Static site feedback: About page copy rewrite draft

[Sean DALY]

briefly:

* 750,000 <> one-million (homepage number) so I fudged by stating a
projection. But this inconsistency needs to be squared away.

* added an age range... ballpark?

* harped on Activities

* boosted collaborative aspect

* mentioned compatibility with old/slow PCs... the bane of every teacher


thanks
Sean

****************** about ******************

What is Sugar?

The Sugar Learning Platform is a computer environment composed of
Activities designed to help children from 6 to 12 years of age learn
together through rich-media expression. Sugar is the core component of
a worldwide effort to provide every child with the opportunity for a
quality education—it is currently used by more than 750,000 children
worldwide in over 40 countries, with 900,000 projected by the end of
2009. Sugar provides the means to help people lead fulfilling lives
through access to a quality education that is currently missed by so
many. Originally developed for the revolutionary One Laptop per Child
XO-1 netbook, Sugar can run on small and slow PCs—often the case in
the classroom. Sugar is now packaged as part of most major GNU/Linux
distributions and is compatible with Intel Macs using virtualization.
A liveCD which does not touch the existing hard disk installation is
available; a liveUSB stick which can run on most PCs  is under active
development.

Why Sugar?
Sugar sets aside the traditional "office-desktop" metaphor and,
through its Activities, engages even the youngest learners in the use
of computation as a powerful “thing to think with.” They quickly
become proficient in using the computer as a tool to engage in
authentic problem-solving. Moreover, most Sugar Activities can be
shared by learners between machines—children learn as a group, not as
a collection of individual users. Sugar users develop skills that help
them in all aspects of life.

What is Sugar Labs?
Sugar Labs is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to support the
Sugar community of users and developers and establish regional,
autonomous “Sugar Labs” around the world to tailor Sugar to local
languages and curricula. Sugar Labs volunteers are passionate about
providing education to children.

****************** /about ******************