[Sugar-devel] eduJAM! 2011: A Vibrant Summit With A Diverse Range Of Offerings

[David Farning]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sugar-devel-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org [mailto:sugar-devel-
> bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Organización eduJAM! 2011
> Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 2:05 PM
> To: iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Subject: [Sugar-devel] eduJAM! 2011: A Vibrant Summit With A Diverse Range Of
> Offerings
> 
> We are very excited to update you with the latest information about
> the�eduJAM! 2011 <http://ceibaljam.org/?q=edujam2011_en> �summit. It is
> great to see that the different pieces of the puzzle are coming together for what
> will undoubtedly be a landmark for the international community of educational
> free-software developers. Many of the main developers behind the Sugar
> platform will be present (Walter Bender, Aleksey Lim (alsroot), and Bernie
> Innocenti among�others <http://ceibaljam.org/node/1108> ). Additionally,
> people working on different OLPC deployments will be there which guarantees
> an excellent environment for moving the area of 1-to-1 computing in education
> projects and related discussions forward.
> 
> More than anything we aim to make the summit an event to create and amplify
> relationships in this community.
> 
> Place
> 
> The summit will take place at the Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay (UTU) and
> more specifically in its brand-new�PAOF building
> <http://ceibaljam.org/node/1171> �which is located in Ciudad Viaja, the historic
> and commercial heart of Montevideo. Apart from this allowing us to work within
> a comfortable and versatile space, it also provides opportunities to enjoy this
> beautiful part of the city during free hours.
> 
> Program
> 
> The summit will begin in the afternoon of�Thursday, May 5 with an informal
> reception aimed at allowing us to get to know each other as well as catch up.
> 
> On�Friday, May 6 the intensive work begins. This day will be organized in two
> tracks. In the morning we will focus on a broad vision of the core challenges
> encountered when designing a software platform aimed at learning in school
> environments in general and in 1-to-1 scenarios in particular. We can revise and
> revisit these experiences in light of the experiences made within this context in
> the past few years. What has and hasn�t worked when it comes to the
> software? How can we support the creation of effective learning communities?
> How can we make the development processes in such a diverse and distributed
> community more efficient? Which applications are we still missing? These are
> some of the questions which will be on the table.
> 
> In the afternoon the summit will turn sweet as we fully dedicate it to Sugar. On
> the one hand we will hold a �Sugar Camp� where will discuss the current state
> of developments, local labs, the roadmap and how to optimize the work in the
> community.
> 
> Simultaneously on Friday afternoon there will be workshops aimed at people
> such as students and newcomers who want to learn how to develop for Sugar.
> 
> On�Saturday, May 7 the morning will be focused on the various experiences
> made in 1-to-1 projects. There will be talks by people working on different
> deployments, explaining what they have done and discussing the necessities and
> requirements when it comes to software platform. We consider this to be an
> important input for planning future work.

I would like to make a personal invitation to deployment developers and technical support staff to participate in the events Saturday, Sunday and (if possible) into the next week. On Saturday, Activity Central will create a 'Critical Tasks' list. As we identify critical tasks which are shared across multiply deployments, we will add them to the Dextrose TODO list for our upcoming release and inclusion in the next OLPC OS release.

> This afternoon will be run in an �unconference� mode. This means that there
> will be different talks, workshops, and discussion rounds which will be planned
> and decided upon by the participants on the spot. We thereby hope to learn
> more about the various ongoing projects, discuss roadmaps as well as form
> small development and investigation groups.

Starting Saturday afternoon Activity Central developers will run a 'Critical Tasks' workshop to help deployments identify and work on their important bugs and feature requests. Through the follow week AC developers will be available to:
1. Help you solve those critical tasks.
2. Help you push those solutions upstream to OLPC and Sugar Labs.
3. Help you identify and coordinate with other deployments and organizations that are facing similar issues.

Look forward to see you at eduJAM.
david

 
> Conozco Uruguay Tour
> 
> Independent of the summit, a variety of activities will take place in the days
> leading up to it. These activities are aimed at people who want to explore the
> experiences Uruguay is making with Plan Ceibal in more depth. They will take
> place between Saturday, April 30 and Thursday, May 5. Together with RAP Ceibal
> and OLPC we have developed the following itinerary:
> 
> *	Saturday, 30: Welcome dinner
> 
> *	Sunday, 1: Visit to Tala, Canelones, its rural school and Proyecto Aurora.
> Asado included;-)
> 
> *	Monday, 2 (morning): Visit to and activities at Escuela 173 in Las
> Piedras, Canelones
> 
> *	Monday, 2 (afternoon): Meeting with members of Flor de Ceibo, a
> project by the Universidad de la Rep�blica which supports Plan Ceibal
> 
> *	Tuesday, 3: Visit to and activities at Esciela 33 in La Paloma, Durazno
> 
> *	Wednesday, 4 (morning): Montevideo city tour
> 
> *	Wednesday, 4 (afternoon): Visit of Euskal Err�a school and the RAP
> Montevideo Center as well as meeting with RAP Ceibal volunteers
> 
> This agenda is still subject of possible changes but the start (Saturday, April 30)
> and end dates (Thursday, May 5) have been confirmed. We are also working on
> possible changes to include a touristic activity such as the visit of a Uruguayan
> winery.
> 
> More information is available
> at:�http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Conozco_Uruguay_Tour
> 
> Sugar Code Sprint
> 
> There are also plans for an activity aimed at Sugar developers to take place after
> the meeting. The days between Sunday, May 8 and Wednesday, May 11 will be
> focused on intensive Sugar programming sessions in collaboration with
> developers from Sugar Labs, OLPC and hopefully also other deployments.
> 
> A vibrant summit to unite and grow the community
> 
> The eduJAM! 2011 organization is progressing at full speed. We are also making
> calls to volunteers to help us in the organization and logistics, for example to
> host some of the international participants and thereby help them reduce their
> cost as well as allowing them to learn more about the local realities.
> 
> All of this is made possible thanks to the grand efforts by�ceibalJAM!
> <http://ceibaljam.org/> , the collaboration of the communities around OLPC,
> Sugar Labs, and RAP Ceibal, the coordination of Cre�tica, the sponsorship by
> Activity Central and the many volunteers who are lending a helping hand in
> organizing the summit as well as the activities before and after it.
> 
> Don�t miss it!�Register <http://ceibaljam.org/node/1128> �and buy your tickets
> for travel! In case you have any questions please write us
> at�edujam2011 at ceibaljam.org.