"Weekend" report.

[Jim Gettys]

As I noted last week in the mail below, we do a weekly report for the
community and sponsors.

Please try to get me any notes by 15:00 EST.
                                     Thanks,
                                            - Jim


On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 23:45 -0500, Jim Gettys wrote:
> "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." - Wizard of Oz
> 
> I want to explain a bit about how things happen behind the scenes, and
> encourage the OLPC community to contribute.
> 
> Once a week Walter Bender prepares a "Weekend report" that goes to the
> sponsors of the OLPC project; it also forms the basis of the public
> reports you find in the wiki (e.g.
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Current_events).
> 
> Walter gets grist for his mill from OLPC staff who send him material
> after some collection and editing.  For software, these people are Chris
> Blizzard and myself.  Chris handles the UI, applications and Sugar end,
> and I handle the firmware, base operating system and libraries and run
> time environment.  These reports have been sorted through and edited by
> Walter on the "weekend"; that is where the name comes from.
> 
> It is all too easy for us to make mistakes and overlook important items
> from community members who happen to not be OLPC staff, or for the work
> OLPC staff are doing integrating what is primarily community work to
> over emphasize staff people's work (e.g. integrating drivers or
> activities others have done most of the work on). On at least one
> occasion, I've felt extremely stupid making such a mistake and had egg
> all over my face. And activity is now to the point where often Chris or
> myself fall behind reading mailing lists, and literally don't know
> everything that is happening. 
> 
> If you have an item you think may be of general interest on what you (or
> others) been doing to send it to Chris or myself for possible inclusion
> in weekend.  Just put "weekend" in the subject line, and we'll know your
> intent.
> 
> I take the reports I get from people and reorganize them into topics,
> but I try hard not to leave anything out; in this way, Walter also gets
> a global view of software end of the project.  By reorganizing into
> topics, we can avoid needless duplication, since so much work is done by
> collaborations of people. Sometimes Walter leaves items on the cutting
> room floor as he makes the call on what is most interesting to the
> general audience; there is no guarantee that any particular item
> necessarily will appear in weekend.
> 
> If you do send Chris or myself a note for weekend, please try to get it
> to us by mid afternoon Friday Cambridge, Massachusetts time, so that we
> can get a weekend roll up to Walter in time that he doesn't necessarily
> have to spend his weekend editing weekend, and so everyone can read it
> on the weekend instead. :-)  
> 
> You can also send us concerns you have that should remain private if you
> wish; please mark such concerns clearly that they are not for
> publication.
>                Thank you all for all your hard work and help!
>                                      Jim Gettys
> 
-- 
Jim Gettys
One Laptop Per Child