The Sweet Spot – Issue 002
Recent news for December 29, 2024
Welcome to the second issue of the "Sweet Spot", a newsletter for Sugar Labs-related news in development, student and teacher work, events, how to get involved, and other news and information. This newsletter will be published semi-regularly for now, but the plan is
to publish it on a bi-monthly, perhaps even monthly, basis in the future. Our aim with this newsletter is to help keep the growing body of Sugar Labs contributors on the same page, all while documenting our growth for our own and others' reference.
These first issues are meant to set a precedent of communication and documentation, as well as to help inform the community of our current status, recent progress, and future plans. Its predecessor is the
“Sugar Digest”, which still serves as an important catalog of our activities. Like Sugar Digest, this newsletter is intended to keep community members in the loop about everything going on within Sugar Labs. It will highlight any recent publications from us. It will
occasionally include links to third-party news and updates that our community finds relevant.
Updates
Today, help Sugar Labs continue to transform education
December 3, 2024
Sugar Labs is in the middle of a campaign to raise funds necessary for outreach, software development, project maintenance, mentorship, and more. Having left Software Freedom Conservancy in 2020, this year is the first that Sugar Labs is investing financially in its own growth,
and we’d love to have your participation in this pivotal moment. We’ve been particularly heartened to see volunteers in our community assist with various aspects of this campaign, such as making improvements to our website. You may also participate in our fundraiser, while getting something nice for yourself or a loved one, by purchasing Sugar Labs merchandise from our new store on Bonfire.
Read executive director Devin Ulibarri’s letter to the community to learn more about the work we’ve done this year, consider making a donation or purchasing merchandise, and please help spread the word.
- https://www.sugarlabs.org/community/2024/12/03/help-SL-continue-to-transform-education/
- Make a donation to the current campaign: https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign\_id=NEAV3YL4H6B5S
- See our new donation banner, created by volunteers in our development community: https://www.sugarlabs.org/
- Contribute to Sugar Labs by purchasing Sugar Labs brand merchandise: https://www.bonfire.com/sugar-labs-education/
Sugar Labs election information and results
December 19, 2024
Sugar Labs completed an election for three seats to its Board of Directors for the 2025-26 cycle. The results are out, and the winners are Devin Ulibarri, Sumit Srivastava, and Sebastian Silva. Read the articles to learn more about Sugar Labs’s election process and how you can prepare to participate in the next election.
- https://www.sugarlabs.org/community/2024/12/19/election-results/
- https://www.sugarlabs.org/community/2024/11/22/elections-extension/
- https://www.sugarlabs.org/community/2024/11/08/fall-board-elections-how-to-participate/
Sugar Labs expands its social media presence to Bluesky and WhatsApp
December 9,2024
Sugar Labs is now on Bluesky and WhatsApp. Sugar Labs continues to maintain a presence on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Mastodon, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Github. We decided to join Bluesky and WhatsApp in an effort to expand our reach. For those active on any of these platforms, please follow Sugar Labs to help our outreach
efforts.
Newly joined social media platforms:
- Follow us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sugarlabs.bsky.social
- Reach out on WhatsApp: https://wa.me/16177024088
Note: For a complete list of our official social media channels, please see the “Social and Communication Links” section at the bottom of this newsletter.
Reflections from Constructing Modern Knowledge 2024
November 27, 2024
This past July, Sugar Labs executive director and Music Blocks co-maintainer Devin Ulibarri attended Constructing Modern Knowledge (CMK). In this post, Ulibarri shares his experience at the teacher institute, what he learned, and what it could mean for Sugar Labs. He also shares his group’s “Lego Notation for the Blind” project, which is a step toward using physical Lego blocks as musical notation to convert to a programming language such as Sugar Labs’s Music Blocks. By taking Lego blocks, configured pitch-over-time on a baseplate, a camera connected to a computer can image the Legos and translate them into musical code. While the system is not yet complete, the article gives insight into what Music Blocks can do, how Sugar Labs is approaching outreach (as well as learning from other educators), and a glimpse at what we’re looking to create in the future.
James Simmons’s Sugar Story: Writing new Activities and sharing Sugar with youth
September 3, 2024
Sugar Labs community member James Simmons shares his story about his involvement with Sugar Labs. Simmons tells us how he began contributing to the Sugar Learning Platform by expanding the functionality of the Read Activity and adding support for e-texts. In addition to authoring Read ETexts, he also created View Slides and Read SD Comics Activities to support the ability to read comic books in CBZ format. Having had this experience writing Activities for Sugar, he wrote Make Your Own Sugar Activities! as a manual for
anyone interested in writing their own Activities for Sugar.
- https://medium.com/@sugarlabs/james-simmonss-sugar-story-writing-new-activities-and-sharing-sugar-with-youth-9282c66f9219
- Download Make Your Own Sugar Activities! From Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/MakeYourOwnSugarActivities (English) and https://archive.org/details/ComoHacerUnaActividadSugar (Spanish)
- See all of James’s Activities: https://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/user/45
(Volunteer) Help wanted
Sugar Labs is seeking volunteer assistance in the following
ways. Sustained, committed help in any of the following areas will help us grow as an organization. If you are passionate or curious to learn more about any of these roles, and are able to commit the time necessary, then we encourage you to apply. Send a notification of your interest to info@sugarlabs.org, including some information about yourself, what interests you about the volunteer role, and what experience/qualities make you a good candidate for the position.
Sugar Labs is a growing organization. We don't currently have the resources to hire people to fulfill these roles. Our hope is that we one day will be able to, but, for now, we are looking for volunteers who can work with the executive director and the board to work diligently to improve our operations. What we can provide, in return,
for your help, is assistance in conducting your role and mentorship (especially in the case of technical roles). Plus, you'll gain the experience and satisfaction of working with an organization that aims to do good in society.
Please see: https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Help_Wanted and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZLFBZkE34
Upcoming events and meetings
Sugar Labs hosts events and meetings for the community. The current list of scheduled events and meetings are as follows:
- Music Blocks meetings: Every Sunday at 7:00 EST (12:00 UTC) on https://meet.jit.si/ResponsibleMasksForecastHastily
- Sugar Activity meetings: Every Wednesday (except January 1, 2025) at 7:00 EST (12:00 UTC) on https://meet.jit.si/ResponsibleMasksForecastHastily
- Sugar Labs Board of Directors meetings: Every Wednesday at 14:30 EST (19:30 UTC) on https://matrix.to/#/#sugar:matrix.org
About Sugar Labs
Sugar Labs® is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a global mission to create educational opportunities in technology to youth around the world. Volunteer mentors and contributors work together to develop activity-focused software for children. All software is developed with learning as the primary goal, necessitating the need for source code to be published publicly for study, licensed under a Free/Libre license for explicit permission to share and remix, and openly worked upon within a community where students are invited to make contributions, under guidance of experienced mentors. You can learn about how to make a donation to support the work of Sugar Labs at http://www.sugarlabs.org/donate/.
Social and Communication Links
Below is a complete list of all the official social media and other communication channels for Sugar Labs. If you are on any of the social media platforms, such as Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or X/Twitter, we encourage you to show your support for Sugar Labs by following us. If you are interested in testing and development, GitHub and Matrix are where you can report issues and ask questions.
Communications on our official channels must abide by our Code of Conduct.
- Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/sugarlabs.bsky.social
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/SugarLabsforall/
- GitHub – https://github.com/sugarlabs
- Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sugarlabsforall/
- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/sugar-labs
- Mailing lists – https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mailing_Lists
- Mastodon – https://mastodon.social/@sugar_labs
- Matrix – https://matrix.to/#/#sugar:matrix.org
- Medium – https://medium.com/@sugarlabs
- Snail mail and phone – https://www.sugarlabs.org/contact-us/
- Twitter/X – https://twitter.com/sugar_labs
- Wiki – https://wiki.sugarlabs.org
- WhatsApp – https://wa.me/16177024088
- YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@SugarlabsOrg-EN
Back issues of “The Sweet Spot”
You can find this issue and past issues of “The Sweet Spot” at https://www.sugarlabs.org/community-news/