing don't get done because other activities more closely
with my goals, available resources, and energy.  This process seems to
hold true for most people... and for projects such as Sugar Labs.

I have been extremely impressed and inspired by many of the post on
the recent SoaS as a project Thread at
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007842.html .

1. There are some widely differing viewpoints... but that happens
whenever smart people engage in discussion.
2. There are frustrations about things not getting done... but there
is a constant theme that personal work causes results.
3. There is extensive use of the word 'we'... as in by working
together 'we' can solve the problem.
4. There is a reoccurring theme of "I don't care what you do, just
stay out of my way so I can get back to work."

The take away that I got was the strong need, and desire, to Identify,
Engage, and Empower _doers_.  This aligns nicely with the idea behind
projects.

Sugar Labs is, by definition, the upstream of the rest of the Sugar
ecosystem. As the upstream, there is, and will continue to be, a
strong cultural emphasis on upstream activities.

Sugar Labs is, by design, a participatory organization.  As a
participatory organization, there is, and will continue to be, a
strong cultural emphasis on working together as a community rather
then splitting the world up as producers and consumers.

As we think about projects, let's think about how they can identify,
engage, and empower _doers_

david