[Sur] Sugar Digest 2014-11-03

[Walter Bender]

==Sugar Digest==

1. I spent the month of October reaquainting myself with Javascript.
Since I cannot learn without learning about something (to paraphrase
Seymour Paper), I wrote a new version of Turtle Blocks in Javascript
[1][2]. It is far from finished, but it is already usuable (at least
from a Chrome browser -- for some reason I have broken it on Firefox).
Feedback most welcome both in terms of the activity itself and any
improvements I can make to the code. (Note: saving is a bit flakey at
the moment, so please be prepared to lose your work.)

It is inevitable that Javascript/HTML5 is in our future and so I am
determined to make the best of it. While we were in San Francisco at
the Google Summer of Code reunion, Martin Abente, Gonzalo Odiard, and
I sent time with Raul Gutierrez Segales working on several aspects of
the Sugar-web framework, including a model for "under the tree"
collaboration. Martin wrote a simple server using socket.io and I
wrote a simple neighborhood view that lets you see your collaborators.
We had the opportunity to bounce ideas of Ben Schwartz, Sameer Verma,
Aaron Borden, and Bernie Innocenti.

Raul, Martin, and I also did some brainstorming about developing a new
web backend for the Sugar datastore based on git. Details to follow.

Tip of the hat to Alex Kleider, who hosted our Sugar Camp on his
houseboat in Redwood City. Alex has also been providing me with
comprehensive feedback on Turtle Blocks JS.

Aside: Raul added a wrapper to Turtle Blocks JS that enables it to be
launched as a Facebook App. Not public yet as we await Facebook
approval, but it opens some interesting possibilities about where we
can take some of the core ideas from Sugar.

2. The Google Summer of Code reunion was lots of fun. A chance to
catch up with old friends and to help bring into focus some future
directions. I spent time with the Google Code In team and I got Sugar
Lab's application submitted. We still need to flesh out the wiki page
[3] with more task ideas and add our growing mentor list. Please
contact me regarding details.

3. Gonzalo, Aaron, and Sameer organized Turtle Art Day San Francisco
in conjuncton with the OLPC SF meeting. While more sparsely attended
than we had anticipated, nonetheless, it was an enriching experience
for those who came. Martin also joined the fun, helping with some
Turtle Bots programming.

4. It is not too late to toss your hat into the ring for the annual
Sugar Labs Oversight Board election (AKA SLOBs). Four (4) seats are
open (due to staggered seat terms) for election / re-election to the
Sugar Labs Oversight Board for 2013-2014, those of Daniel Francis,
Gonzalo Odiard, Adam Holt, and Claudia Urrea. Please let me know if
you are interested running for one of our board seats and also, please
add your self to the candidates' wiki page [4]. Also, since only
members receive ballots, please be sure to sign up for membership by
following the instructions in the wiki [5]. Finally, we need help
running the election itself. Please contact me (or Luke Faraone) if
you are interested in helping.

=== Sugar Labs ===

5. Please visit our planet at [6].

-walter

[1] https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs
[2] https://turtle.sugarlabs.org
[3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Google_Code_In_2014
[4] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Oversight_Board/2014-2015-candidates
[5] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Members#Applying_for_membership
[6] http://planet.sugarlabs.org

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org