<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Mel Chua <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mel@melchua.com">mel@melchua.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">> 1. Here in the US ride the trend for change to emphasise funding to<br>
> solve infrastructure issues.<br>
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Have we sufficiently positioned Sugar as infrastructure? (Something that encompasses and supports the entire learning experience, rather than a separate shiny software toy you can go play with off in a corner somewhere for an hour a week.)</blockquote>
<div><br>This is a very interesting point in light of Obama's economic stimulus plan that includes school infrastructure improvement. <br></div><div><br>The wonderful thing about Sugar is it is, in my mind significant infrastructure improvement, but it demos so *shiny*. I think the half dozen of us on this list are probably close to half the total people I've met who get excited about infrastructure improvement or see how Sugar+XS and Sugar on a Stick is a significant improvement to infrastructure and the incredible opportunity it provides to build better educational activities.<br>
<br>I hope we can work together and get some expert help is articulating our vision of Sugar as infrastructure cause so far my experience, even talking to other grad students in the Technology program, is pretty confused looks or board blank stares. The good news is that I can talk about Scratch like programs and the Journal as portfolio and the eyes light up.<br>
<br>I feel like we have a very complex value proposition.<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
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Side note: this is one of the reasons I'm really excited about the pilots, because gathering good data, observations, and, most importantly, stories about Sugar-as-infrastructure will probably be *the* most attention-getting thing we have, whether it's for a grant proposal, a presentation/demo, or anything else.\</blockquote>
<div><br>YES! concrete examples seem incredibly valuable.<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
In my opinion the result is incredibly cool stuff that no one is using.<br>
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<br></div><div class="Ih2E3d">
> 2. Push for funding to be tied to how many students are using the<br>
> results of a project.<br>
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(Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with grant applications. I would like to learn.)<br>
<br>
Would it be worth it, perhaps as a joint marketing/education team miniproject, to try to put together a "here are {NSF,other-big-grant-org}-funded projects that Sugar could bring to a much wider audience" brochure/page/letter? (As part of a "therefore, NSF/other-big-grant-org should fund Sugar because we make all the rest of the things you've funded Way More Effective" thing.)<br>
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Maybe a place to start would be to have a 1-2 hour "find these projects" sprint - go through journals, award webpages, etc. and pick out neat but non-widespread projects, then do a cursory evaluation of how much engineering (and educator-training) time and effort would be needed to make it Sugar-riffic.<br>
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I'd be willing to come and hack on such a sprint, if someone else would run it. I don't know much about where to find these studies, how to evaluate how useful they'd be to us, or how to present our findings in a way that will appeal to resource-distributing organizations, but I can follow instructions and ask lots of questions.</blockquote>
<div><br>What I want to do is figure out how to get upstream. How do we get the ear of the people who will be changing the way grants are given out and how the stimulus package will be spent. I really do think finding these people, once they are appointed, and getting some time with them is a realistic goal for Sugar Labs. <br>
<br><br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br><font color="#888888">
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--Mel<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>