[IAEP] Back on Task... The 2017 Sugar Labs Mission Statement

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi Tony,


A mission statement needs to be very short and succinct. It should be short enough for you to write it on the back of a business card. The average "Joe" (or Mary, for that matter) doesn't have a clue (or care) who Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, Cynthia Solomon, or Alan Kay are. It isn't the job of the mission statement to tell them. That is your job, should you decide it is needed.


As for listing all the iterations and forms of Sugar and the tools that support it, simply talking about a "collection of tools" does the job very nicely. If folks want to know more they can ask or look it up or you can tell them. But the mission statement doesn't have to list every flower in our beautiful garden!


Caryl[😊]

________________________________
From: Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 6:31:24 PM
To: Caryl Bigenho; iaep; walter.bender at gmail.com; Samson Goddy; Lionel Laske; Adam Holt; ignacio at sugarlabs.org; Laura Vargas; sameer verma
Subject: Re: Back on Task... The 2017 Sugar Labs Mission Statement

Compare:

"Sugar Labs is a volunteer-run project whose mission is to reach global learners and educators with a collection of tools that enable them to explore, discover, create, and reflect in their local language. Sugar Labs distributes these tools freely and encourages its users to appropriate them, taking ownership and responsibility for their learning." (proposed motion)


"Sugar is a learning platform based on the constructionist educational principles of Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, Cynthia Solomon, and Alan Kay. Sugar Labs is responsible to develop, distribute, and support Sugar with the help of a global volunteer community of contributors. Sugar Labs provides Sugar in two forms: Sugar for personal computers and XOs and Sugarizer (Sugar Mobile) for mobile devices and the Web." Motion approved January 2017.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Sugar Labs is not comfortable with its 'learning platform' but prefers to offer a set of tools from which our users can pick and choose.

Sugar as a learning platform supports collaboration, provides a Journal, uses icons to minimize dependence on language skills  and provides a common human interface to make easier discovery of new capabilities.

XSCE has been working with Kids on Computers. KOC did not even consider Sugar but chose UberMix. If you don't need a platform but are happy with a collection of tools, UberMix meets the need. (http://www.ubermix.org/about.html and https://opensource.com/life/13/2/kramden-institute-ubermix-digital-divide).

Tony


On 04/29/2017 12:52 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote:

Hi...


A few things...


First... Walter made this motion and it was seconded by several board members. Therefore it should be voted on, up or down, before considering Laura's substitute motion. I see nothing wrong with this mission statement. It is clear and concise and describes exactly what Sugar Labs is all about.


Walter's motion:


Revise the Sugar Labs mission statement to "Sugar Labs is a volunteer-run project whose mission is to reach global learners and educators with a collection of tools that enable them to explore, discover, create, and reflect in their local language. Sugar Labs distributes these tools freely and encourages its users to appropriate them, taking ownership and responsibility for their learning."


Second... when you reply to an email, unless it is private SLOB business, please be sure you have included iaep in the addresses. Otherwise your messages look blank to everyone who isn't a SLOB member. It is called "sunshine."


Third... After the mission statement  is approved, or a substitute (but I hope it is this one), it will be time to consider long term goals for Sugar Labs. There should be only 4 or 5 at most. I have copies of 4 of the 5 that were proposed earlier. Walter may still have a copy of the 5th one. After the mission statement issue is settled, I'll send what I have out so you can all work on getting them just the way they should be.


Please understand, goals are NOT the same as objectives. They are much more general. Objectives are designed to help achieve the goals and have a definite form... who will do what by when, how will it be done and how will success be measured. Goals do NOT have these elements!


Proposals for future use of Sugar Labs funds should be directed to meet specific objectives and thus our goals and our mission. They are all interconnected.


Caryl


P.S. Shouldn't there be a SLOB meeting today? I didn't see a notice on the iaep list.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20170429/616d4612/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OutlookEmoji-😊.png
Type: image/png
Size: 488 bytes
Desc: OutlookEmoji-😊.png
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20170429/616d4612/attachment.png>