[IAEP] team updates

[Aleksey Lim]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2011 at 07:58:29PM +0000, Aleksey Lim wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> In fact, the original request cannot be considered as a fully valid in
> case of Platform Team. The http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Platform_Team
> page exists but Platform Team is in initiation stage and wasn't somehow
> announced or requested to be a Sugar Labs Team. In any case, it is the
> right moment to do that.
> 
> The purpose to create this team might be found of its mssion page
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Platform_Team/Mission, i.e.:
> 
>     The general goal is to support Sugar doers in their regular
>     behaviors within the Sugar ecosystem by providing a seamless
>     environment by which to follow a common strategy. In other words,
>     it is exactly about having a platform that supports Sugar doers.
> 
>     There are key differences with the existing teams:
> 
>     * Compared to the [[Activity Team]], the Platform Team does not care
>       about developing any particular activities, but rather provides
>       a useful software infrastructure to help people in the activity
>       development process.
>     * Compared with the [[Development Team]], the Platform Team does not
>       care about developing the Sugar learning environment (Sucrose), but
>       rather provides a useful software architecture to help as many people
>       as possible to take part in the Sucrose development process.
>     * Compared with the [[Infrastructure Team]], the Platform Team does
>       develop some of the services that the [[Infrastructure Team]] administers.
> 
>     In particular, the Platform Team will
> 
>     * Support ''doing'' behaviors by providing useful
>       [[Platform_Team/Sweets|distribution method]]s and various Sugar Doers' Kits
>       (that really sounds better than the traditional SDK transcription,
>       Software Developers Kit).
>     * Connect doers and other learners (users) by developing services
>       for a seamless infrastructure for sharing software, e.g.,
>       [[Activity Library]].
>     * Extend the previous two goals to non-Sugar environments, not to ''sugarize''
>       them all, but rather to merge and promote Sugar software with and within
>       the common [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software Free Software]
>       and education ecosystems.
> 
> As you can see there is a clear difference in goals with existed teams
> (mostly with development related ones). In my mind, such team needed to be
> created right after Sugar Labs initiation because it is critically
> important (for Sugar Labs mission, how I understand it) to provide
> reliable doing platform for heterogeneous ecosystem that Sugar is, i.e.,
> it might be not such in case of particular XO based deployment, but on
> Sugar Labs level it is such.
> 
> For example, being an Activity Library administrator (and a technical maintainer
> for now), I can say that any not pure Python activity is less (if activity
> developers take care about providing all possible variants of their activity,
> but it is very exhausting and unreliable way in GNU/Linux world) or more
> (if activity developers just place the variant of activity that was
> built in their environment, i.e., in most cases it won't work in
> different cases). And that is the exact task for Platform Team that will
> do a work that will be used by activity developers.

An update for goals.

== Shot-term goals ==

* Activity Library related tasks:
** polish the [[Activity_Library/Editors/Policy|Policy]],
** start discussion on MLs,
** land it.

== Medium-term goals ==

* Work with [[Infrastructure Team]] on the Central Login system to make
  it possible to be logged in only once while browsing Sugar Labs
  resources.
* Develop an infrastructure to share logs on activity fails.
* Develop an infrastructure to share anonymous usage statistics on
  Sugar Labs level, i.e., not only for particular deployment.
* See around for ways how Sugar objects (Journal objects, .xol, etc)
  might be shared.

> The requested roadmap for Platform Team is
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Platform_Team/Roadmap
> but it lacks of answers for:
> 
> > What does the team see as its constraints from being more successful
> > in its Mission? What are you doing to try to resolve the constraint?
> > What can Sugar Labs 'central' or the community do to help?
> 
> since Platform Team is in initiation team and the only issue is the lack
> of contributors interested in taking part in Platform Team projects.

An update for constraints.

The most [not-only-technical] critical constraint related to
the Activity Library is a lack of editors and the fact that all active
editors are techinical people. In other words, it relates to the 3rd point
from "What can Sugar Labs 'central' or the community do to help?"
Marketing Team Report, i.e., it would be useful to have common strategy,
created in cooperation with Education Team, that covers such important
resources like Activity Library. And, eventually having educators as
Activity Library editors.

-- 
Aleksey