[IAEP] Fwd: Sugar Ambassadors

[David Farning]

On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> I appreciate the Fedora Ambassadors concept as I understand it but I
> am not sure it's the best approach for Sugar Labs... it seems to me
> more oriented towards contributor recruitment... the fedora press page
> for example invites journalists to "get involved", which is on-topic
> for contributor recruitment but is misses by a mile the fact that
> journalists, analysts and bloggers cannot get involved in *anything*
> they cover due to conflict of interest; the best one should hope for
> is a fair shake.

Fedora ambassadors focus on contributor recruitment because that is
Fedora's primary goal.  A community of strong contributors working
towards a shared mission, "make fedora awesome" is their goal.

> Events such as FOSDEM, FOSS VT, LinuxTag, FOSS ED, NECC DC are an
> amazingly efficient way to change influential minds, but they are
> expensive to go to and difficult to attend when there are so few of
> us. We seem to have an Events Calendar
> (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Events#Sugar_Labs_Events),
> but I'm not sure it's in use... it would be the logical departure
> point for in-person recruitment efforts.

Yep, not enough people to properly tend the calendar much less attend
the events.

> Now, I certainly agree that contributor recruitment is key for us and
> I think every team could use more hands, but I would venture that we
> need to choose another priority: getting feedback from schools where
> we are and getting into schools where we aren't. In particular, we
> need teacher-contributors to bridge the wide gap between our
> development efforts and classrooms with Learners.
>
> I have been monitoring the varied OLPC project field studies for some
> time and I am struck by a nearly universal aspect: the study authors
> don't invest the time necessary to learn how to use Sugar and so miss
> its benefits (most studies don't even cite "Sugar"). Time after time
> we hear about kids at school chatting on their mesh network, taking
> and swapping photos, writing together... and the difficulties of
> teachers to cover learning subjects. The evidence seems to indicate
> that teachers are slower at learning than grownups (there's truth in
> that; my 4-year old son completed 8 mazes in a row yesterday with no
> assistance, more than I ever have), but I would suggest there is
> another factor: there is no defined "teacher computer" in the OLPC
> architecture aside from an XO. I don't mean an XS school server as I
> understand it, but a bigger screen/keyboard machine running Sugar on
> the teacher's desk. With increased authority status, an "admin" for
> Learners? It's open to debate given Sugar's theoretical underpinnings,
> but my personal feeling is that providing teachers with tools (say,
> deactivating video filming in the class when work needs to get done,
> reactivating after) will have a positive impact on teacher buy-in and
> recommendations.
>
> This by the way is right in line with the nascent Education Team
> (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Education_Team)... its mission is to
> reach out to teachers and to assist those doing so; I say our best
> ambassadors will be on that team... ideally, technically adept
> teachers talking to other teachers... because the Sugar-GNU/Linux
> stack, not being preinstalled, does require some technical
> hurdle-jumping. SoaS is designed to reduce these technical barriers
> and will succeed its ambitious goals as its relatedsupport materials
> become available, but non-XO preinstalled Sugar is not on the horizon
> yet and until then, teachers need helpers.
>
> So... although marketing does cover all aspects of communication (from
> booth swag, to sales points flyers, from publicist work with
> journalists to the Learner-GUI interaction experience), and as
> marketers we will always be thinking of branding and strategy, I think
> the way forward is to build on the Education team... start by
> recruiting a teacher to coordinate it... and take it from there. I'd
> be interested in participating in those meetings, but I feel a teacher
> will have far more credibility explaining Sugar to other teachers than
> marketers (or developers or... :-) will.

And how do we recruit that teacher?  It looks like we have come full
circle to 'contributor who contributes by identifying and engaging
other smart and passionate contributors.'

I guess we could put ambassadors inside the human resources team:)

david

> By the way this could be a handle to contact K-8 bloggers... tell them
> that Sugar Labs seeks a teacher coordinator and ask them the best way
> to go about finding one?
>
> Finally, I want to mention the snowball effect... it will become far
> easier to recruit contributors as Sugar becomes more widespread. We
> are on track to do that, with great code and a coherent marketing
> message.
>
> Sean.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 10:58 PM, David Farning<dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> Hey all,
>>
>> Below is a thread on Sugar ambassadors from last week.  I meant to
>> send it to iaep with a few follow on cc's.  Looks like I left off
>> iaep.
>>
>> david
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
>> Date: Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 7:59 PM
>> Subject: Sugar Ambassadors
>> To: Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com>, Caroline Meeks
>> <caroline at solutiongrove.com>, Walter Bender <walter at sugarlabs.org>
>>
>>
>> We have hinted around the edges several times about the importance of
>> an ambassadors program for Sugar Labs.
>>
>> The basic idea behind the ambassadors programs is to help people such
>> as Caryl feel like they have what they need to effectively communicate
>> to various groups about Sugar and Sugar Labs.
>>
>> At some levels this is a marketing issue but at other levels, this is
>> a community building issue.
>>
>> I am willing to get the program started.  I would like to hand it off
>> to someone with actual social skills as soon as possible.  At the
>> OLPCFrance day of SugarCamp, I was much more comfortable sitting
>> upstairs with Scott Meeks and Gary Martin than talking and mingling.
>>
>> We can start by collecting a list of interesting events and a set of
>> inspiring resources.
>>
>> From there we can organically let the natural 'ambassadors' learn what
>> works for their local events and share those best practices with each
>> other.
>>
>> Should we roll this into the marketing team for now and split off when
>> we get to big for the marketers to handle us?  Yep, that is a
>> challenge:)
>>
>> david
>> _______________________________________________
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>