[IAEP] [Marketing] [Sugar-devel] ASLO Suggestion

[Walter Bender]

Maybe "Getting Started" might be a better name?

Just to complicate things, Nubae and I were discussing collaboration
on IRC. It is another theme people may be interested in searching.
Activities that a whole class can share, e.g., Browse, and activities
that are designed as "duets".

-walter

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org