[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] ASLO Suggestion

[Sean DALY]

Bert - many thanks, I understand much better now.

We're expecting a traffic peaks at the end of the month with our media
push, that's why this work on clarity/simplicity is important.

I'm afraid "Fructose" as a left-hand category on ASLO is obscure, it
really should be "base" or "core" or "base install", this last I like
best because it's very clear. Note: a search for "Fructose" in ASLO
returns no results!

I actually don't think it's that hard to set a list; it's really just
a Get Started list which covers online/offline, younger/older
Learners, and super-helpful to have even if off-ring (Terminal...).

I agree some deployments will want to zap some Activities, but as long
as it's clear that there's no technical barrier to doing so we're
fine.

The list of 13 Fructose Activities at
http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/
does not match the list of 11 Fructose Activities on ASLO
(http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/browse/type:1/cat:112?sort=name).
I imagine Image is off the bus (replaced by Image Viewer), but is the
omission of Write intentional? I couldn't find it on ASLO at all :-(

(N.B. Write is always the first Activity I choose to demonstrate
classroom collaboration; people understand collaboration instantly
when each of two machines can edit the same document live. My kids'
nanny who is in her early 60s and does not use computers understood
right away the usefulness of XOs in a classroom when she saw that, she
got all excited and started asking me questions!)

So I think the ASLO Fructose list, plus Write, can certainly be
qualified as 12 "base install" Activities:

Browse
Calculate
Chat
Etoys
ImageViewer
Jukebox
Log
Pippy
Read
Terminal
TurtleArt
Write

However I think it would be judicious to add Help to this list. Help
is very reassuring during discovery of the totally unfamiliar
interface. I'm aware there are issues right now building a new Help
from the FLOSS Manuals source, but I believe Help aids teachers and
parents significantly with the Sugar GUI learning curve.

Are there any other candidates today for the Fructose list we should
consider? Not to open a can of worms - adjusting the pantheon is much
less urgent than the discoverability/usability issues - but a review
before each SoaS version seems judicious to me, especially since a
choice needs to be made about which Activities are in the ring and
which are off. I would suggest:

Clock
Help
Maze
Memorize
Moon
Read ETexts
Speak
Tux Paint

I hesitated over:
* Record which kids adore, but which I understand is iffy due to wide
hardware variations, also teachers don't seem to like it much :-)
* the TamTams which would make the list longish... (though my
four-year-old figured out TamTam Mini in ten seconds the other day and
loved every second with it)
* GCompris Chess, since no 2-player yet.


Our introduction to Sugar has a page with an attractive smorgasbord of
Activities (http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=page&page=about_activities),
and a link to ASLO. We listed the Activities in teacher/parent
interest order: reassuring basics, net stuff,
games/language/multimedia, the TamTams, tech/system utilities. Image
Viewer and Jukebox are missing from this page, I propose to add them
and two others to the matrix so the complete Fructose set (minus
Image) is present. The Journal starts the list due to its special
status, but it really should be broken out as a "special" Activity
that is always there, saves everything automatically, allows resuming
of work, etc. ASLO should have a brief mention of the Journal in the
orientation intro I want to edit; telling inexperienced Sugar
admins/teachers/parents/Learners that it is always in Sugar and can't
be installed or uninstalled. This "super-Activity" distinction is
important because the Journal icon occupies the same spot under the
central XO avatar as the current Activity. Note that each icon links
to the OLPC page (the intro site was published on a tight deadline
just before the March 16th press release :-), I think we can update it
to link to the ASLO pages now.

Note: we have been doing some "star marketing" of Activities in our
PR: Write, InfoSlicer, Mindmap, Portfolio. We chose these to appeal to
teachers; they are differentiators. Some press articles have mentioned
the star Activities, recognizing that they are interesting and unique
to Sugar. Library for example is an Activity I'm not quite sure does
what, but its name and logo will be irresistible to parents and
teachers.

OLPC has their list (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All) and we
need to get that page to link to ASLO, the information there is uneven
(contains some stillborn/abandonware). Perhaps the easiest fix would
be to link from each Activity position on that page to that Activity's
ASLO page; people searching the Activity population would quickly
understand the different/parallel nature of the OLPC page and ASLO. As
far as I know, there aren't any issues with the very latest versions
running on XO-1s, would I be correct in assuming this? Or does OLPC
prefer to identify "known good" version, the ones updated through the
XO Control Panel?

Google search ranks highly this 6-month-old page:
http://www.spitting-image.com/OLPC/ , an indicator of the need for
ASLO's rating system.

By "Activity Pack" I mean a set of Activities.
* Activity Set: clear and concise, but dullish.
* Activity Pack: implies a "box" containing a bunch of chosen
Activities; my favorite, because it sounds like you're getting
something.
* Activity Group: will be confused with Learners.
* Activity Bundle: bundle clearly means something already, so that's
out. I'm afraid I don't know what a "content bundle" is.
* Activity Hive: fits with honey metaphor, but obscure.

Activity packs can have a very useful role in promoting Sugar, e.g.
"our updated Multimedia Pack is perfect for budding musicians and
artists" or "our Games Pack has been specially selected for 2 or more
player learning fun". As our Activity offer becomes richer, we
encourage potential installers to jump through the hoops of
downloading an ISO, installing VirtualBox or loading a USB stick,
learning the new interface, etc.

Echoing James' mail which started the thread, I agree Featured
Activities will ideally be:

* non- base install
* interesting
* different each month, encouraging return traffic

In short, the place to go for "extras" beyond what you start out with.

The "base install" grouping will be very useful to replace an
accidentally deleted Activity or offer further information about an
Activity with a learning curve (link to author's page etc).

A parent or teacher who successfully installs Sugar and then
successfully upgrades and adds to its Activities will fully understand
the key advantages of the platform's openness and extensibility.

Does this seem like a good path?

thanks

Sean



On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Bert Freudenberg<bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>
> On 11.06.2009, at 09:51, Sean DALY wrote:
>
>> ultimately, the question is: are there (or not) Activities common to
>> every, or nearly every instance of Sugar?
>>
>> Browse
>> Read
>> Write
>> etc.
>
>
> At least the Fructose activities should always be there:
>
> http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/
>
> - Bert -
>
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