[Olpc-socal] OLPC-SoCal Update

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hi Folks,

Interesting things are happening these days at Sugar Labs.  What is Sugar Labs?  It is an international group of volunteer developers and testers who are working to bring the child-friendly open source Sugar software that comes with OLPC's XO laptops to other operating systems.  They are also developing and testing new programs and adaptations of other open source programs for children to run in Sugar both on the XO laptops and other computers.

There are Sugar Labs developers all over the world, from individuals in places like Paris and the Australian Outback, to official Sugar Labs groups of developers in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Washington DC.  If you are an open source developer, you are invited to join in the fun.  They would love to have you!  If you are just an adventurous computer user, you can help with testing. They would love to have you too. You can find more information at:

 http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Getting_Involved

And you can sign up for the SoaS (Sugar On a Stick) mailing list where you can learn more about what is going on:

http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas

Maybe someday we will have enough Sugar developers and testers in Southern California to have our own SugarLabs SoCal!

What about trying Sugar on your own laptop or desktop?  If your machine has an Intel processor, you can do it... whether it is a PC running Windows or Linux, or an Intel based Mac.  Teachers can use it with their classes, families with their children, or developers and educators can help test the latest builds.  If you would like to see it working on a MacBook and (maybe) an eeePC, and learn how to get it on your own computer using SoaS, come to the CUELA booth at LAUSD's free InfoTech event at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  Here is a link to information about it:

http://sites.google.com/site/lausdinfotech2010/

If you can't make it to InfoTech, you will find instructions on the SugarLabs wiki. I recommend the Windows method as being the easiest (difficult for this Mac-person to say):

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/SoaS_Blueberry_Instructions

We have several interesting OLPC Contributor's Program Projects in Southern California.  One of them is based at UCSB and pairs an elementary school in Goleta with one in Zambia.  They are setting up a pen-pal program and are writing educational science and math software for the children.  You can learn more about their project at their OLPC wiki page:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Santa_Barbara

Jam anyone?  I'm not talking about cooking up a batch with backyard fruit (a nice idea...Yum!) or getting together with musicians to play music (lots of fun!). I'm talking about a Jam where programmers, educators, and other interested people get together to create Sugar Activities at an event.  These have been very successful in other locations.  Why not Southern California?  Why not at SCaLE 9X in Feb 2011?  We have lots of time to lay the groundwork.  Anybody interested in helping?  Just do a reply all to this message.

If you have any open source software in education news, just send it to all of us with a reply all to this email (delete this text... put your own in and change the title).

Caryl Bigenho  

 








 		 	   		  
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