The mission of Sugar Labs® is to produce, distribute, and support the use of the Sugar learning platform; it is a support base and gathering place for the community of educators and developers to create, extend, and teach with the Sugar learning platform.
Every day or so, I try to take a look at the Sugar Labs mission to help me keep my focus. There are millions things that I want to do, both personally and for Sugar Labs. But, I only have so much time (and money) I can afford to spend in a given day. Thus, I must limit myself. Sugar Labs faces these same sort of decisions. Sugar Labs is composed of participates who have both personal and Sugar related things they want to do. Sometimes, when I chose _not_ to do something, it is because it is wrong. "Don't chop down your neighbour's tree." But, in the majority of cases I usually _don't_ find myself choosing _not_ to do something. Instead, thing don't get done because other activities more closely with my goals, available resources, and energy. This process seems to hold true for most people... and for projects such as Sugar Labs. I have been extremely impressed and inspired by many of the post on the recent SoaS as a project Thread at http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-August/007842.html . 1. There are some widely differing viewpoints... but that happens whenever smart people engage in discussion. 2. There are frustrations about things not getting done... but there is a constant theme that personal work causes results. 3. There is extensive use of the word 'we'... as in by working together 'we' can solve the problem. 4. There is a reoccurring theme of "I don't care what you do, just stay out of my way so I can get back to work." The take away that I got was the strong need, and desire, to Identify, Engage, and Empower _doers_. This aligns nicely with the idea behind projects. Sugar Labs is, by definition, the upstream of the rest of the Sugar ecosystem. As the upstream, there is, and will continue to be, a strong cultural emphasis on upstream activities. Sugar Labs is, by design, a participatory organization. As a participatory organization, there is, and will continue to be, a strong cultural emphasis on working together as a community rather then splitting the world up as producers and consumers. As we think about projects, let's think about how they can identify, engage, and empower _doers_ david _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
