| Time | Nick | Message |
|---|---|---|
| 11:01 | jt4sugar | SeanDaly: hello sean |
| 11:01 | \ | |
| 11:02 | SeanDaly | Sorry about rescheduling this |
| 11:02 | Juggling everything not easy | |
| 11:02 | caroline | no problem |
| 11:02 | jt4sugar | Juggling never is |
| 11:02 | caroline | Another potential agenda item - Communicating back to IAEP |
| 11:03 | SeanDaly | caroline: +1 |
| 11:03 | caroline | jt4sugar -my kid makes juggling look easy :) |
| 11:03 | SeanDaly | To start off just a few words about press coverage |
| 11:03 | I'm pleased with it | |
| 11:03 | caroline | Sean +1 |
| 11:03 | SeanDaly | Some individual articles not precise, but nobody harpooned us |
| 11:04 | And, in general we are raising awareness in terms of being well-referenced | |
| 11:04 | But, I am concerned at the total lack of coverage by the education press (2-3 blogs excepted) | |
| 11:04 | caroline | +1 |
| 11:04 | SeanDaly | as I said on the list I think a film will help us to reach out more to educators |
| 11:05 | caroline | Also I think when we focus on "releases" we reach out to technical people. |
| 11:05 | SeanDaly | caroline: in general our orientation is actually very technical |
| 11:05 | It's understandable, but a bit of a handicap | |
| 11:06 | caroline | Sean, right so its not suprising that Educators are tuning out. |
| 11:06 | like the separation from OLPC, I think its something we slowly make progress on. | |
| 11:06 | SeanDaly | My own background is IT + tech journalist |
| 11:07 | caroline | Maybe we'll get an Ed journalist/marketer volunteer to come along and help. |
| 11:07 | tomeu | here |
| 11:07 | SeanDaly | We can make quicker progress if there is good article in e.g. Teacher magazine |
| 11:07 | caroline | I'm thinking the next release should focus on activities. |
| 11:07 | Sean, any clue how to make that happen? | |
| 11:07 | jt4sugar | I am meeting with group at Purdue University today-Purdue STEM P-12 at Discovery Park-http://www.purdue.edu/dp/ |
| 11:08 | SeanDaly | Well... the hard part is picking which Activity or two :D |
| 11:08 | caroline | We were talking about doing it for a milestone on the activities portal. |
| 11:08 | SeanDaly | But, if you look at my proposed storyboard for the little film, we absolutely have to show Activities in action |
| 11:09 | jt4sugar: what do they do? | |
| 11:09 | caroline | I'm noticing that people are not yet getting that - 1. This is for first world kids too. 2. The increased access and reduced cost of having kids use existing computers at school, home and after-school. |
| 11:09 | SeanDaly | Another way would be to catalog lessons around a star Activity, building on the Gabon lesson plans & others |
| 11:09 | walterbender | jt4sugar: maybe a theme for tomorrow's conf. call is to get them to write an article about Sugar for the Edu community |
| 11:10 | jt4sugar | Involved in the STEM disciplines Science,Math,Engineering, Technology Grades pre-school to 12th grade |
| 11:10 | caroline | what are the Gabon lesson plan? |
| 11:11 | SeanDaly | French document written by teachers in Gabon: #LINK http://collabo.fse.ulaval.ca/o[…]aute-d-apprenants |
| 11:12 | caroline: yes, everyone seems to think Sugar is a Plan B for developing countries "since OLPC is failing", etc. | |
| 11:13 | jt4sugar | SeanDaly: when in France can we find someone to translate that document |
| 11:14 | SeanDaly | And I agree Sugar can give a new lease on life on older PCs, and be an excellent new-netbook solution |
| 11:14 | jt4sugar: Ed Cherlin asked on the list but nobody took him up | |
| 11:14 | My own plate is too full | |
| 11:14 | caroline | Here is a concrete suggestion. Can we put together a few paragrpahs and links about our results and then we can send it out to IAEP and the people we know in US education and ask for advice on how to let people know that this is for the developed world too. |
| 11:15 | sort of a way to brag while asking for advice, hoping it means they will blog about us. | |
| 11:15 | SeanDaly | caroline: what kind of results should we put forward? |
| 11:15 | caroline | I'm thinkng Lucie and Steve |
| 11:16 | SeanDaly | caroline: ? |
| 11:16 | caroline | Sean, links to the best stories written about us in the last week. |
| 11:16 | SeanDaly | ah OK |
| 11:16 | In fact I want to take 2 minutes to talk about a part-time function I have: publicist | |
| 11:17 | Marketer: fixes strategy, works on positioning, writes copy, briefs & signs off on creative | |
| 11:17 | PR: puts out fires & controversies, available for journos, writes press releases | |
| 11:18 | Publicist: works the phones & e-mail, getting influential people interested | |
| 11:19 | For example some of the stories about us were not the result of the press release, nor the targeted mailing, but because I submitted the release with a friendly note | |
| 11:19 | caroline | yay Sean! |
| 11:19 | walterbender | SeanDaly: Caroline and I keep striking out trying to recruit a Publicist... |
| 11:19 | SeanDaly | A good publicist could e.g. compile a list of 100 bloggers that count in education, and work on them with personal contacts |
| 11:20 | caroline | Walter, but we so love going to bat! :) |
| 11:20 | SeanDaly | In fact I feel we could find some great marketing/PR/publicist talent in universities |
| 11:20 | People studying communications looking for experience | |
| 11:21 | caroline | maybe esp over the summer |
| 11:21 | SeanDaly | OK can we talk about some other misconceptions? |
| 11:21 | walterbender | SeanDaly: that is where Caroline and I have been looking :( |
| 11:22 | SeanDaly | walterbender: ah but did you "market" the project to the budding marketers? ;-) |
| 11:22 | Here's an idea: I have found two business school professors who gave courses studying OLPC as a business case | |
| 11:23 | caroline | We also are not effectively recruiting volunteers. We don't adverstize anywhere for instance. Like idealist, or Craigs list. |
| 11:23 | SeanDaly | I was thinking of contacting them about it, would they be willing to ask students |
| 11:23 | caroline: I agree we need to step up volunteer drive | |
| 11:24 | But, we are better positioned now than 2 months ago with our slightly higher visibility | |
| 11:24 | jt4sugar | SeanDaly: Yes if you frame it as Service Learning for students |
| 11:24 | walterbender | alas, as caroline and I experienced, cat shelters have more appeal to students :( |
| 11:24 | caroline | I think Volunteer Drive and Volunteer Pipeline Management are things we should work on in Paris and before. |
| 11:25 | SeanDaly | jt4sugar: I am 100% sure communications students would be willing to volunteer some time since we could teach them a lot |
| 11:25 | caroline: +1 | |
| 11:25 | Conserning misconceptions: Marten raised a good one which can be summed up as "the YouTube test" | |
| 11:25 | walterbender | SeanDaly: we need a better pitch to reach comm students than the one that caroline and I use |
| 11:25 | SeanDaly | hola s/conserning/concerning |
| 11:26 | walterbender: don't worry I can drop buzzwords ;-) | |
| 11:26 | jt4sugar | SeanDaly: Cold call to Professor with idea of enhancing students experience through real life project |
| 11:26 | SeanDaly | jt4sugar: my idea exactly |
| 11:27 | of course, timing is off, would work better in the fall | |
| 11:27 | but you never know mayybe a student can't find an internship anywhere | |
| 11:28 | About misconceptions. Back when I was a salesman on Wall Street I used a classic method | |
| 11:28 | jt4sugar | SeanDaly: Best to start now so it is embedded in the fall projects |
| 11:28 | SeanDaly | jt4sugar: +1 |
| 11:28 | The method was to write down possible objections | |
| 11:29 | caroline | Actually I thinka lot of kids will not have summer jobs this summer |
| 11:29 | SeanDaly | Then write down a reasonable-sounding answer negating the objection |
| 11:29 | And - this was important - redirecting the conversation. Returning the serve, so to speak. | |
| 11:30 | I've been doing this "organically" in the press release copy but of course we don't have nearly enough feedback to know for sure where our barriers are | |
| 11:30 | walterbender | SeanDaly: sounds like a plan... |
| 11:31 | SeanDaly: we had a myth buster page in the olpc wiki | |
| 11:31 | SeanDaly | yes - If we can enumerate misconceptions, we can respond to them |
| 11:33 | I like "myth buster" :-) | |
| 11:33 | caroline | ok so we did - Sugar is for 3rd world kids. |
| 11:33 | and Sugar has no content | |
| 11:33 | SeanDaly | "interface is unusable"... except by kids :D :D |
| 11:33 | walterbender | rather than trying to come up with a list now, let's start a page in the wiki? |
| 11:34 | SeanDaly | walterbender: +1 |
| 11:34 | Caroline, do you think you could create that page? | |
| 11:34 | caroline | Sean maybe we turn that one into Trix are for Kids |
| 11:34 | SeanDaly | caroline: "silly rabbit!" |
| 11:34 | caroline | Sean I have a contest, Paper and presenattion between now and monday so no, not volunteering for any writing assignment |
| 11:35 | walterbender | trac for kids... nice idea :) |
| 11:35 | SeanDaly | Not urgent but I will be travelling and offline from tomorrow evening until Sunday |
| 11:35 | caroline | Monday is last day of class, life will be better afterwards :) |
| 11:35 | walterbender | is trying to track down a Turtle Art bug :( |
| 11:36 | SeanDaly | I have a confession to make |
| 11:37 | While in the UK last week I bought 3 books on Python | |
| 11:37 | I'm going to try to set aside 20-30 mins per day to look at View Source in Sugar and learn from it :-) | |
| 11:39 | I think I will understand dev challenges better if I get closer to code | |
| 11:39 | caroline: did you see my suggested storyboard for YouTube film? | |
| 11:39 | caroline | yes |
| 11:39 | SeanDaly | walter made I think a good suggestion that we stay focused on you & SoaS |
| 11:40 | caroline | I'm not exactly movie star material :) |
| 11:40 | SeanDaly | caroline: don't have to be... just factual & enthusiastic about Sugar |
| 11:41 | caroline | but we want to focus on our current communciation goals - Sugar is for kids everywhere including your neightborhood and Sugar has lots of educational activities. |
| 11:41 | ok, what is our plan for turning it into reality? | |
| 11:41 | There was a documentary major from Harvaard in thier olpc club. | |
| 11:41 | jt4sugar | Need two sets of videos-Set for Python and Sugar Code(how to) and videos of activities in action-Turtle Art-etoys-infoslicer-turtle art portfolio |
| 11:41 | caroline | but last time I asked for filming help no one responded. |
| 11:42 | SeanDaly | Video production is very, very time-intensive |
| 11:42 | In general, film students glad to help for the experience | |
| 11:42 | caroline | another recruitment issue. |
| 11:42 | SeanDaly | But equipment is expensive |
| 11:42 | caroline | but all universitites and most US Schools have it. |
| 11:42 | SeanDaly | On the plus side, lots of videos are just somebody's cellphone |
| 11:43 | i have piles of audio & video eqpt | |
| 11:43 | caroline | i've seen high school videos that were really good. |
| 11:43 | jt4sugar | caroline: Have you tried contacting any of the local high schools |
| 11:43 | caroline | what we need is the kids with the time to do it. |
| 11:43 | jt4sugar no I need soemthing I can send them. | |
| 11:43 | Sean, I also still need soemthing to goto Staples with. | |
| 11:43 | SeanDaly | Even though we might be weak in lighting, and sound, and wobblyness, if the coontent is good nobody will care |
| 11:44 | caroline | I think in general we need copy for volunteer recruitment |
| 11:44 | SeanDaly | caroline: yes I haven't forgotten that |
| 11:44 | jt4sugar | caroline: I don't believe so, I think just calling their Teacher would do |
| 11:44 | caroline | maybe there is one in your area jt4 |
| 11:44 | SeanDaly | Marten was suggesting about 10 documents we should do as PDFs, I can hardly get 1 out the door |
| 11:45 | caroline | Sean, many of those were documentation that should be someone else's job - again recruitment |
| 11:45 | SeanDaly | Years ago while a record producer, I called up an audio engineering school & they sent over a very talented student the next day |
| 11:45 | I apologized for being unable to pay her on that project but 2 weeks later she told me she had learned more than past 2 months | |
| 11:46 | It's true that with more hands on deck we coould get a lot more done | |
| 11:47 | and heaven knows lots of tasks are thankless and not superfun, yet important | |
| 11:47 | jt4sugar | If you called a local High School told them you wanted their students to film Walter talking about Sugar for a Global audience pretty sure they would jump at the chance |
| 11:47 | SeanDaly | In Paris i will have a camera or two and we can at least film rushes for editing later, but it is key to work out a scenario - what we want to show |
| 11:48 | caroline | I also feel like we need a clearer pipeline. If I had a kid who was good with video I have no where to point her too. I feel like I'd have to run the whole project myself. |
| 11:48 | SeanDaly | jt4sugar: I'm sure that's true. Their work would be up on YouTube, etc. |
| 11:48 | caroline | that is honestly the biggest reason I don't call the schools. I don't want to get in over my head. |
| 11:48 | jt4sugar | Kids are very smart they can figure it out |
| 11:49 | SeanDaly | caroline: I sympathize... organizing somebody's work is time-intensive too |
| 11:49 | jt4sugar: yes that's true but sometimes they get stuck & need just a couple words to get unstuck | |
| 11:50 | Mullinng it over Ii really like the idea of finding a video production class in a school | |
| 11:50 | jt4sugar | You give a high school film student basic scenario-3 min video of Walter showing off Turtle art-You'll get it after a few takes |
| 11:51 | SeanDaly | For example, editing can take an age, but students like to do it |
| 11:51 | caroline | JT are you volunteering |
| 11:51 | ? | |
| 11:52 | SeanDaly | Some of the best vids about OLPC I saw were journalist's kids |
| 11:52 | Downside was always: standalone machine, so no collaboration :-( | |
| 11:53 | caroline | Saturday in the New Media Literacy Confernece at MIT |
| 11:53 | I can't go too much work | |
| 11:53 | but if someone could it might be a good place to recruit a video teacher. | |
| 11:54 | http://newmedialiteracies.org/ | |
| 11:54 | jt4sugar | If Walter lived in Michigan-I can place calls to find out who might do it-then send them your way |
| 11:54 | SeanDaly | This might sound wild but we could also consider breaking it up: rushes by one crew, editing by another? |
| 11:55 | caroline | I will likely be less stressed next week. |
| 11:55 | Right now I have to go. Sorry | |
| 11:56 | SeanDaly | Me too have to leave soon |
| 11:56 | Shall we wrap it up for today? | |
| 11:56 | walterbender | Yeah. I need to take off... |
| 11:56 | SeanDaly | jt4sugar: btw my brother getting married in Michigan in 1 year :-) |
| 11:57 | OK thanks everyone | |
| 11:57 | #endmeeting |