A few thoughts from the point of view of the newcomer.
Do we want a static web-site in front of the wiki?
Or should the web-site be kept fresh with a news / new
project / participation invited here section?
The logic of the shape of the wiki is sound - anyone with three month's
experience of the wiki might find it growing on them - but with little
experience how does the newcomer get to grips with it. Back office
functions are not signposted as such - or, more importantly, front of
house pages are not sufficiently highlighted as such.
Voice off, We are not rebuilding the wiki!
Perhaps explain a little the theory behind the Team and page naming
convention, but more importantly flag up and improve the ways in.
Can the web page do the front of house job?
Is Sugar like a travelling circus?
The aim is bottoms-on-seats, and the invitation is to come back stage.
What is front of house?
The auditorium is a Sugar experience,
but there are some technical hurdles just to get
in,
you may not have the technical language,
you may have to learn a bit
first.
What to learn is not
hard, but daunting to
many,
you may not know
what to expect,
or what to try.
In front of the auditorium is there a foyer?
A place for information about the coming show?
A bit of basic training?
A bit of orientation?
Having enjoyed the show - are there workshops? Improve your skills.
What's the next level?
I would like to try the high wire, what do I need to
accomplish first?
It is great that with Sugar you can talk to the fire-eaters on IRC, but
there would be potential for peer-to-peer community at teacher, student
and parent level - or does it exist already? Where?
At the developer level Sugar is commendably non-distro-specific, but to
a newcomer this makes the product less tangible.
Regarding How - as in how to get Sugar, how do we address the
intangibility of Sugar for a newcomer? Is it an operating system, is it
a program?
One idea I have is to set out a Q A, a little like this:
I have a Windows PC, how do I try Sugar?
I have an 8 year old second / spare computer, how could I best install
Sugar.
I have an XO, how do I start to communicate with people outside my
school?
Is there a Quick start page?
I have an XO, how do I start to hack it?
I use my only computer for on-line banking and it has all my wedding
photos on it, how do I safely install Sugar?
I tried Sugar on a Stick, how do I do this partitioning thing, and have
Sugar on my hard drive?
My kids have Sugar at school, how do I help them with it?
I saw a review of Sugar, how could I try to demonstrate it at my school?
I want to start teaching with Sugar, where do I get up to speed?
If I am struggling, is there a forum, to see what others have done?
Could the web site try to provide a deliberate range of answers to such
questions, trying to flag the answers, for instance; this is the easiest
option, requires a little advance knowledge of xyz, more robust, tried
and tested, try this after doing that, active project and links to
source of preparatory knowledge?
Each answer also hopes to find a link to the wiki. If gaps in the wiki
emerge perhaps we can fill them, or a least install a placeholder.
Where front-of-house placeholders have been established, we can try to
keep the placeholders marked and current, and/or have the ability to
update the web site with new projects and ideas.
This is all a bit haphazard - but I would be quite incapable of
contributing the ideas on IRC!
Regards,
Iain, aka inkyfingers.
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