Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Adam Holt]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 5:33 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> Hi Adam
>
> On 11 April 2016 at 15:21, Adam Holt  wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>>
>>> On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>>
 You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
 role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
 you -- would you consider giving back in this way?

>>>
>>> Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust
>>> me to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)
>>>
>>
>> I'll take that as a [Yes!]
>>
>
> Alright, then ;)
>

Wonderful if you can keep us all honest!  Remember secretary was the person
at the very top in many peoples' republics until 1989 ;)


>
>
>> Certainly if nobody but Walter and I are willing to maintain
>> self-consistency at
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions and
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Minutes and
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance etc, we will need to consider a
>> paid Financial Manager per Caryl's recommendation so we move beyond Magical
>> Transparency to Material Transparency, that you and others keep asking for.
>>
>
> What is it, exactly, that you and Walter are doing, that you would like me
> to do?
>

Take your pick in keeping with your own motivations for give-back
(optionally I strongly encourage you to recruit a co-curator in due
course?) among tasks like the following, that could and certainly would be
immediately useful:

- Post/verify Oversight Board minutes/transcripts/votes at
https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Minutes and
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions within a few days.
Official minutes and/or transcripts (sometimes both) have gone missing in
the past on many occasions.

- Include meetings w/o quorum, when Oversight Board does not reach quorum
during a pre-scheduled meeting time, but a healthy comunity conversation
ensues regardless.  Still, annotated as such ("meeting w/o quorum" or
similar).

- Remind everyone of upcoming Oversight Board meetings many days in
advance, and again ~24 hours in advance, keeping likely agenda fresh where
possible.  If Walter prefers to own some/all of the above 3 tasks, ask him
for others.

- Regularly reconcile bylaws
https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance with
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions
highlighting/removing contradictions, and building clarifying cross-links
between these 2 sites?  Are Sugar Labs 501(c)(3) legally-mandated bylaws in
fact the superset of these 2 pages in the end?  SFConservancy will clarify,
but presumably one and/or the other page needs to be partially locked (or
at least we need to institute a procedure for removal of errors and
vandalism, so this is all far more approachable to the next Dave Crossland
who steps out of the wilderness!  Eventually: move FAQ-style highlights to
the top, preserving unending "legalese" below...)  I was surprised that new
Oversight Board members had no ideas how to vote, and what constituted a
vote, even well after being elected to office.  We're getting there ;)

- Etc!  As nec we'll print up Fred Olmstead business cards for you saying
"Internet Landscape Architect" as Walter suggests ;)


>
>> Til we grow up into a healthy ecosystem where Volunteers & Paid
>> Professionals work alongside with complete respect, per Bastien's
>> reminder.  On that note I have very close friends in direct contact with
>> the worldwide experts in Participatory Budgeting if we need that
>> facilitation.  Note this does Not reduce costs nor accelerate
>> decision-making -- but it increases the Democratic Input of Everyone,
>> similar to http://loomio.org -- if for example Servant Leadership is our
>> goal?
>>
>> In the end of course it's all a question of putting our money where our
>> mouth is :>
>>
>> (I can and will bring in experts in Participatory Budgeting later if that
>> turns out to be appropriate.)
>>
>
> Yeah, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_budgeting sounds
> reasonable.
>
> Given that SLOBs are volunteers who run Sugar Labs, then what more do you
> want to see SLOBs do to practice Servant Leadership?
>

The "confidential suggestion box" is ignored in many organizations around
the world, or sometimes worse as an escape valve to silence/smother
thoughtful dissent.  I don't believe we need our own implementation of
"Secure Drop" (the open-source whistleblower submission system managed by
Freedom of the Press Foundation, originally created by Aaron Swartz).
Still, consider reaching out to OLPC's Ombudsman Bert Freudenberg and
pseudonymous activist Dan Tenason, asking them and a Broad Diversity of
others sincerely how we can avoid becoming a faceless or disputatious
bureaucracy in our 2nd decade.  Enabling a conscientious listening culture
that scales is harder than granite, for 

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Sean DALY]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 11:07 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> Are all the PRs in 2013/14/15/16 listed on that page?
>


Yes indeed. We considered doing one for the TripAdvisor grant, but decided
it was better to wait for results. There has been lessening press interest
in SL, parallel to OLPC, but the major issue has been lack of a strategy
and roadmap. So few calls come in these days that we may be better off
cancelling the softphone for journalists I've kept going these past few
years.

At this point PR is useful to show past milestones, and contributes to our
SEO, but there has been a shift to social media.

Sean.
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[IAEP] 2015 SocialHelp Survey?

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Sam!

Pinned to the top of https://socialhelp.sugarlabs.org is a thread, "Survey
- “How bad is Sugar (software)?”"

Are the results of this survey available anywhere? :)

If not, the survey contents is anonymous, so I don't see any reason to keep
the full results private, but perhaps I'm missing something :)

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] Wiki Gardening Weekend (May 14-15, Boston, USA)

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Sebastian!

In the "Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions" thread you said,

On 11 April 2016 at 14:57, Sebastian Silva 
 wrote:

> El 11/04/16 a las 13:56, Walter Bender escribió:
>
>
>> Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and replaced
>> with a static site generator backed by a distributed version control "pull
>> request" model of collaboration.
>>
>> http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page" (that
>> could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd party web editors
>> like http://prose.io provide the "wiki" experience of editing pages
>> directly, but with the PR permissions model that - IMHO - cultivates more
>> quality.
>>
> Mediawiki has been an administration burden from infrastructure team and
> Local Labs as well.
>
> +1 on static site generators. Last year we replaced Wordpress for Nikola
> at somosazucar.org. Lektor is also interesting. Both are small enough to
> fit into a Sugar Activity for offline scenarios :-)


Both are pure python too. Cool :)

I propose using https://pages.github.com for hosting the site, and thus the
Jeykll static site generator (writte in ruby)

If Nikola/Lektor/anything-else is used as the static site generator, the
site source can be hosted on github, and travis can be used to run the SSG
and upload the build to a server via SFTP or git or similar (in a secure
way.)

Here are some explanations:

https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/deployment/custom/

https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/uploading-artifacts/

How to decide hosting sites on pages.github.com or elsewhere?

Cheers
Dave
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[IAEP] Wiki Gardening Weekend (May 14-15, Boston, USA)

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Walter!

In the "Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions" thread you said,

On 11 April 2016 at 14:56, Walter Bender  wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>
>>
>> On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
>>> role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
>>> you -- would you consider giving back in this way?
>>>
>>
>> Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust me
>> to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)
>>
>>
>>> (SFConservancy.org has not yet replied to us explaining how a/our
>>> nonprofit's bylaws should be published, but certainly
>>> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance and
>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions will need to
>>> hang together to build institutional memory without an excess of
>>> contradictions, and we could certainly use your outsider comparative
>>> perspective here if so!)
>>>
>>
>> mediawiki has a 'lock' feature to allow certain pages to only be edited
>> by certain users. We should use it for such 'serious' pages.
>>
>> Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and replaced
>> with a static site generator backed by a distributed version control "pull
>> request" model of collaboration.
>>
>> http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page" (that
>> could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd party web editors
>> like http://prose.io provide the "wiki" experience of editing pages
>> directly, but with the PR permissions model that - IMHO - cultivates more
>> quality.
>>
>
> Something to discuss before the Wiki Gardening weekend. We do have some
> community members who do a decent job of tending to the day-to-day needs of
> the wiki, but it has lacked an Olmstead for some time. Maybe we just pull
> the best of the wiki into a static site?
>

Yes, I recommend it - because a 'static site' backed by git _is_ a kind of
wiki when there is an 'edit this page' button.

What are the next steps for the Wiki Gardening Weekend location, and what
else ought to be discussed in the next 5 weeks?

Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Adam

On 11 April 2016 at 15:21, Adam Holt  wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>
>> On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>
>>> You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
>>> role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
>>> you -- would you consider giving back in this way?
>>>
>>
>> Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust me
>> to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)
>>
>
> I'll take that as a [Yes!]
>

Alright, then ;)


> Certainly if nobody but Walter and I are willing to maintain
> self-consistency at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions
> and http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Minutes and
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance etc, we will need to consider a paid
> Financial Manager per Caryl's recommendation so we move beyond Magical
> Transparency to Material Transparency, that you and others keep asking for.
>

What is it, exactly, that you and Walter are doing, that you would like me
to do?


> Til we grow up into a healthy ecosystem where Volunteers & Paid
> Professionals work alongside with complete respect, per Bastien's
> reminder.  On that note I have very close friends in direct contact with
> the worldwide experts in Participatory Budgeting if we need that
> facilitation.  Note this does Not reduce costs nor accelerate
> decision-making -- but it increases the Democratic Input of Everyone,
> similar to http://loomio.org -- if for example Servant Leadership is our
> goal?
>
> In the end of course it's all a question of putting our money where our
> mouth is :>
>
> (I can and will bring in experts in Participatory Budgeting later if that
> turns out to be appropriate.)
>

Yeah, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_budgeting sounds
reasonable.

Given that SLOBs are volunteers who run Sugar Labs, then what more do you
want to see SLOBs do to practice Servant Leadership?

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Sean!

On 11 April 2016 at 15:37, Sean DALY  wrote:

> Prior to the pack, I was funding press releases on pay-as-you-go out of my
> pocket, and I wasn't able to continue that any more at over $200 a pop.
>

Thank you so much for that huge material contribution - there are so many
PRs in https://www.sugarlabs.org/press/ ! :)

Are all the PRs in 2013/14/15/16 listed on that page?

Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Sean!

On 11 April 2016 at 15:57, Sean DALY  wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 7:51 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>
>> Given the trademark fee was recently paid to renew the trademarks, I
>> guess the merits were accepted
>
>
> For an organization with the possibility of widespread recognition, owning
> your trademark is a vital step. It could be compared to owning your
> Internet domain name. In both cases it gives the organization a legal tool
> to prevent anyone else from creating confusion about your organization and
> your offer. The fine print on our PR has always asserted our trademark, and
> there were at least three instances where we had to contact possible
> infringers. Fortunately, in all three cases an agreement was reached
> quickly, no doubt because of the strength of our trademark.
>
> Sugar Labs possesses something many projects, nonprofits and certainly
> many startups dream of: top ranking in search engines. This is brand equity
> and the trademark is the shield.
>

I'm not questioning the merits!! :D I think its awesome that SL owns its
trademarks, and if it didn't, I'd be first to suggest putting it on the
roadmap - The relatively recent GNOME-vs-GroupOn thing -
https://www.gnome.org/groupon - proves why this is important :)

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Sean DALY]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 7:51 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> Given the trademark fee was recently paid to renew the trademarks, I guess
> the merits were accepted



For an organization with the possibility of widespread recognition, owning
your trademark is a vital step. It could be compared to owning your
Internet domain name. In both cases it gives the organization a legal tool
to prevent anyone else from creating confusion about your organization and
your offer. The fine print on our PR has always asserted our trademark, and
there were at least three instances where we had to contact possible
infringers. Fortunately, in all three cases an agreement was reached
quickly, no doubt because of the strength of our trademark.

Sugar Labs possesses something many projects, nonprofits and certainly many
startups dream of: top ranking in search engines. This is brand equity and
the trademark is the shield.

Sean.
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Sean DALY]

Hi Dave,

the $2390 sum is for the following marketing/promotion/PR expense:
eReleases CauseWire 10-pack Invoice #011413122

This was authorized by a SLOBs vote in late 2012.

Prior to the pack, I was funding press releases on pay-as-you-go out of my
pocket, and I wasn't able to continue that any more at over $200 a pop.

Sean

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> Hi Laura!
>
> Thanks for the spreadsheet - this is great!
>
> On 10 April 2016 at 23:57, Laura Vargas  wrote:
>
>> According to the published numbers (I'm attaching a Spreadsheet with the
>> information published by you) for the last 4 years, ~80% (USD$26,400) of
>> expenses are related to promotional travels/activities of a very reduced
>> group of members.
>>
>
> Who are those members, and where did they go?
>
> What was the $2,390 of promotion in 2012 spent on?
>
> What is inside the "Liabilities, Credit Cards" row of spending that each
> year is around $7-8k?
>
> Why does "Income:Sugar:Donations" near the top and "Donated To [Software
> Freedom] Conservancy" differ?
>
> Cheers
> Dave
>
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>
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Adam Holt]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:
>
>> You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
>> role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
>> you -- would you consider giving back in this way?
>>
>
> Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust me
> to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)
>

I'll take that as a [Yes!]

Certainly if nobody but Walter and I are willing to maintain
self-consistency at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions
and http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Minutes and
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance etc, we will need to consider a paid
Financial Manager per Caryl's recommendation so we move beyond Magical
Transparency to Material Transparency, that you and others keep asking for.

Til we grow up into a healthy ecosystem where Volunteers & Paid
Professionals work alongside with complete respect, per Bastien's
reminder.  On that note I have very close friends in direct contact with
the worldwide experts in Participatory Budgeting if we need that
facilitation.  Note this does Not reduce costs nor accelerate
decision-making -- but it increases the Democratic Input of Everyone,
similar to http://loomio.org -- if for example Servant Leadership is our
goal?

In the end of course it's all a question of putting our money where our
mouth is :>

(I can and will bring in experts in Participatory Budgeting later if that
turns out to be appropriate.)


>
>> (SFConservancy.org has not yet replied to us explaining how a/our
>> nonprofit's bylaws should be published, but certainly
>> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance and
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions will need to hang
>> together to build institutional memory without an excess of contradictions,
>> and we could certainly use your outsider comparative perspective here if
>> so!)
>>
>
> mediawiki has a 'lock' feature to allow certain pages to only be edited by
> certain users. We should use it for such 'serious' pages.
>
> Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and replaced
> with a static site generator backed by a distributed version control "pull
> request" model of collaboration.
>
> http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page" (that
> could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd party web editors
> like http://prose.io provide the "wiki" experience of editing pages
> directly, but with the PR permissions model that - IMHO - cultivates more
> quality.
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
>
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Sebastian Silva]

El 11/04/16 a las 13:56, Walter Bender escribió:
>
>
> Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and
> replaced with a static site generator backed by a distributed
> version control "pull request" model of collaboration. 
>
> http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page"
> (that could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd
> party web editors like http://prose.io provide the "wiki"
> experience of editing pages directly, but with the PR permissions
> model that - IMHO - cultivates more quality.
>
Mediawiki has been an administration burden from infrastructure team and
Local Labs as well.

+1 on static site generators. Last year we replaced Wordpress for Nikola
at somosazucar.org. Lektor is also interesting. Both are small enough to
fit into a Sugar Activity for offline scenarios :-)

>
> Something to discuss before the Wiki Gardening weekend. We do have
> some community members who do a decent job of tending to the
> day-to-day needs of the wiki, but it has lacked an Olmstead for some
> time. Maybe we just pull the best of the wiki into a static site? 

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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Walter Bender]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

>
> On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:
>
>>
>> You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
>> role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
>> you -- would you consider giving back in this way?
>>
>
> Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust me
> to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)
>
>
>> (SFConservancy.org has not yet replied to us explaining how a/our
>> nonprofit's bylaws should be published, but certainly
>> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance and
>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions will need to hang
>> together to build institutional memory without an excess of contradictions,
>> and we could certainly use your outsider comparative perspective here if
>> so!)
>>
>
> mediawiki has a 'lock' feature to allow certain pages to only be edited by
> certain users. We should use it for such 'serious' pages.
>
> Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and replaced
> with a static site generator backed by a distributed version control "pull
> request" model of collaboration.
>
> http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page" (that
> could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd party web editors
> like http://prose.io provide the "wiki" experience of editing pages
> directly, but with the PR permissions model that - IMHO - cultivates more
> quality.
>

Something to discuss before the Wiki Gardening weekend. We do have some
community members who do a decent job of tending to the day-to-day needs of
the wiki, but it has lacked an Olmstead for some time. Maybe we just pull
the best of the wiki into a static site?

-walter


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>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org

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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Dave Crossland]

On 11 April 2016 at 14:32, Adam Holt  wrote:

>
> You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
> role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
> you -- would you consider giving back in this way?
>

Sort of: I don't want to take on any responsibility, but you can trust me
to make unsolicited recommendations to everyone ;)


> (SFConservancy.org has not yet replied to us explaining how a/our
> nonprofit's bylaws should be published, but certainly
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance and
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions will need to hang
> together to build institutional memory without an excess of contradictions,
> and we could certainly use your outsider comparative perspective here if
> so!)
>

mediawiki has a 'lock' feature to allow certain pages to only be edited by
certain users. We should use it for such 'serious' pages.

Generally I think all mediawiki instances should be retired and replaced
with a static site generator backed by a distributed version control "pull
request" model of collaboration.

http://designwithfontforge.com has semi-prominent "edit this page" (that
could be even more prominent) and Github itself and 3rd party web editors
like http://prose.io provide the "wiki" experience of editing pages
directly, but with the PR permissions model that - IMHO - cultivates more
quality.
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Adam Holt]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

> SORRY
>
> I shot this off and didn't double check, I think I confused myself because
> (IIRC) Adam put together the finance wiki page summary and I got confused
> =)
>
> THANK YOU WALTER :D
>

Dave,

You are thorough enough to consider the fiduciary/stewardship secretary
role outlined below, and/or coaching/mentoring someone younger to assist
you -- would you consider giving back in this way?

(SFConservancy.org has not yet replied to us explaining how a/our
nonprofit's bylaws should be published, but certainly
https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance and
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions will need to hang
together to build institutional memory without an excess of contradictions,
and we could certainly use your outsider comparative perspective here if
so!)

> Sugar Labs unfortunately lacks a secretary to keep important records
organized and published at the moment.  Can someone be found to lighten
Walter's load in coming years, fulfilling this critical
fiduciary/stewardship task?

> Please contact us if you are interested in this very practical role, and
as a personal benefit to your own resume, your will learn a lot about
strengthening practical governance efficacy along the way.

-- 
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Dave Crossland]

SORRY

I shot this off and didn't double check, I think I confused myself because
(IIRC) Adam put together the finance wiki page summary and I got confused
=)

THANK YOU WALTER :D
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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Walter Bender]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> Thanks to Adam for putting together
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions - is a great read
> :)
>

I put this collection together as a quick reference, not as a place to go
for the details...

>
> I have some questions about some of the motions, but some are a few years
> old and perhaps it is no longer easy to answer them - no pressure :)
>

I'll try find time to dig into most of these over the next day or two.

-walter


>
> > selectricity
>
> This sounds great! What was the experience of using it like in 2009?
>
> Today www.loomio.org seems like a similar/alternative tool that could be
> used productively.
>
> Reading the IRC logs, the meetings are pretty chaotic. While IRC has
> 'voice privileges' to allow an op to de/mute certain handles to "pass the
> mic" and keep things more orderly, I think it would be better to do voting
> via email or loomio and keep the IRC meeting for discussion motions before
> they are voted on.
>
> > the design direction being proposed by Luca
>
> Where can I read about this?
>
> > We agreed that further discussions with the SFLA about the merits of
> trademark protection is needed.
>
> (I guess SFLA is a thinko and it was either SFLC or Conservancy :)
>
> Given the trademark fee was recently paid to renew the trademarks, I guess
> the merits were accepted; but I'm curious what they were stated as at the
> time. Where can I read about the discussions at that time?
>
> > desirability to have a meeting of Sugar Labs developers a couple of
> times per year
>
> What SL developers meetings are planned for this year, if any?
>
> > Sugar Labs encourages all GNU/Linux distributions to package and
> distribute Sugar
>
> All is a long list. Where is a list of distros that have packaged sugar's
> latest release in February?
>
> > Local labs can issue Sugar certificates (and charge for this service
> whatever they want)
>
> This is an interesting business model for Local Labs. When and where were
> such certs sold? When was the most recent certificate issued by any Local
> Lab?
>
> Which Local Labs are still active?
>
> > to keep the GSoC 2010 mentor funds as our general funds.
>
> Were subsequent years also retained as general funds? Will the GSoC 2016
> mentor funds be retained also?
>
> > Making Learning Visible
>
> Where is this text?
>
> > do a survey to solicit feedback from deployments
>
> Where are this survey's results?
>
> --
> Cheers
> Dave
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org

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Re: [IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Adam Holt]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> Thanks to Adam for putting together
> https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions - is a great read
> :)
>

This is Walter Bender's very hard work, and a huge step forward in 2015.

Sugar Labs unfortunately lacks a secretary to keep important records
organized and published at the moment.  Can someone be found to lighten
Walter's load in coming years, fulfilling this critical
fiduciary/stewardship task?

Please contact us if you are interested in this very practical role, and as
a personal benefit to your own resume, your will learn a lot about
strengthening practical governance efficacy along the way.

I have some questions about some of the motions, but some are a few years
> old and perhaps it is no longer easy to answer them - no pressure :)
>
> > selectricity
>
> This sounds great! What was the experience of using it like in 2009?
>
> Today www.loomio.org seems like a similar/alternative tool that could be
> used productively.
>
> Reading the IRC logs, the meetings are pretty chaotic. While IRC has
> 'voice privileges' to allow an op to de/mute certain handles to "pass the
> mic" and keep things more orderly, I think it would be better to do voting
> via email or loomio and keep the IRC meeting for discussion motions before
> they are voted on.
>
> > the design direction being proposed by Luca
>
> Where can I read about this?
>
> > We agreed that further discussions with the SFLA about the merits of
> trademark protection is needed.
>
> (I guess SFLA is a thinko and it was either SFLC or Conservancy :)
>
> Given the trademark fee was recently paid to renew the trademarks, I guess
> the merits were accepted; but I'm curious what they were stated as at the
> time. Where can I read about the discussions at that time?
>
> > desirability to have a meeting of Sugar Labs developers a couple of
> times per year
>
> What SL developers meetings are planned for this year, if any?
>
> > Sugar Labs encourages all GNU/Linux distributions to package and
> distribute Sugar
>
> All is a long list. Where is a list of distros that have packaged sugar's
> latest release in February?
>
> > Local labs can issue Sugar certificates (and charge for this service
> whatever they want)
>
> This is an interesting business model for Local Labs. When and where were
> such certs sold? When was the most recent certificate issued by any Local
> Lab?
>
> Which Local Labs are still active?
>
> > to keep the GSoC 2010 mentor funds as our general funds.
>
> Were subsequent years also retained as general funds? Will the GSoC 2016
> mentor funds be retained also?
>
> > Making Learning Visible
>
> Where is this text?
>
> > do a survey to solicit feedback from deployments
>
> Where are this survey's results?
>
> --
> Cheers
> Dave
>
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
> --
> 
> 
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @
> http://unleashkids.org !
>
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[IAEP] Seeking insights into Oversight_Board/Decisions

[Dave Crossland]

Hi

Thanks to Adam for putting together
https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/Decisions - is a great read
:)

I have some questions about some of the motions, but some are a few years
old and perhaps it is no longer easy to answer them - no pressure :)

> selectricity

This sounds great! What was the experience of using it like in 2009?

Today www.loomio.org seems like a similar/alternative tool that could be
used productively.

Reading the IRC logs, the meetings are pretty chaotic. While IRC has 'voice
privileges' to allow an op to de/mute certain handles to "pass the mic" and
keep things more orderly, I think it would be better to do voting via email
or loomio and keep the IRC meeting for discussion motions before they are
voted on.

> the design direction being proposed by Luca

Where can I read about this?

> We agreed that further discussions with the SFLA about the merits of
trademark protection is needed.

(I guess SFLA is a thinko and it was either SFLC or Conservancy :)

Given the trademark fee was recently paid to renew the trademarks, I guess
the merits were accepted; but I'm curious what they were stated as at the
time. Where can I read about the discussions at that time?

> desirability to have a meeting of Sugar Labs developers a couple of times
per year

What SL developers meetings are planned for this year, if any?

> Sugar Labs encourages all GNU/Linux distributions to package and
distribute Sugar

All is a long list. Where is a list of distros that have packaged sugar's
latest release in February?

> Local labs can issue Sugar certificates (and charge for this service
whatever they want)

This is an interesting business model for Local Labs. When and where were
such certs sold? When was the most recent certificate issued by any Local
Lab?

Which Local Labs are still active?

> to keep the GSoC 2010 mentor funds as our general funds.

Were subsequent years also retained as general funds? Will the GSoC 2016
mentor funds be retained also?

> Making Learning Visible

Where is this text?

> do a survey to solicit feedback from deployments

Where are this survey's results?

-- 
Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Bastien Guerry]

Hi all,

as much as I appreciate efforts to be completely transparent on those
issues, would you mind having the discussion on a single mailing list?

Receiving those emails twice is a bit stressful.

Thanks!

And a big hugs to all paid or unpaid Sugar/OLPC *volunteers* <3

-- 
 Bastien
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Laura!

Thanks for the spreadsheet - this is great!

On 10 April 2016 at 23:57, Laura Vargas  wrote:

> According to the published numbers (I'm attaching a Spreadsheet with the
> information published by you) for the last 4 years, ~80% (USD$26,400) of
> expenses are related to promotional travels/activities of a very reduced
> group of members.
>

Who are those members, and where did they go?

What was the $2,390 of promotion in 2012 spent on?

What is inside the "Liabilities, Credit Cards" row of spending that each
year is around $7-8k?

Why does "Income:Sugar:Donations" near the top and "Donated To [Software
Freedom] Conservancy" differ?

Cheers
Dave
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Adam Holt]

On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 11:57 PM, Laura Vargas 
wrote:

>
> Adam,
>
> Am not sure how the Conservancy can help us get better if we don't have
> our financial policies well defined.
>
> According to the published numbers (I'm attaching a Spreadsheet with the
> information published by you) for the last 4 years, ~80% (USD$26,400) of
> expenses are related to promotional travels/activities of a very reduced
> group of members.
>
> Only 4,13% (US$ 1,375) has been dedicated to development.
>

Thanks Laura for your thoughts and I see your perspective.  But it depends
how one defines development (program activities).  Grant documents specify
"program activities" to mean a whole lot more that software obviously, even
if programmers wish it were otherwise!  Sometimes travel (can) get us the
best bang-for-the-buck in program development, when community organics
blossom especially.  And Walter Bender has explained that he has offloaded
significant expenses to partner organizations, to the benefit of Sugar
Labs.  So please take seriously that developing a Turtle Art community was
the #2 goal of the TripAdvisor grant, and the investment needs to measured
against that goal.  As the defining documents of the TripAdvisor grant
specify:

"Sugar Labs will provide periodic reports as to its progress in its
internationalization efforts as well as document the scope and scale of the
creation of materials and levels of participation in Turtle Art Day(s), and
a measure of the impact of this program on the expansion of our user base
through metrics such as downloads, project uploads, and the level of
participation of teachers and students in our on-line fora. Sugar Labs will
also provide TripAdvisor with detailed reports on all spending."

"The Charity spends no less than 80% of its total expenses on program
activities that directly furthers the mission and goals of the
Charity...Annual Financial Statement will include, at a minimum, a
breakdown of expenses (e.g., salaries, travel, office expenses) that shows
what expenses were allocated to program, fundraising, and administrative
activities."

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance fulfills the above broad reporting
request/requirement and thank you for your spreadsheet which makes this
more colorful.  None of us are perfect, and if mistakes were made that
means we are human.  But we are trying, even despite not being paid (for
example I have never received a travel benefit or compensation from Sugar
Labs, nor has Haiti where I work, unlike Peru where you work).  In
conclusion, Sugar Labs is doing a much better job in the last couple months
of respecting the original intent of the TripAdvisor grant, particularly
once we (1) start spending on localization/internationalization which is
long overdue and (2) satisfy their reporting requests/requirements,
hopefully shared with Sugar's Community (where permitted) to re-inspire all.

You are quite correct we can and should become more deliberate with our
financials clarity / purpose, hence Caryl Bigenho & Dave Crossland's hard
work on the Financial Manager document below.  Those who have experience
which relatively-drama-free organizational budgeting (intentionality) are
asked to please assist them by refining their proposal right here -- so
that transparency is no longer just a buzzword in this neighborhood, but a
community practice/culture we learn together.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16jIFuZ9bX-Bv675BpA1KmcEcRcX4PRCOUEX0ICRUkOc

*Coherence towards increasingly united visions indeed!*

Adam Holt
Sugar Labs Oversight Board Liaison to SFConservancy.org

For Sugar Labs Community/Board to be able to make coherent decisions,
> financial planning should be done ASAP with whatever funds remain in SL
> accounts. It might be necessary and convenient to split accounts with
> Capital from Trip Advisor grant to really understand the contingency.
>
> Only by having awareness of how unbalanced the situation is, the
> board/community may be able to propose an adequate course of action.
>
> As a preliminary conclusion, we need to define purpose/vision/strategy and
> plan for a fundraising soon.
>
> Best regards,
> Laura
>
>
>
> 2016-04-10 13:18 GMT+08:00 Adam Holt :
>
>> On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 1:01 AM, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, Apr 9, 2016 at 10:33 PM, Dave Crossland  wrote:
>>>

 On 9 April 2016 at 11:26, Caryl Bigenho  wrote:

> I also agree that $500 does seem excessive, and even inappropriate


 FWIW, I thought it was small; it is under minimum wage for some places.

>>>
>>> Some teachers I work with in Haiti make less than this amount in an
>>> entire year :(  When the TripAdvisor grant's defining 2013 document said
>>> "Sugar Labs is a 100% volunteer project" that may have been the case, but
>>> it is evidently no longer the case today.  Mako's point about volunteer
>>> motivations (
>>>