[Marketing] Sugar on a Stick - Article

[Sean DALY]

Well, that's about as easy as writing sample code or templates for an
education software project, so no, I can't :-)

Journalism isn't that easy, despite its bad rep these days.

We have the great good fortune to work on a project of general
interest to readers, from several angles: improving children's lives
through education, modern technologies in the classroom, the $100 OLPC
laptop.

I can work with you Caroline on rewriting this specific article to
first-person; the editor understood your passion about the project and
realized it would be more authentic coming from the source. At the
same time, he sees that most of the work is done and he can avoid
sending a journalist down (although he may send a photographer ;-)

Getting local journalists interested is indeed a good idea, but will
work best where there are deployments, or a connection to a deployment
(someone just returning from Africa for example). Editors like making
volunteers part of the story. The question to ask ourselves is, What
in our story (beyond ourselves) could be interesting to a wider
audience? And every newspaper, magazine, or blog will have a target
audience; editors always have a clear idea of who their readers are.
So the story to tell is adapted to the support. General interest
publications have very wide reach to the public, beyond the
specialized press and influencers.

And finally, there's the question of what messages we want to spread.
I like to think that we can all spread a message about the usefulness
of computers in education, how Sugar is an outstanding example of
this, the work of an online network of contributors, that Sugar is in
the hands of over a million children worldwide through OLPC, that
Sugar is branching out to other machines, finally that Sugar can be
downloaded and installed on an ordinary USB stick to start up PCs at
school or in the home. That Sugar is ideal for children: fun
(especially with others), safe, friendly, available in the child's
language.

Sean


On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:14 PM, Caroline Meeks
<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> I've never written a newspaper article.  Sean can you create a
> sample/template that people can follow.
> I like Walter's idea of having everyone write to their local paper! Now that
> they all go on the internet that can have tremendous reach and show us as
> the grassroots organization we are.
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:35 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> This is great news!
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
>> On 10/13/09, Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>> > Reply from my local paper.
>> >
>> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> > From: Schuler, Rory <rschuler at cnc.com>
>> >  Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 11:13 AM
>> > Subject: RE: Sugar on a Stick - Article
>> > To: Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Caroline, Would you be willing/able to write a first-person piece on the
>> > endeavor? Since you're pretty much the local hook, I think that would be
>> > the
>> > best way to approach it. Please let me know.
>> >
>> >
>> > Rory Schuler
>> > Editor
>> > The Winchester Star
>> > 781-674-7740 (o)
>> > 610-764-3405 (c)
>> >
>> > Be the first to know when news breaks in Winchester …
>> > Sign up for breaking news e-mail alerts at:
>> > http://wickedlocalcontests.com/signup/Winchester/winchester.php
>> >
>> > Visit The Star's Web site,
>> > www.wickedlocal.com/winchester
>> >
>> >
>> > ________________________________
>> >  From: solutiongrove at gmail.com
>> > [mailto:solutiongrove at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Caroline
>> > Meeks
>> > Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 1:32 PM
>> > To: Winchester Star (News)
>> > Subject: Sugar on a Stick - Article
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Dear Mr. Schuler,
>> >
>> >
>> > I am a Winchester resident (49 Thornberry Road) and I am involved in
>> > an education project for elementary school aged children with the
>> > nonprofit
>> > Sugar Labs
>> > foundation. Sugar Labs (http://www.sugarlabs.org) provides the free
>> > open source software environment used in the One Laptop per Child
>> > computer, designed in the Boston area and over a million of which have
>> > been distributed to kids in developing countries. Sugar Labs has
>> > created a version of the OLPC software called Sugar on a Stick
>> > (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick) which can
>> > run any PC
>> > (and many Macs too) from an ordinary thumbdrive.
>> >
>> >
>> > Sugar Labs and students from Harvard Graduate School of Education and
>> > Boston
>> > University are running a
>> > pilot at a Boston Public School in Allston and we need donations of used
>> > computers and sponsors for USB sticks. Any publicity would help our
>> > project
>> > enormously and we were
>> > hoping we could interest you in publishing an article about what's
>> > happening at the school - the teachers and learners are very excited!
>> >
>> >
>> > A recent BU journalism graduate wrote a piece on us and we have not
>> > yet placed it, perhaps it could be a starting point?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Thank you,
>> >
>> > Caroline Meeks
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Details on the computer donations:  Email Caroline Meeks
>> > cmeeks at sugarlabs.org to arrange pickup. We are looking for Pentium 4 or
>> > better computers. We can only accept monitors less then 19" in size.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Caroline Meeks
>> > Solution Grove
>> > Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>> >
>> > 617-500-3488 - Office
>> > 505-213-3268 - Fax
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > The preceding e-mail message (including any attachments) contains
>> > information that may be confidential, may be protected by the
>> > attorney-client or other applicable privileges, or may constitute
>> > non-public
>> > information. It is intended to be conveyed only to the designated
>> > recipient(s) named above. If you are not an intended recipient of this
>> > message, please notify the sender by replying to this message and then
>> > delete all copies of it from your computer system. Any use,
>> > dissemination,
>> > distribution, or reproduction of this message by unintended recipients
>> > is
>> > not authorized and may be unlawful.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Caroline Meeks
>> > Solution Grove
>> > Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>> >
>> > 617-500-3488 - Office
>> > 505-213-3268 - Fax
>> >
>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>