Guys,<br><br>I really don't know ...how you connect this to this thread if it has something to do with organizing our OLPC's information flow management....as to attract more collaboration, participation...etc...<br>
<br><a href="http://laptop.org/team/index.php/OLPC_Eco-system">http://laptop.org/team/index.php/OLPC_Eco-system</a><br><br>Just soliciting ideas here.... I'm open to any process, system that's why I'm excited to see what's Sameer's group is doing.<br>
<br>Cheers,<br>~mafe<br><br><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">"<font size="2">We can't do everything but we can do something"</font></i><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Sameer Verma <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu" target="_blank">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Bastien <<a href="mailto:bastienguerry@googlemail.com" target="_blank">bastienguerry@googlemail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Just to make sure: maybe I misunderstood Sameer's email. My point was<br>
> about fixing OLPC's information flow management, not Sugar's.<br>
><br>
<br>
The focus/scope of our project this semester has been the Contributor<br>
Program at OLPC. Although many other constituencies plug into this<br>
map, we simply didn't have time to do justice to all of them,<br>
Sugarlabs included. I'll be the first to point it out that the<br>
analysis is by no means complete, but it does provide a good degree of<br>
clarity to the process. I hope we can do the same for other<br>
constituencies in the next few months. After all, OLPC is still<br>
Sugarlabs' largest customer, and Sugar seems to be the only viable<br>
source for OLPC XOs in the field - they have to be connected.<br>
<div><br>
cheers,<br>
Sameer<br>
--<br>
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.<br>
Associate Professor of Information Systems<br>
San Francisco State University<br>
San Francisco CA 94132 USA<br>
<a href="http://verma.sfsu.edu/" target="_blank">http://verma.sfsu.edu/</a><br>
<a href="http://opensource.sfsu.edu/" target="_blank">http://opensource.sfsu.edu/</a><br>
<br>
</div><div><div></div><div>> Frederick Grose <<a href="mailto:fgrose@gmail.com" target="_blank">fgrose@gmail.com</a>> writes:<br>
><br>
>> According to <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs#Principles" target="_blank">http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs#Principles</a>, participants<br>
>> and contributors will.<br>
>><br>
>> One problem might be where best to document. The pending reports should help us<br>
>> sort out that issue.<br>
>><br>
>> === Principles === In order for Sugar to be successful, it needs the<br>
>> participation of a large number of people who share common goals while<br>
>> maintaining independence, so that each participant has the ability to act<br>
>> independently. For these reasons, Sugar Labs subscribes to the principles<br>
>> described [<a href="http://flors.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/" target="_blank">http://flors.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/</a><br>
>> the-paradigm-of-the-open-organization/ here], which are the author's own<br>
>> translation of an [<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20050317231119/http://" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20050317231119/http://</a><br>
>> <a href="http://interactors.coop/organizacionabierta" target="_blank">interactors.coop/organizacionabierta</a> original text in Spanish.] ====Identity===<br>
>> = * Clear mission – Fully disclosed objectives. * Declared commitments –<br>
>> Affinities and aversions explained. * Declared outside connections –<br>
>> Relationships with other organizations explicitly listed. ====Structure==== *<br>
>> Horizontal organization – Teams and facilitators work on responsibilities and<br>
>> agreements. * Identified contributors – Who is who, people are reachable. *<br>
>> Clear responsibilities – Who is in charge of what. * Activities described – All<br>
>> of the ongoing work is acknowledged. See [[<a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/" target="_blank">http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/</a><br>
>> Wiki_Team/Guide/Wiki_Structure | Wiki Structure]] for a guide to how the wiki<br>
>> models Sugar Labs' structure. ====Operation==== * Open participation – Anybody<br>
>> can access the information and get a first responsibility. * Meritocracy –<br>
>> Responsibilities are acquired (or lost) based on one's skills, results, and<br>
>> contributors’ support. * Voluntary (non-)engagement – Nobody is forced to be<br>
>> involved or to keep responsibilities. ====Information==== * Regular reports –<br>
>> Reported activities and future plans allow monitoring and participation. *<br>
>> Information accessible – Even internal operational information is available by<br>
>> default. * Explicit confidentiality – It is explained what matters are<br>
>> confidential, why, and who can access them. ====Goods==== * Economic model –<br>
>> Feasibility and sustainability plans are exposed. (Please see/contribute to the<br>
>> discussion [[Sugar Labs/Funding|here]].) * Resources – Inventory of items<br>
>> detailing who contributed what and why. * Public accounts – It’s clear where<br>
>> the money comes from and where it goes. * A special [[Sugar Labs/Thank You|<br>
>> thanks]] to our contributors.<br>
>><br>
>> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 6:12 AM, Bastien <<a href="mailto:bastienguerry@googlemail.com" target="_blank">bastienguerry@googlemail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> Sounds interesting.<br>
>><br>
>> It's a useful first step. IMHO the second step is to attribute clear<br>
>> responsabilities to real human beings: who does what when it comes to<br>
>> sending/receiving information.<br>
>><br>
>> I helped with maintaining the OLPC News page on the wiki for a while.<br>
>> It was not clear who was in charge of this; now that I declined doing<br>
>> it, it is still not clear who have to do it.<br>
>><br>
>> Sameer Verma <<a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu" target="_blank">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>> writes:<br>
>><br>
>> > Information flow is a critical problem for any organization. Some<br>
>> > researchers even point out that an organization is shaped by how<br>
>> > information flows within and outside of it. Free flow of information<br>
>> > builds networks. Restricted flow of information builds hierarchies. In<br>
>> > the OLPC context, information flow happens over several channels:<br>
>> > mailing lists, IRC, Talk pages, Wiki pages, phone calls, RT,<br>
>> > face-to-face, and IM (did I miss anything?). We all have preferences<br>
>> > for channels and applications. One can largely divide the channels<br>
>> > into synchronous (IM, Phone, etc) and asynchronous (e-mail, wiki) and<br>
>> > the applications that support these channels. We also tend to have<br>
>> > preferences for applications: wiki, forum, mailing list, IRC etc.<br>
>> > Then, there's the element of public vs private conversations. As a<br>
>> > researcher in Information Systems, I find these problems very<br>
>> > interesting.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > Two problems arise:<br>
>> > 1) too many channels (example: if I wasn't on the phone conference,<br>
>> > I'll miss out the details via IRC) lead to lack of critical mass and<br>
>> > fragmentation<br>
>> > 2) The application (wiki or IRC or mailing list) is a hammer and every<br>
>> > problem looks like a nail that it can fix. "Throw it on the wiki" is a<br>
>> > source of a lot of misery!<br>
>> ><br>
>> > Then there is the element of fashionable social networking (flickr,<br>
>> > twitter, tumblr, etc)...as if e-mail, IM, IRC, and chatter at cafes<br>
>> > aren't social networking! That topic is for another day :-) My<br>
>> > approach is that we figure out the problem first, and then find a tool<br>
>> > to fix it. Activity centric as opposed to application centric. Sound<br>
>> > familiar?<br>
>> ><br>
>> > So, this semester, I worked with five of my graduate students who<br>
>> > undertook a Information Systems Analysis and Design project to analyze<br>
>> > the OLPC information flow problem and come up with some design<br>
>> > concepts. All the students were new to the problem. This was useful<br>
>> > because their perspective was quite new and they asked some very good<br>
>> > questions.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > They used phone interviews, e-mails, in-person interviews, and<br>
>> > observations on the mailing lists, phone conferences, and the RT<br>
>> > system to gather data. A huge thank you to Adam Holt, Seth Woodworth,<br>
>> > SJ Klein and a bunch of other who contributed and facilitated.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > In brief, they have pulled together the following:<br>
>> ><br>
>> > A general problem mind map (Freemind)<br>
>> > Context map (Dia)<br>
>> > Data Flow Diagrams (Dia)<br>
>> > Entity-Relationship Diagram (Dia)<br>
>> > Prototype (Drupal)<br>
>> > Report and presentation (OpenOffice)<br>
>> ><br>
>> > Their semester ends next week, and the report and presentation are due<br>
>> > on the 21st. However, given that SugarCamp is this weekend, we'll try<br>
>> > to post bits and pieces on the wiki in the hope that it will help with<br>
>> > some of the discussion (marketing@sugarlabs cc'd). In the spirit of<br>
>> > keeping things open and generative, we have decided to release the<br>
>> > documents, slides and diagrams under a CC license and also release<br>
>> > source files to make modifications easier. We've also stuck with FOSS<br>
>> > titles and open formats for all documents - this was a bit of a<br>
>> > struggle because some of the tools are not as mature as their<br>
>> > proprietary counterparts (Dia vs Visio) and the students were a lot<br>
>> > more familiar with the proprietary ones (Visio vs Dia).<br>
>> ><br>
>> > There are some unfinished pieces, which will hopefully be worked on in<br>
>> > the next few months to add better definition to the overall flow of<br>
>> > information. Stay tuned to this thread for updates.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > cheers,<br>
>> > Sameer<br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>> Bastien<br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
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>><br>
</div></div>>> _______________________________________________<br>
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<div>><br>
> --<br>
> Bastien<br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Marketing mailing list<br>
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><br>
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