[Sugar-devel] Suggestions for GSoC 2019

utkarsh Dhawan dhawanutkarsh at gmail.com
Thu Jan 31 01:48:38 EST 2019


Hi,

The jupyter notebook seems like a good idea. Since it gives a lot of
capabilities for the instructors to create interactive textual content.
Evaluating on the time, I think it is very much achievable in a summer. Are
you guys planning to take that ahead. If yes, I am also willing to
contribute on the same.

Thanking You,
*Utkarsh Dhawan*

Note:Please Consider The environment before printing.


On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 10:00 PM Amaan Iqbal <amaaniqbal2786 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> James Cameron wrote:
> >  You replied to me, but that wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>
> Ya, I know. I just replied to all.
>
> > However, it would be wrong
> > to set expectations of colourful software by adding lots of colour to
> > the web site.
>
> I just meant to update the color palette, never to have many colors.
>
> > We also need to remain accessible for vision impaired.
>
> True!
>
> > Activities for Sugar are presented by activities.sugarlabs.org and by
> > Fedora SoaS.  Activities for Sugarizer are pre-bundled, not presented;
> > you'll see the https://sugarizer.org/ web site is much better at
> > getting people to engage with the software.
>
> I was not knowing about the latter site. That's really good in terms of
> user engagement.
>
> Overall I agree with your opinion James, and also of other board members
> and now I too feel this may not be one of the important projects for GSoC.
>
> Thanks,
> Amaan
>
> On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 7:19 AM James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
>
>> Amaan Iqbal wrote:
>> > > I don't expect revamping a website to be a _goal_.
>> >
>> > Without a proper website with the latest content, how can we expect
>> > the activities to reach the audience?
>>
>> You replied to me, but that wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>>
>> At the moment activities generally reach the audience through OLPC OS,
>> Fedora SoaS, activities.sugarlabs.org and Sugarizer.  Almost never the
>> web site.
>>
>> > > Even if we add a project for improving the website, 2 years down
>> > > the line we might again face a similar email pointing out the
>> > > drawbacks of the new model and another revamping of the website.
>> >
>> > This doesn't mean that we will have the same website with the old
>> > foundation 10 years down the line. Web technologies and standards
>> > have changed significantly in the past 2-3 years and its
>> > recommended we too keep our components updated.  The main reason
>> > would be similar to why we are updating our activities. Fixing/
>> > Updating activities has to do with more engagement with current
>> > users and improving the website, to try for more new users. I guess
>> > both are equally important.
>>
>> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>>
>> Web site components can be kept updated by using a maintained open
>> source theme and not tweaking it as incessantly as we have been doing
>> with airspace.
>>
>> While it is similar in general to how we update our activities, this
>> is not relevant, because the web site is not an activity.
>>
>> > > Having less projects does not imply our failure in any sense, lack
>> > > of existing contributors might indicate that
>> >
>> > I agree, but it will be underutilization of potential of an
>> > organization which has participated in GSoC for last 10 successive
>> > years. We might consider having few more mentors this time if proper
>> > mentoring was the issue last time. Even if we are not having this
>> > project, we should think of utilizing GSoC to the fullest with tasks
>> > related to all the activities wherever significant work is
>> > pending. Further, even if we desire to have some new activities, we
>> > should think of including that too.
>>
>> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>>
>> I'm not worried about underutilisation of potential; there is plenty
>> to do, and if anyone is attentive and dutiful toward it they will
>> easily find what to do without having to do any updates to the web
>> site.  I'm also not worried about having less active projects for this
>> GSoC, because we certainly have less active developers, and the last
>> thing we want is mentors who aren't active developers, as it leads to
>> under-mentoring; project never properly defined, mentor has little
>> idea of what the student is doing, and ultimately the student produces
>> code that isn't useful, or disappears.  See Google Summer of Code
>> Guides, What Makes a Good Mentor?
>>
>> https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/what-makes-a-good-mentor
>>
>> Of course, our thanks to all those developers who have made small
>> updates to our software in the past few weeks, I appreciate it.
>>
>> > > I added why a user should get sugar.
>> > >
>> > > It’s still a work in progress as I figured even the last design
>> > > that’s under development now Wouldn’t really solve the problem. We
>> > > need MORE call to action buttons, more exciting colors, a better
>> > > navigation processes.
>> >
>> > That's what. I would too suggest improving the color palette we are
>> > currently using. The current color palette is not that pleasing at
>> > first sight. Also call to action and download buttons on the main
>> > page itself would be a good idea to improve the conversion
>> > rate. Further better and clearer navigation is also missing.
>>
>> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace.  However, it would be wrong
>> to set expectations of colourful software by adding lots of colour to
>> the web site.  Cart before horse error.  First, we need Sugar and
>> Sugarizer to switch to using colour.  Then can we increase the colours
>> on any web site that describes them.  We also need to remain
>> accessible for vision impaired.
>>
>> Also, whether colours are pleasing is subjective, and dependent on
>> culture and environment.  While you might not like the colours, they
>> have been accepted for some time, so you might provide more convincing
>> evidence than your own opinion of the colours.
>>
>> > >  Hoping to move most primary information from wiki to the site,
>> > > instead of breaking their section on the site to go to wiki(it
>> > > lost them totally)
>> >
>> > This is the most important point. I strongly agree with this. Our
>> > website should only have the important information instead of the
>> > wikis. It breaks the flow and makes the user end up getting
>> > confused.
>>
>> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace.  However, this content could
>> be placed in frames or transformed from GitHub or Wiki using a script.
>> We continue to have people who maintain GitHub and the Wiki and won't
>> maintain the web site.  Content that has been copied to the web site
>> has languished unmaintained.
>>
>> > > This is as important as improving Sugar Labs tools. Without an
>> > > actionable site our tools won't reach our potential users. We need
>> > > the users (students parents, school administration) to be able to
>> > > download and use Sugar and every other Sugar Labs tools
>> > > effectively without stress then we can record an increase in
>> > > downloads of these tools we put in so much to build.
>> >
>> > This is why I thought of this idea. My primary intention is not to
>> > get anything revamped but to improve the way we present our
>> > activities to the user. Also for better maintenance, it is required
>> > that we keep our site up to date and consistent with the standards.
>> >
>> > Ultimately I would suggest that we should utilize GSoC to the
>> > fullest in any way we can, be it only with improving the activities.
>> >
>> > I will leave further discretion to the board members.
>>
>> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace.
>>
>> Activities for Sugar are presented by activities.sugarlabs.org and by
>> Fedora SoaS.  Activities for Sugarizer are pre-bundled, not presented;
>> you'll see the https://sugarizer.org/ web site is much better at
>> getting people to engage with the software.
>>
>> GSoC isn't there for us to abuse or on-sell, it's there to help us
>> with our goals.
>>
>> I'm sure the board will continue to listen to what people think.  As
>> chair, nobody in the board has proposed any motion in relation to the
>> web site, but you've heard from Samson, Walter, and myself.
>>
>> > On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 6:18 AM James Cameron <[1]quozl at laptop.org>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >     Thanks.  But my vote is no.
>> >
>> >     It's not three months of coding.
>> >
>> >     It doesn't solve a problem we have with our software products;
>> Sugar,
>> >     activities, Music Blocks, or Sugarizer.
>> >
>> >     Our problem with the web site is with the content, in turn because
>> we
>> >     have had few content producers, and too many people proposing style
>> and
>> >     layout changes instead.
>> >
>> >     Last month, or November, we had a team formed to do A/B testing, but
>> >     the A/B testing has not yet begun.  I'm guessing they are too busy.
>> >     Perhaps it is time for more people to speak up in order to slow it
>> >     down even further.
>> >
>> >     On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 07:44:28PM +0530, Amaan Iqbal wrote:
>> >     > Hello,
>> >     >
>> >     > I see we only have 6 projects so far in our Ideas list in
>> comparison to
>> >     11
>> >     > which were selected in GSoC last year. Being a successful Open
>> Source
>> >     > organization, I sincerely hope we have the potential of having
>> many more
>> >     > projects in GSoC this year(most probably 15+ if we can come up
>> with such
>> >     > promising ideas).
>> >     >
>> >     > Here I would suggest an idea for the renovation of our
>> Website, [1]blog,
>> >     and
>> >     > creation of a customized/integration of existing CMS to our
>> website from
>> >     where
>> >     > admins can create articles directly. Also some other web pages
>> can also
>> >     be
>> >     > added to this list if I am missing something. The end product
>> will be
>> >     expected
>> >     > to have :
>> >     >
>> >     >   • Material Designed
>> >     >   • no/minimal redundancies in code
>> >     >   • faster load time
>> >     >   • Use of latest website standards
>> >     >   • Wider reach in terms of accessibility
>> >     >   • Faster and easier updates from the admins to the website
>> >     >   • Elimination of device specific issues
>> >     >   • Removal of most of the issues on [2]www-sugarlabs
>> >     >   • Easy setup for a new contributor
>> >     >
>> >     > After mentoring for few design tasks in GCI and collaborating with
>> >     several pull
>> >     > requests I found that the website was mostly constructed with many
>> >     components
>> >     > placed forcefully in their places including a search box in the
>> navbar,
>> >     such
>> >     > that website looks somehow decent. But the design is not at all
>> generic
>> >     and so
>> >     > as a result there use to be many small issues with looks and
>> behavior of
>> >     > components on different devices. Also, the website is not updated
>> to the
>> >     latest
>> >     > web standards.
>> >     >
>> >     > Further, publicity in the best way with
>> appropriate [3]accessibility of
>> >     the
>> >     > website is important for any organization and I sincerely hope
>> this idea
>> >     has
>> >     > that potential.
>> >     >
>> >     > Looking forward to hearing your opinion on this before sending a
>> Pull
>> >     Request
>> >     > on the GSoC ideas list.
>> >     >
>> >     > Regards,
>> >     > Amaan
>> >     >
>> >     > References:
>> >     >
>> >     > [1] [2]http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
>> >     > [2] [3]https://github.com/sugarlabs/www-sugarlabs/issues
>> >     > [3] [4]
>> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/HTML
>> >
>> >     > _______________________________________________
>> >     > Sugar-devel mailing list
>> >     > [5]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> >     > [6]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>> >
>> >     --
>> >     James Cameron
>> >     [7]http://quozl.netrek.org/
>> >     _______________________________________________
>> >     Sugar-devel mailing list
>> >     [8]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> >     [9]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>> >
>> > References:
>> >
>> > [1] mailto:quozl at laptop.org
>> > [2] http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
>> > [3] https://github.com/sugarlabs/www-sugarlabs/issues
>> > [4] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/HTML
>> > [5] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> > [6] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>> > [7] http://quozl.netrek.org/
>> > [8] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> > [9] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>
>> --
>> James Cameron
>> http://quozl.netrek.org/
>>
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> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
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