Many diligent months in the making, Ubuntu Sugar Remix (USR), the special community-developed add-on to the commercially-sponsored Ubuntu open source operating system containing the Sugar Learning Platform, will be released by Sugar Labs DC.
Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1-4pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive
Arlington, VA 22204
Contact Page, Google Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info
Learn why Ubuntu Sugar Remix is family and kid-friendly, with the ability to meet entertainment, productivity and educational needs for all ages in one easy-to-use free operating system. A lab-full of computers will have the new release installed, and representatives from Sugar Labs DC and the Ubuntu Dc LoCo will be on hand to orient you to the features.
After the release party, a group will head over to the Lost Dog Cafe, 5876 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA, for dinner.
written by Mike Lee on 5 October 2010 Comments Off
…you should too!
written by Mike Lee on 23 September 2010 Comments Off
Sugar Labs DC presents Turtle Art Day as a celebration and learning opportunity for the amazingly versatile Turtle Blocks and Turtle Art Mini activities for OLPC XO laptop, Sugar on a Stick and Ubuntu operating system. Turtle Art incorporates many of the graphical capabilities of the seminal Logo programming language and has been championed in recent years by Walter Bender of Sugar Labs. Interested parents, students, and teachers can experience an introduction to Turtle Art at the Career Center. There will also be a sneak preview of the new Turtle Art Activity Portal where Turtle Artists of all ages can upload their works to share. The gallery has some sublimely beautiful pieces.
Saturday, August 7, 2010, 1-4pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive
Arlington, VA 22204
Contact Page, Google Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info
Download the poster artwork from Flickr.
NOTE: This event takes the place of the previously announced August 21st meeting. There will be no meeting on August 21st!
Eternal Snow by Jeff Elkner
written by Mike Lee on 18 July 2010 Comments Off
Demoing the litl webbook to Sugar Labs’ Sean Daly at a recent impromptu meet-up.
*** Note new time for August meeting. See end of this post. A new blog post will have more details.
This month, we’re doing a weeknight meet-up to look at a bunch of cool new OLPC-related hardware and another new release of the Sugar Learning Platform.
OLPC News July DC Meetup: See the Pixel Qi screen
Tuesday, July 13 at 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Looking Glass Lounge
3634 Georgia Ave NW in DC
1 block south of Georgia/Petworth Metro Station
RSVP on Facebook if you do the social networking thing…
The star of the evening will be a working example of the long awaited daylight-readable Pixel Qi 3Qi netbook screen recently offered as a DIY kit to swap into several models of off-the-shelf netbooks. The screen is the breakthrough technology originally developed by Mary Lou Jepsen for the OLPC XO that is now deployed on close to 2 million machines in developing countries. This technology is not only available now as a kit for hobbyists from Maker Shed, but will also soon be built into some major brands of consumer netbooks. See our previous blog post about this impressive DIY screen replacement kit.
We will also have the latest major milestone 10.1.1 build of the Sugar Learning Platform on Fedora for BOTH the OLPC XO-1 and XO-1.5. More details on the release notes page. This is a must-have if you own a G1G1 XO laptop. It’ll be like you have a new machine after this upgrade and the Learning Club can advise you on the process at this and future meet-ups and meetings.
Hot off the UPS truck after a big (and much needed) price drop is Mike’s “litl webbook,” which is a large digital picture frame that flips around to become a web-only laptop that also connects to your flat screen TV. The litl is significant to the OLPC movement in that it was designed by the same firms that worked on the original OLPC XO. Pentagram NY designed the user interface, and fuseproject the industrial design. The litl’s radically simple new user interface even contains software coded by several former OLPC employees. The litl is the closest embodiment to a consumer oriented XO laptop, except that it’s meant for your comfy broadband-connected living room or kitchen.
Jon Camfield will have the current incarnation of FrontlineSMS installed on his GSM modem-equipped OLPC XO-1. FrontlineSMS can send text message blasts out to groups, and manage replies, using only cellphone service. The system has proven invaluable for effecting agile communications in remote areas that do not have standard internet connectivity.
The Learning Club’s next meeting will be back at the Arlington Career Center on Saturday August 21 August 7, 2010*** at 1pm. Sugar Labs DC will present a much-anticipated workshop on TurtleArt as well as provide a peek at the social networking site they are building to support the software. Check back on the blog the week before or in your email inbox for meeting updates.
Hope to see you soon!
Flickr photo by Wayan Vota.
written by Mike Lee on 8 July 2010 Comments Off
We’re postponing our normal June meeting due to office moves, vacations and general busyness. I am working with Wayan Vota to do an OLPC News Meetup in early July as well as having a Saturday meeting back at the Arlington Career Center.
OLPC is actively working on the XO-1.75 laptop as well as starting to brainstorm about the tablet-based XO-3. Sugar Labs has released another version of their USB drive-based software called Sugar on a Stick Mirabelle. OLPC Headquarters staff are updating their official blog much more often, so do visit the Planet OLPC and Planet Sugar Labs news aggregator sites.
Please don’t hesitate to contact one of us via the email addresses listed on our home page if you need help with anything.
written by Mike Lee on 18 June 2010 Comments Off
Scratch Circus
Saturday May 22, 2010, 1-4pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive
Arlington, VA 22204
Contact Page, Google Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info
Our second annual Scratch Day–sporting a circus theme for concurrent workshops–will arrive this Saturday afternoon at the Arlington Career Center in Virginia. We’ve expanded our program this year to run three concurrent hands-on workshops (rings!) for teachers, parents and kids. The latest version of Scratch, the MIT Media Lab’s fabulous interactive authoring software, is installed in each of the computer labs. We also expect to be able to show a new release of Scratch 1.4 that runs on the OLPC XO-1 laptop with support for the built-in camera and the Journal file system.
Our special guest is Michael Badger, author of Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide. Michael will help lead one of the workshops. His publisher, Packt Publishing, has generously sponsored our event with several copies of the book to raffle and book discount flyers.
Here is the event schedule:
1:00 – 1:30pm Check in, main lobby
1:15 – 1:30pm Welcome and orientation
1:30 – 3:30pm Scratch workshop for teachers re-certification class
1:30 – 3:30pm Scratch workshop for parents and teens
1:30 – 3:30pm Scratch workshop for young children (8 – 12 years old)
3:45 – 4pm Raffle prizes and closing remarks
The Scratch Team at MIT has produced a couple fun promotional videos.
And there’s much more to celebrate besides the software itself: The Scratch Team won a $194,000 grant from Reimagining Learning to take the software to version 2.0, and recently, the 1 millionth project was uploaded to the Scratch web site! Watch this video about Scratch 2.0.
Thanks again to Packt Publishing!
For more information, visit our wiki page.
Update 5/21/10:
The welcome slides are on Slideshare.
Here is the event poster on Flickr.
I’ll try to Twitter with the #scratchday hashtag.
Phone cam shots and other photos will be uploaded on this Flickr set.
written by Mike Lee on 17 May 2010 Comments Off
It’s that time of year again to do Scratch Day! Returning to the Arlington Career Center on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010, our kid-friendly theme this year is “Scratch Circus.” We plan to have three activities running simultaneously during the afternoon. Like last year’s event, there will be much learning, fun and prizes!
Scratch is a free programming language developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.
More details will be posted next month, but this coming Saturday at 1pm, we’ll have an informal planning meeting at the Arlington Career instead of a programmed meeting. If you want to participate in planning Scratch Day in any way, please stop by before 2pm. We’ll be up the right-hand staircase in room 208. If you need help with your OLPC XO or have a related question, we’ll be happy to help.
**Special Planning Meeting for Scratch Day**
When: Saturday, April 17th, 2010, 1 pm to 3 pm (please arrive before 2pm)
Arlington Career Center, Room 208
816 South Walter Reed Drive,
Arlington, VA 22204
(Contact Page, Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info)
In other news, Sugar Labs has released Sugar on a Stick .88. Many bug fixes, usability improvements and new features have been added. Both Turtle Art and Etoys have been substantially updated and there are many new activities available.
written by Mike Lee on 12 April 2010 Comments Off
A fan of MIT Scratch has developed a project viewer for the iPhone!
This month, we are back at the Arlington Career Center (ACC) with an introductory workshop on the MIT Media Lab’s fabulous (and free) Scratch 1.4 interactive animation software and a reprise of last month’s XO laptop repair clinic.
When: Saturday, March 20th, 2010, 1 pm to 4 pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive,
Arlington, VA 22204
(Contact Page, Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info)
We will start the meeting with an 90-minute introductory workshop on Scratch, the multimedia interactive programming software developed by the MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten Group and used by thousands of children, parents and teachers all over the world. The interface and features of Scratch will be covered, and participants will be able to create and upload an animated greeting card. The Scratch software runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux, so it can be used by virtually anyone who owns a computer. As pictured above, there is even a viewer app that runs on Apple’s iPhone, iTouch and the upcoming iPad.
Luke Faraone, who runs our OLPC DC Repair Center, will do another XO repair clinic to review the takeapart and reassembly procedures (bring a philips head screwdriver and an XO if you want to participate) and help with any specific repairs visitors may need. We have limited quantities of spare parts for purchase. Some of the new early production XO-1.5 laptops have arrived and we will have some on display.
Upcoming
A few of us will gather at the Arlington Career Center the weekend of March 27-28 to update the text and some images of the old web start pages for the XO-1 laptop. More info here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Start
Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 17 at Gallaudet University. (This meeting has moved to 1pm at the Arlington Career Center. See next blog post.)
On May 22nd, we’ll spend the entire day celebrating Scratch Day 2010 at the Arlington Career Center. Please save the date!
written by Mike Lee on 13 March 2010 Comments Off
We return to Gallaudet University this snowy February to meet two young social entrepreneurs who are making a big difference in the OLPC community.
What: Family XO Meetup
When: Saturday, February 20th, 2010, 10 am to 1pm
Where: Gallaudet University [map, aerial photo], Student Academic Center,
**NOTE ROOM CHANGE: We are UPSTAIRS from the old meeting rooms in the basement on the first floor [floorplan], in computer lab SAC 1010, Washington, D.C. 20002
In the summer of 2009, Beth Santos (pictured above left with kids) worked with OLPC and an NGO to successfully deploy 100 XO laptops at a secondary school on the small island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, which is in the Gulf of Guinea off the western equatorial coast of Africa. Beth will share some stories from her remarkable journey and detail her plans to return to the island this year with more laptops.
Perfectly complimenting Beth’s talk, Luke Faraone, a longtime member of the Learning Club, will conduct a beginner’s workshop on maintaining and repairing the XO laptop hardware. Luke runs the Learning Club’s busy repair center, which is authorized by OLPC to install original replacement parts and revive laptop software that refuses to start. The XO laptop is uniquely designed to be easily repaired in the field with an ordinary screwdriver. Please bring your XO laptop and a small Phillips head screwdriver if you want to follow along.
More help for the children of Haiti
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many immediately thought of the rugged XO laptop as a perfect solution for bringing education to the children in the camps. In addition to longer-term plans with other NGOs, OLPC has come up with a plan to recover unused Give One, Get One laptops. Visit the OLPC blog for details on where to ship if you have one to donate.
Upcoming events…
Thursday, March 11 – Project H Design has begun its Design Revolution Road Show featuring a display of 36 innovative products (from their book of 100, which includes the XO laptop) that are making a significant social impact in the world. The national mobile tour brings their Airstream trailer to Baltimore for a stop and evening lecture at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Saturday, March 20 – We’ll be back at the Arlington Career Center.
written by Mike Lee on 5 February 2010 Comments Off
TimeLapse is computer software for the Sugar Learning Platform used to gather periodic data (sound and images). It is the first software activity developed by Sugar Labs DC and runs on the OLPC XO-1 laptop. The idea for TimeLapse grew out of the exciting, eclectic, interdisciplinary meeting of scientists, computer programmers, pedagogues, and hardware hobbyists originally brought together by the OLPC Learning Club DC.
Dr. Frank Linton, who has an observation bee hive in his house, was interested in studying the relationship between the sound made by the hive and the health and well being of the bees inside. He wondered if he could use his XO laptop to gather periodic sound sampling from the hive. This real world need became the seed for the development of TimeLapse.
Over the past two years, with Dr. Linton acting as customer, Jeff Elkner, and a group of young programmers from Sugar Labs, DC have made steady improvements to TimeLapse. The current release is the first one that is installable through the Browse Activity in Sugar, making TimeLapse easily available to Sugar users all over the world.
Come celebrate the accomplishment of these talented young programmers. Bring your XO and try out TimeLapse for yourself.
Update: TimeLapse is now available for download on the Sugar Labs activities site.
Note time change!!!
When: Saturday, January 16th, 2010, 1 pm to 4 pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive,
Arlington, VA 22204
(Contact Page, Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info)
Walter Bender of Sugar Labs will join in by video conference from Cambridge, MA.
We’ll also raffle off an original copy of the new XtraOrdinary 2010 SD card!
written by Mike Lee on 6 January 2010 Comments Off
last comments