Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] The Future of Sugar on a Stick

2009-09-14 Thread Caroline Meeks
On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 5:12 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz <
bmsch...@fas.harvard.edu> wrote:

> Sebastian Dziallas wrote:
> > So my vision is that this SoaS is actually *the* way of distributing
> > Sugar, as a SL product. If Sugar Labs doesn't think so, I'd have
> > preferred to be informed much earlier.
>
> I don't think you're likely to find much support for that vision as
> phrased.  I think this may just be a wording problem.
>

SoaS has the potential to be a great way to provide access to
computing in many settings.  But its not the only
way nor does it always make sense.  For instance as Oscar Becerra,Chief
educational Technologies Officer, Ministry of Education of Peru points out
 "it is impossible to run 50 watt fragile high skill maintenance machines
like the netbooks in rural villages that are weeks away from any form of
civilization." http://www.undispatch.com/node/8859#comment-346

I also think its vital in the long term for SoaS to be compatible with LTSP
like solution for school computer labs, while still allowing children to
boot directly from their stick on a standalone, no internet computer at
home.  That is part of my vision for SoaS.

My dream is that Sugar is a platform that lets people around the world and
from various contexts work together on content, activities and pedagogy and
learn together how to use computers as effective, and cost effective,
learning tools.

I want SoaS to expand that learning community into places that have existing
computer hardware, I don't want  it to be a divider.  Yes, we need to
organize our technical work efficiently.  But when that is done lets be sure
that educators and volunteers and the press see Sugar as one thing that they
can contribute to and help children both near and far, in developing and
developed countries, to learn to learn.



> Some people here have distributed Sugar on hand-tuned hardware-specific
> customized disk images.  Some have distributed it using distro packages,
> to be installed directly on pre-existing Linux installations.  Some have
> built emulator images, installed, configured, and ready to run on any OS.
>  Some have configured Sugar to run on thick NFS clients, or thin LTSP
> clients.
>
> SoaS is a great way to distribute Sugar, but it will certainly never be
> "*the* way", as long as all these other people are around, working hard on
> other distribution mechanisms.
>
>
> ___
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> sl...@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/slobs
>
>


-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
carol...@solutiongrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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Re: [IAEP] [SLOBS] The Future of Sugar on a Stick

2009-09-14 Thread David Farning
On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Sebastian Dziallas  wrote:
> Martin Dengler wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 06:33:47PM +0200, Sebastian Dziallas wrote:
>>> Martin Dengler wrote:
 On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 05:32:55PM +0200, Sebastian Dziallas wrote:
> == What is SoaS? ==
>
> [...] SoaS aims to make it easy for local deployers to provide each
> student with a thumbdrive (stick) [...]

 Notably, this does not say "SoaS is Sugar Labs' way of providing
 [anyone] with a [image to put on a] thumbdrive".

 Should we understand SoaS goal as a source-only distribution-making
 kit?  If SoaS is to be Sugar Labs' way of distributing Sugar, we
 should clearly say so.  If not, then we should clearly say so as well.
>>>
>>> That's actually a pretty important point and affects strongly the
>>> future of SoaS. Since it clearly depends on SL's point of view, it's
>>> something on which other opinions (like SLOBs') are needed.
>>
>> It'd be interesting to have your point of view.
>
> Heh, yeah. I probably should explain...
>
> So my vision is that this SoaS is actually *the* way of distributing
> Sugar, as a SL product. If Sugar Labs doesn't think so, I'd have
> preferred to be informed much earlier. But wait, who's SL here?
>
> Is it me? Is it SLOBs? Who's going to provide certainty here?
>
> I personally would like to see open discussions about SoaS being made
> publicly on the mailing list (whether its a SoaS list or sugar-devel) to
> encourage as many people to get involved as possible as well as to
> minimise duplication of effort. I'd also like to gain this certainty
> about what are the plans for the SoaS brand in general are, etc.
>
> --Sebastian

I am working on a reply, which I hope articulates Sugar Lab's needs so
SoaS can figure out where it fits in.

david

> Thanks,
> Sebastian Dziallas

 Martin
>>>
>>> --Sebastian
>>
>> Martin
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