[Marketing] Fwd: [Sugar-devel] Sugarized the word: time to go ahead

[Sameer Verma]

On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 12:49 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Lionel Laské <lionel at olpc-france.org>
> Date: Sat, Dec 21, 2013 at 4:56 PM
> Subject: [Sugar-devel] Sugarized the word: time to go ahead
> To: Sugar-dev Devel <sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> If you think that Sugarizer is a nice technical tool, you're wrong:
> Sugarizer is just a marketing tool that I've done to debate about Sugar
> future :-)
>
> I would like to share here my vision and my wish to use Sugarizer as a nice
> marketing tool to attract more people on Sugar and give it a bright future.
>
> @marketing and @board-member guys: please comment !
>
>
> With 3 millions users all over the world Sugar is the leading learning
> platform. No debate here. But Sugar is for Linux laptop and today laptops
> are not the leading platform. The leading device are tablets and
> smartphones.
> We could consider (like I do) that people are wrong to think that a tablet
> is better than a laptop but we can't attract people/resource on Sugar if we
> stay on a "laptop only" policy.
> So if Sugar want to stay a leading platform, it should address leading
> devices. More: we need to "Sugarize" every device (it's why I've called my
> work "Sugarizer" :-).
> But porting Sugar on Android is not possible. Everything is possible in IT
> but "not possible" seems "need too much time and resource that we could
> invest reasonably": I'm convinced that it take us more time to port Sugar to
> Android than to rewrite the whole set of existing activities to another
> platform.
>
> You know my thought: the better way to address a multi-device market is to
> bet on HTML5/JavaScript. Sugarlabs team (Daniel, Manuel, Gonzalo and Suraj
> with the GSoC) had done a great job to create the Sugar Web Framework. It's
> a big step ahead: now every new web activity could work not only on
> Sugar/Python/Gtk but also on a future "Sugar with HTML support" whatever it
> could be.
> My wish is that in two year 80% of activities should be web activities. But
> for this, we need to invest:
> - To port/rewrite activities: the idea of Carol to do a survey to target the
> most important activities today is a good start,
> - To write a real "Sugarizer" layer. Lot of technical questions (size of
> storage, device integration, collaboration, ...) have to be handled on my
> Sugarizer prototype to do a true releasable tool.
>
> We need to invest so we need fund raising to pay for full-time developers
> that could work on this. We can't reach our objective with developer
> hobbyist - like I am - and GSoC participants. I don't know how much we need:
> 50 000$, 100 000$, 150 000$ ? But I'm sure that with a nice crowd funding
> campaign we could raise all the money we need. We've got:
> - A simple message: we targeted 3 millions child with the XO laptop, now we
> want to target EVERY child, in EVERY country on EVERY device.
> - A marketing tool: Sugarizer show that it could be done and that it's not
> vaporware. It will be complex and we'll have to arbitrate, but it's
> possible.
>
> All other is just marketing stuff: nice text, nice website, nice video, nice
> viral message... Look how much money Kano campaign [1] raised with less than
> we have ! It's easy to package Sugarizer in a Raspberry Pi app if we need it
> !
>
> It's probably ambitious but I'm sure it's possible and that it will ensure
> both compatibility with our existing users and a way to give better
> education to all others child. At the time where OLPC is declining, it's
> time for us to think ahead. The end of the year is a good time for that.
>
> Can't wait to hear your voices.
>
>                     Lionel.
>
>
> [1]
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexklein/kano-a-computer-anyone-can-make
>
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>
>
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>

I'm definitely keeping an eye on this project. I am also actively
looking for HTML5 developers who can help port existing activities and
create newer ones. At a recent event at my daughter's school (some
detail here: http://www.olpcsf.org/node/202), I was very impressed at
the workflow Scratch has:

1) It runs in a browser (Flash needed, but HTML5 version is on the
way, I'm told). No installation required.
2) Create an account to store Scratch projects and be able to
share/reshare with others worldwide.

I think if Sugar got to a point where these features were made
available on the web, it would help in getting the visibility of Sugar
beyond the XO. Of course, we will only get to those who are already on
the Web, but that's where the portability of HTML5 on Android (or
Firefox OS or ChromeOS) comes in. I've tried Lionel's Sugarizer app on
an Android tablet as well and I am quite impressed.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm/