XOCamp 2

A miniconference is being held from Start date::November 17, 2008 - End date::November 21, 2008 in Has location city::Cambridge, Has location country::USA to help frame the coming 2 years of software development, prioritizing needs for the 9.1.0 release stream and the Sugar 0.84 release.

Please submit proposals for topics to cover. These may include, but are not limited to:

• immediate or future features and risks,
• philosophical questions (java? codecs? narrative?)
• process and infrastruture proposals
• current and needed research
• reviews of available data and feedback

Agenda

This is a very early proposed agenda : please feel free to edit and improve it!

Mon 17 : scope and expectations setting.  
  revisiting core vision and goals
  8.2.1 v 9.1 v 0.84  |  this year v Future releases
  xo+sugar v sugar    |  olpc & sugarlabs collaboration & process
  initial feedback    |  introspection on feedback received to date, surprises, concerns
  initial roadmap     |  the 'before' of the b&a, a review of current goals

Tue 18 : country feedback review; brainstorming and open sessions
  see proposed session ideas below
  feedback & review   |  feedback from schools, teachers, facilitators, reporters
    country nutshells |  overview of the status of many partner countries  

Wed 19 : brainstorming, open sessions, and presentation of technical proposals

Thu 20 :    "    "   

Fri 21 : review, roadmap updates, wrapup & next steps
  summarize actionable items, publish week in review
  gather feedback from the week, update the 9.1 and Future roadmaps
  final roadmap       |  the 'after' of the b&a, updating 6 month and Future goals
  
Sat+   : report, writeup.  
  reflection for the next miniconf; thoughts for Jan's community conf
  report sections for : devs [dev/sugar], upstreams [list], deployments, educators, testers?

Session moderators and scribes

We will need moderators for the five days of the event; roughly 2 people at a time for 6 hours each day. sign up below if you will be in Cambridge and are interested.

interested in moderating

• ...

We will also need session transcribers or notetakers for the same timeperiod; preferably in the room in case there are network troubles.

interested in being a scribe

• --Sj talk (Tu/W/Th 1300-1400)
• ...

Proposals

Propose talks below and list your name below talks you'd like to see.

To add a proposal, please use the following format:

* '''TITLE''' - description - presenter [if you have one in mind] 

Title - please make this as short as possible while being precise.

Description - this should be 20-100 words long. Please leave longer descriptions on a separate page dedicated to the subject.

Presenter- If you can present on the topic, include your name. If you are suggesting someone else as presenter, add a question mark after their name unless they have confirmed they can lead the session, and notify them of your interest.

General topics

• Annotation - storing general annotations for documents and other works. Formats, tools, Sugar/Journal integration. - ???
  • --Sj talk

• Book reading - reading texts : interface[s] for reading, bookmarking, annotating; combining readers for different formats; models to follow. - [sayamindu?]
  • --Sj talk

• Searching - there are various places where one searches for information in daily use of an XO. Improvements to search (in the journal, in sugar views, in browse) are discussed
  • ..

• Translation - the ability to click on part of an interface and translate it, for personal use and then for sharing with others, is a quick rewarding hack that provides a sense of system ownership.
  • --Sj talk
  • --User:CScott (I can make a proposal on this topic; I hope others can give talks, too.)

• Multiplayer wikipad - sharing a namespace of versioned editable docs. MikMik update. - [Mako?]
  • --Sj talk

• Customizing skins - setting desktop themes and backgrounds is another quick rewarding way to feel ownership of one's system
  • ..

Sugar

• Fixing & featuring activities - process and progress about activity updates; from maintainer pinging (newsreader, paint) to regular activity-review (gcompris sets, simcity). Similarly, publicizing partly-finished activities (shikhar's email, b-logo).
• Next-generation journal ideas
  • --User:CScott (I can give a talk)
• Interoperation with legacy apps
  • --User:CScott (I can give a talk on this topic, but others may be more qualified)
• Printing -- XS runs CUPS, XO prints to XS, profit! discuss
  • --User:CScott (I'd like to hear a talk)
• Libraries -- can libraries be more than static content? can they be merged with activity bundles?

Networking

• Network principles -- how do we find others and collaborate with them?
  • --User:CScott (I can give a talk on this topic)
• Asynchronous internet --- offline caching and browsing, library integration?
  • --User:CScott (I can make a brief proposal; I'd like to hear others present)

Linux

• Filesystems -- replacing jffs2
  • --User:CScott (I hope Deepak can give a talk on this topic)
• Updates -- Updating faster/better for 9.1
  • --User:CScott (I can give a talk)

Security

• Theft-deterrence -- what are we doing, what can we do better
  • --User:CScott (I can give a talk)
• Isolation and untrusted (versions of) activities
  • --User:CScott (I hope that Michael will speak on this)

Country overviews

Who is using XOs, for what; what are their main problems and delights, where are they sharing thoughts & requests? Cross-prioritization needed : building local developer groups v. building connections with them v. solving their immediate problems.

We should have presentations or slides from as many deployment with an active team or a significant # of laptops as we can, to help organize their needs, see what work they are doing on their own and work on where there is overlap. Perhaps this can be one afternoon, with a wrapup to bring the results of the various sessions together.

Programs at scale

• Peru - educator & volunteer teams, tech group
• Uruguay - 3 national teams, outside grants for blog-tool development; custom builds and servers

Country nutshells (also see deployment status on Deployments page):

1. Ethiopia - digitization efforts
2. Haiti - localization
3. Rwanda
4. Mongolia - large schools
5. Birmingham - servers
6. Nepal - their servers, curriculum ideals
7. Paraguay - their wiki, roadmap, plans
8. India - local RH office
9. Australia & Oceania - infrastructure development, activity work [videochat]
10. More (Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, China, NY/IL, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique)