[Sugar-devel] calling for volunteers (was Re: SOAS 2 problems)

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 00:21, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 4:34 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 06:07, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think we are looking at a great probortunity here. We have a project
>
> My mind balks at that word, but I agree with this message wholeheartedly.
>
>> If we are able to learn to make successful calls for help, we will be
>> able to scale up our capacity significantly. We can like it or not,
>> but we depend _a lot_ on volunteers and we need to accept it and
>> operate according to that reality.
>
> A good point.  Is there a page on the slwiki to organize calls for
> help for various projects?  (it's not always this sort of call for
> help -- sometimes there are calls for developers from outside groups
> trying to fund activity development as well; or calls for
> field-testers by a group of active developers...)

We have http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Vacancies but that only works, as
it is now, for work that has associated a "position", not for
projects. Should we use the same? Create a different one?

This is very related to Aleksey's proposal for a site that matches
needs with contributors, but I think it's better to start first with a
low-tech solution such as the wiki and move to more sophisticated
means as we learn more.

About where to put the calls, my blog is read by GNOME hackers, I
think OLPC could ask Jonathan Corbet to put a call for kernel
developers, Greg's blog is read by Fedora contributors, what other
outlets we have for calling for specific volunteering opportunities?

As mentioned before, I think it's very important how the need is
expressed, there's a world of difference between saying "we need you
to improve education" and having someone on the field describing how
the volunteer could make a real change on the lives of the people
there. Photos will also help, maybe a video from a rural school in
Africa, etc.

>> And Sugar Labs cannot take this job it alone in part because most of
>> the general public still thinks that OLPC laptops are running Windows.
>
> We definitely need to remedy this confusion.

I don't think that nor OLPC nor SLs can do much against MS' press machine:

http://www.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/digital-divide/low-cost-laptops-to-change-from-linux-to-microsoft.html

But if from time to time OLPC's press releases could briefly mention
Sugar, I think it could be great.

Thanks,

Tomeu