[IAEP] Vision and Mission

[David Farning]

Over the last couple of weeks, we have had some passionate discussions
about growing Sugar Labs.

Most fascinating to me, from a community point of view, was the fact
that these discussions emerged as a result of the success of the Sugar
on a Stick release.  The SoaS release was a great example of multiple
teams synchronizing their efforts to create and implement a great
release.  Passions erupted about how to make future releases even
better:)

Then, or their own accord, the discussion ended and everyone went back
to work on their own part of the project.

This leads me to believe that:
1.  We have a strong action focused community.
2.  Our processes are 'good enough' that most people feel their
efforts are having a positive impact on the project.
3.  The discussions were about how to improve processes, planning, and
communicating rather than 'throw out' what we have a start from
scratch.

With that in mind, I would like to revisit the importance of uniting
around a common vision and mission.

david

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Mission and vision statements define an organization. The vision
inspires. The mission focuses.

Sugar Lab's vision represent what the world will look like... when we succeed.

The vision statement is a dream of what is possible, what can change,
what can improve.

At it's core a vision statement expresses a need around which people
everywhere can unite.

:Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every
child with equal opportunity for a quality education. At Sugar Labs,
we envision children everywhere using the Sugar learning platform,
increasing the likelihood that they will use computation as a
critical-thinking tool in the context of open-ended exploration and
guided discovery. Sugar will transform the attitude of the next
generation about school and learning, giving them skills and
confidence to meet the challenging problems they will facing as
adults.

Sugar Lab's mission represent what Sugar Lab's does.

The mission statement is what we must invent, implement, distribute,
and support to make our vision a reality.

At it's core a mission statement is ''a'' solution to the need
expressed in the vision.

: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.

Over the next few weeks, we will look at how we can organize ourselves
and set our prioritizes to make our vision a reality:)  As we do this
please consider:

People support organizations because they meet needs, ''not'' because
they have needs (or can define needs).

* How does Sugar Labs meet those needs?
* How does your team meet those needs?
* How do your contributions meet those needs?
* How do we insure that people's investments in Sugar Labs have
significant impact?

Please join the discussion over the next few weeks about how we can
coordinate our efforts and resources to make our shared vision a
reality.

-- 
David Farning
Sugar Labs
www.sugarlabs.org