[SoaS] As requested: RE: Thoughts on RE: SOAS decision panel : thoughts

[Caryl Bigenho]

I'm fine with that!  Please do.

Caryl

> Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:22:06 +0100
> From: martin at martindengler.com
> To: cbigenho at hotmail.com
> CC: meta.sj at gmail.com; bogstad at pobox.com; sdz at sugarlabs.org; luke at faraone.cc; olpc at sadeq.me.uk; bmschwar at fas.harvard.edu; sdaly.be at gmail.com; tabitha.roder at gmail.com; dsd.olpc at gmail.com; hackerboymayabhi at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: As requested: RE: Thoughts on RE: SOAS decision panel :	thoughts
> 
> Any objections if I rudely post these discussions to the soas@ list?
> So far attempts to get people to post to it seem to be meeting some
> friction but nobody's telling me why.
> 
> Martin
> 
> On Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 06:36:19PM -0700, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
> > 
> > SJ wrote:
> > > 
> > > Caryl, your input on the recent thread on the soas-list would be
> > > appreciated.  I think Bill got some of this summary right, but some of
> > > it needs to be clarified.  (And I'm not sure that many of the people
> > > who would like to *see* a 'set of versions that can be run on all
> > > kinds of machines' understood the support costs and prioritization
> > > required when saying that.)
> > 
> > Hello All...
> > 
> > Greetings from beautiful (50 years ago) Butte MT, the country's largest Superfund site.  Over half the town has disappeared into the huge Berkeley Pit (open pit copper mine). What is left is very contaminated with metal dust and asbestos. 
> > 
> > But, enough of that. First I want to apologize for the flood of old messages from me that arrived this afternoon. They were sent 4 days ago on 9/28 when I was having trouble with my sign-up to the list. So today, they show up as sent at 2:04 p.m. MDT...  I assure you not by me.  I was riding down I-90 in MT far from any internet signal.  Now, I still have the problem of getting 2 of everything sent to the [SoaS] list.
> > 
> > So let's get back to the issues at hand.  SJ asked me to go over the message I sent several days ago and clarify some of the things I wrote.
> > 
> > Re: A new mailing list... a dead issue, we are already functioning on the regular [SoaS} list.
> > 
> > Re: Several different distributions and if so, for what machines?
> > 
> > This is a really huge issue.  First of all, has anyone really done any research, even informal, to see what machines are used regularly in the schools? Probably not. Without this information, the question can't be answered in any meaningful way. 
> > 
> > There is a way that we could make this happen, thoughnot nearly soon enough, but better late than never.  It would take some effort on the part of both Sugar Labs volunteers and OLPC volunteers. It goes like this:
> > 
> > 1) Send representatives (preferably 2 or more) to every Tech Conference for educators that we can find.  Take XOs and SoaS, Live CDs, SD cards and different non-XO machines to demonstrate that Sugar will run on them. People will be curious and want to try things.  Set up in a booth if possible or in their internet cafe area (or do a presentation!). We may have to actually pay to attend.
> > 
> > 2) Have a simple survey for educators to fill out asking what machines they have at their school, how many, how old, are there any plans to replace them, if yes, with what machines and, finally, how much use do they get and by who.  While we are at it we might as well ask what level or subject they teach and what kinds of new programs would they like to have to use with their students.
> > 
> > 3) If they have something that will run SoaS, a Live CD, or Sugar on a SD card, offer to help them download their own copy.  Maybe even give away some Live CDs.
> > 
> > I will be presenting at the CUELA/LAUSD Tech Fair in mid-November.  I will make up a survey like this and ask teachers to complete it.  Can we get others to do the same sort of thing?  Even just having a presence with a few XOs and other computers running Sugar for folks to try and getting them to fill out the survey would help a lot. Not a lot of prior prep needed for that!
> > 
> > In other words, don't just guess what students and teachers need.. ask them. Until we do this, we are just taking wild stabs in the dark. Students and teachers won't care what we call the 
> > Sugar software they are using. They will just care that it is easy to use and works.
> > 
> > Re: the XO-1  Glad to hear the batteries will be interchangable. That is one crisis we won't have to face.
> > 
> > This might not be the right time and place to discuss activating the entire track pad, but someone else mentioned it and I thought it was a great idea. I still do. While some might think this is a topic for OLPC, I thought I read somewhere that it is a software matter. That could be a Sugar Labs project. 
> > 
> > Too long... and I will get 2 copies.
> > 
> > Got to read all the other emails I got since yesterday.
> > 
> > Thanks for reading!
> > Caryl
> > 
> > P.S. I did a reply all on this. If I missed anyone who should read it, please forward. Thanks!
> >  		 	   		  
 		 	   		  
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