(photo by by cizauskas)

Walter Bender writes a weeks wrap up of Sugar.  This was included in last weeks:

=== Sugar Digest ===

2. Sugar on a stick: Caroline Meeks and I visited a Boston public school to discuss with them the possibility of piloting a USB Sugar deployment, where the children would use USB sticks to boot Sugar at school and at home, using whatever computers are available. This deployment enables a school to use Sugar without making an upfront investment in new computers. It could be a very cost-effective approach to bootstrapping Sugar communities.

-walter
 

Edward Cherlin wrote:

This is what I have been missing. I knew about booting from a USB stick, but didn't put 2 and 2 together until just now. Earth Treasury's Africa project can now go full steam ahead.

This means that we don't have to wait for OLPC XO deployments in order to roll out our program.

o We can get shipping container loads of donated computers running Ubuntu Linux with Sugar, and deploy them _two_ per student, one at school, and one at home, anywhere in Africa that we can get a truck to. It isn't as good as being able to carry an XO laptop everywhere, but it allows students to collaborate on homework from their homes, an
essential part of the program.

o We can use computers already in schools without disturbing whatever is installed on them.

o Engineers Without Borders is starting work on a catalog of appropriate renewable energy technologies for every terrain and climate.

o I will approach Barefoot Coffee Roasters and Red Rock Cafe about joint fundraising to build up business in coffee-growing communities on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mt. Elgon in Uganda, two of the premier coffee-growing regions of the world.

o Tony Cratz of Hematite.com and OneVillage Foundation Ghana can put together a WiMax broadband Internet operation. I'l see whether Tim Pozar or Clif Cox of the free San Francisco Bay Area wireless networks would be interested.

o Fantsuam Foundation in Nigeria can provide microfinance to place electricity and Internet, to be paid back out of new economic opportunities.

"2+2=5 for sufficiently large values of 2."--Geek humor, with a point

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 Cool project Edward!!   Thanks for letting me know about it.