[Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Priorities and Ideas (for GSoC)

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks, Sayamindu.

I've put bookreaders, improvements to core activities (should offline
email be there?) and schoolserver-related work near the top of the
OLPC list at
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Summer_of_Code/Ideas

Activities that can be used immediately in the field would make
excellent OLPC projects  -- core sugar updates will not be usable
until someone's willing to modify their entire system, whereas
something that can be downloaded individually for a few students or
for a class offers more possibilities of field feedback over the
course of the summer.

As for community building via gsoc - connecting students with people
using these tools in classes in the field is a good way to get them
hooked, and to provide a satisfying capstone to a summer's work.

Mentors - don't forget to sign your name next to projects you are
interested in, or to list projects you'd be glad to mentor on the
project page[s].  That is a sign that draws students to indicate
/their/ interest and helps favored projects stand out from the crowd
of ideas.

SJ


On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 6:02 PM, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 3:19 AM, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I will link to this thread (in IAEP) on the GSoC project ideas page. This
>> page is the primary location where prospective GSoC students will come to
>> learn about out project, and so I want them to get a feel for our community
>> discussion of priorities. So please, in this thread, try to be a little bit
>> more explicit and foot-noted than you would be otherwise, so they can
>> understand what we're talking about.
>>
>> The primary purpose of GSoC, as others have pointed out, is NOT to do the
>> things we're too busy to get around to. It is primarily a community-building
>> exercise: to get students engaged in helping Sugar, and get mentors engaged
>> in passing on knowledge to new community members. If somebody develops an
>> educational game that only blind 3-year-olds use, but FINISHES it, has a
>> great time doing it, and becomes a long-term contributing community member,
>> then that would be a total GSoC success. However, that being said, we'd
>> still prefer projects that help acheive our highest priorities for Sugar.
>>
>> There is no absolute ordering of Sugarlabs' priorities. Different members
>> will not agree perfectly on what steps will do more to help our educational
>> mission. So the list below is just my version. Community: Please respond
>> with your thoughts. Students: I'll link what I can in the list, but I can't
>> find good links, or even any links, for everything. If one of these ideas
>> intrigues you, please, come ask in IRC (#sugar on freenode) - we'd love to
>> try to point you in the right direction, and help you cut your ideas down to
>> a reasonable GSoC size.
>>
>> My first priority is things that will have a strong effect on the long-term
>> rate of development of Sugar. I'd put just 2 things in that category: easier
>> sugarizing (primarily from AJAX, Flash, and legacy Linux); and a structure
>> for sugar unit tests (IMO we will never get good enough software quality for
>> wide adoption, running on multiple distribution without automated testing).
>>
>> My second priority is things that will improve on sugar's key promises. An
>> easier and better way to handle files: versioned datastore, improvements in
>> creating and using tags for the journal, file picker dialogs, and home view.
>> A simpler and safer security model: getting Rainbow into the Sugar platform
>> and improving it's coverage of the Bitfrost ideals. A simple and
>> discoverable, yet powerful, UI overall: improved accessibility, discoverable
>> keyboard shortcuts. Ubiquitous connectivity and collaboration: multi-pointer
>> sharing, auto-collaborating data structures, viral/peer-to-peer activity
>> distribution, shared journals. Useful in the classroom: a one-click workflow
>> for getting AND turning in homework.
>>
>> My third priority is activities to better cover the core functions. Reading:
>> an improved Read, which handles true ebook formats. (PDF is made for
>> printing, and deployments have asked for this.)
>
> Regarding support for more Ebook formats, in case it is relevant, I am
> working on a sugarized FBReader[1] activity at the moment. I should be
> able to do a preliminary release by tomorrow. (I was planning a
> release tonight, but my main workstation seems to be incredibly messed
> up, and won't boot, so I need to fix that first)
>
> Screenshot at http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/fbreader_sugar_v2.png
> Thanks,
> Sayamindu
>
> [1] http://www.fbreader.org/
> --
> Sayamindu Dasgupta
> [http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings]
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