[Marketing] organizing an event

[Sean DALY]

I'm afraid I don't agree that we should copy/paste the Fedora program
name & goals.

I'm very interested in working with Fedora marketing (Mel was kind
enough to put me in touch with Jack Aboutboul - thanks Mel), but their
positioning, goals and situation are quite different from ours.

"Facilitators" has lots of syllables so I'm not sure I like it (yet),
but I like it much more than Ambassadors which inspires me to wear a
cummerbund rather than roll up my sleeves :D

Here are the Fedora Ambassadors goals:

    *  Represent Fedora Project to the wider public
    * Help spread the word about Fedora, Linux, and Open Source
    * Be a point of contact for local community members and channel
the feedback to Fedora Project
    * Help recruit project contributors
    * Think of creative ways for promoting Fedora in your region


Here's my vision for what the Sugar Facilitators goals should be,
inspired by the above:

    * Represent Sugar Labs as the best K-6 learning platform available
to teachers, parents, and funders
    * Spread the word about computer-assisted learning and ebooks;
share information about computer-assisted learning and ebooks, what
educators are doing, what works and what doesn't
    * Visit schools and demonstrate Sugar to Learners and teachers,
channelling feedback to Sugar Labs
    * Found Sugar Local Labs in their communities
    * Assist with documentation and translations
    * Help recruit Sugar Labs contributors and Local Labs participants
    * Liaise with OLPC grassroots associations

comments:
* "the wider public" is too wide a target.
* Education is, to me, a higher priority goal than evangelizing FOSS.
Of course, I talk about FOSS when discussing Sugar; openness is a key
to Sugar's success and it is a crucial differentiator from proprietary
offerings. But I feel the context is more books versus laptops than
proprietary systems versus FOSS.
* Again, I really think we need to be in schools talking to teachers
and letting kids touch Sugar and tell us what they like/don't like.
* We need Local Labs to scale.
* I have a mantra: Sugar's success is good for OLPC, OLPC's success is
good for Sugar. Our credibility is derived from our enormous OLPC
installed base, a position confirmed with the XO-1.5 refresh. Our
challenge is to extend Sugar beyond OLPC, but it serves everyone if we
work together including locally.

thanks

Sean


2009/6/22 John Tierney <jtis4stx at hotmail.com>:
>
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:12:56 -0400
> From: caroline at solutiongrove.com
> To: dfarning at sugarlabs.org
> CC: Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Subject: Re: [Marketing] organizing an event
>
> Goals look good:
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors#Fedora_Ambassadors_Goals
>
> Can we call it Sugar Facilitators?
> +1
>
> Re: [Marketing] Being An Ambassador‏
> From: John Tierney (jtis4stx at hotmail.com)
> Sent: Mon 6/08/09 10:58 PM
> To: Mel Chua (mel at melchua.com)
> Cc: marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
> "Sugar Facilitators" Program-Creating the Path to
> Learning has never been so Sweet!
>
> "Sugar Facilitation Station"-One stop shop for Sugar Branding
> templates-Business
> cards, stickers, balloons, banners, etc. with hook into cafepress and/or
> other t-shirt/
> printable Sugar swag.
>
>  JT
>> Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 18:38:48 -040
>> From: mel at melchua.com
>> To: caroline at solutiongrove.com
>> CC: marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> Subject: Re: [Marketing] Being An Ambassador
>>
>> > Can anyone think of something we can call Sugar "Ambassadors" that is
>> > friendly, youthful and egalitarian and will put teachers into a mindset
>> > where they believe that by trying, experimenting and especially playing,
>> > they can learn to use Sugar and use it to help their kids learn.
>
> On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 4:21 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 5:46 PM, Sean DALY<sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm confused, is the idea that "Ambassadors" try to recruit
>> developers, and Sugar Labs contributors who talk to teachers be called
>> something else?
>>
>> I vastly prefer "Facilitators", but that's because I don't share the
>> view that it's a higher priority for us to reach out to FOSS
>> developers than to reach out to teachers, and I daresay teachers need
>> much more explaining of what Sugar is designed to do than developers
>> will.
>>
>> I think we agree that Sugar needs teacher buy-in for its success. We
>> need teachers challenging our concepts, offering their experience and
>> intuition, and identifying barriers (technical and otherwise) to Sugar
>> adoption.
>>
>> Of course we should be present at FOSS conventions. Of course we
>> should communicate to developers our passion and ideals about
>> bettering educational opportunity for millions of children.
>>
>> But, we're already good at that. What we're not good at yet is
>> confronting our ideas with classroom realities. There is a vast amount
>> of teacher savoir-faire out in the world about making learning happen
>> with Sugar, but we can't access any of it since there is no feedback
>> loop. I believe we should be better empowering teachers within Sugar
>> itself, but I have no data yet to support that position without
>> feedback.
>>
>> Actually, what I'd like is for Sugar Facilitators not just to go to
>> conventions (although we certainly should). What I'd like is to start
>> a tradition of visiting schools. You know, like the sales forces of
>> publishers, service providers, systems integrators, computer
>> manufacturers, and proprietary software firms do. We have an
>> unbeatable sales pitch compared to the others: we have nothing to sell
>> except ideas; we do this to improve education; we are looking for
>> information, and here is Sugar on a Stick for you to try out.
>>
>> In my view, fact-finding trips to schools could just be the best way
>> to quickly find technically adept teachers willing to share with us.
>> And, if we are organized about our visit reporting, we could become
>> much better at seeing what is going on in schools in a consolidated
>> way; shifts from computer labs to 1:1 computing for example, or
>> attitudes about the Internet, or things that work really well or not
>> at all.
>
> Please take a step back and look at the _goals_ of the Fedora
> Ambassadors program as it applies to the overall goals of the Fedora
> project.  Then think of how a similar project might be adapted to to
> the overall goals of Sugar Labs.
>
> david
>
>> thanks
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 10:29 PM, Caroline
>> Meeks<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>> hmm, how about a link to the facilitation wiki that Gunner showed us.:
>>> http://facilitation.aspirationtech.org/index.php/Agenda:Index
>>>
>>> Also, is it to late to not use the word Ambassadors. Its a power, fear
>>> and
>>> hierarchical filled metaphor that I think will feed into teachers
>>> existing
>>> feelings of alienation in regards to technology.
>>>
>>> I know we didn't come up with anything better.
>>>
>>> So my suggestion is "Sugar Facilitators"  teachers and schools use the
>>> word
>>> facilitation frequently, I think it will be more comfortable for them..
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:03 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We now have a draft wiki page on how to organize an event at
>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team/Organizing_an_Event .
>>>>
>>>> I'll try to gather up the materials we have used in previous events so
>>>> we can find them again next time.  Please fell free to add and correct
>>>> as necessary.
>>>>
>>>> david
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Marketing mailing list
>>>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Caroline Meeks
>>> Solution Grove
>>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>>
>>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Marketing mailing list
>>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
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>
>