Open Source Comes to Campus/JHU

From OpenHatch wiki

Open Source Comes to Campus: JHU

This workshop is running Thu Sep 13, and Sat Sep 15.

It's in two parts: The first is a regular ACM meeting on Thursday ACM meeting, at 6 PM, and the second is a full-day Saturday event.

Audience: anyone interested in getting started contributing to open source projects (in any capacity, including code, documentation, artwork, translations, and more). Additionally, the tools and skills we'll cover are universally useful and aren't typically taught in school, so anyone with an interest in the material is welcome and encouraged to attend!

Want to contribute to open source projects, but not sure where to start or what tools to use?

In this 2 day workshop we'll cover:

  • what open source is: where it came from, what makes it important, and the many ways to contribute
  • the life cycle of a project bug
  • using IRC to get help and talk to other project contributors
  • how to create and submit a patch to a bug tracker for review
  • how to check out code stored in a revision control system and apply patches to it

By the end of this workshop you will have hands-on experience with all of the common tools used to contribute to open source projects and will be ready to go out and contribute to your first project. We'll wrap up with resources to continue practicing and ways to find good projects and bugs for new contributors.

Space is limited, so you must RSVP for this event!

Thursday schedule

  • 6 PM: JHU ACM meeting on "How to communicate with open source communities, as a user" (derived from [1] and [2]). Current plan is that Asheesh gives this. I'm open to other ideas! (:

Location: Hackerman Hall, B17

Saturday schedule

  • 10 - 10:10: Welcome, and introduction, and brief staff self-introductions. Meet in Shaffer 100.
  • 10:15 - 11:05: Command line skills workshop (two levels: basics, and advanced)
    • Basics and laptop setup: delivered by Asheesh in Shaffer 100
    • Advanced workshop (patching and compiling): Venkatesh Srinivas and John Sumpo, Shaffer 101
  • 11:10 - 11:30: History and ethics of open source, taught by Asheesh (all together in Shaffer 101)
  • 11:30 - 12:00: Careers in open source panel (moderator needed; could be Asheesh)
    • Panelists: Robert Treat of OmniTI, Denise Paolucci of Dreamwidth, and Venkatesh Srinivas of Google, and Stephen Frost of Noblis, Inc
  • 12:00 - 1:00 PM: Lunch! Students and panelists have time to chat.
  • 1:00 - 1:55 PM: Full-group discussion of how version control with git works. It'd be great if this included a demonstration of reviewing and merging an actual contribution so the students can see that process. (Teacher: Luke Faraone. TA: Tyler, and all other staffers.)
  • 2 - 6 PM: Project time! (see below)
  • 6 PM: (if people stay this long) Dinner provided

Location: Shaffer Hall, room 101

Volunteer roles

In this section, you'll find a brief description of all the different available volunteer roles.

Teacher: In this role, you work with the curriculum goals of one of the teaching sessions (Command Line Basic, Command Line Advanced) and then make a plan (lecture, slides, exercises) to achieve them.

Teaching assistant: During each of the teaching sessions, we'll need people to roam around the room and answer questions people have. That applies both to the lecture time and any exercise time. Staffers are most-needed during exercise time. (I think this part is lots of fun! You also get to see how hard everything is that you think is easy.)

Project representative: During project time, you will represent your open source community and help students find appropriate tasks. This requires pre-planning and finding good tasks for people to work on within your project. You also should make sure you know what skills are required for helpers for your project.

Project helper: During project time, students are going to get stuck on things. Your job is to work with them and "un-stick" them.

Sponsors

We're grateful to the following organizations for making this event possible:

  • JHU ACM, the student group hosting the event.
  • Dreamwidth Studios, who are generously sponsoring the event.
  • OmniTI, who are generously sponsoring the event.
  • And to ourselves (:, OpenHatch, as the main organizer of the event.

Logistics

Please e-mail hello@openhatch.org with questions about the curriculum, software installation, or anything else.

Staff page

Detailed planning takes place on the Staff page.

Laptop setup

Tasks