Open Source Comes to Campus/RPI/Staff

Intro
Hi, staff! This wiki page is intended mostly as a reference for staff so that you can see, before-hand, what will happen at the Open Source Comes to Campus event at RPI.

If you are a staffer, make sure you're reading our mailing list.


 * To send email to staff: campus-rpi-staff at lists.openhatch.org
 * To subscribe/unsub: http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/campus-rpi-staff

Venue logistics
How to get there, by public transit:


 * Bus Routes 286 and 87 come up to campus through downtown Troy.
 * The 90 can be used from UAlbany main campus; you can get of on the stop close to 15th and Sage and take it from foot the rest of the way.
 * 280 and 289 come down close to campus from up Congress/Pawling; get off around 15th and Congress and walk down 15th until you reach the campus (you'll see a sign on a foot bridge)
 * From Downtown Albany you can take the 22 express to downtown troy and come up on the 280, 289, 286, or 87.

You can also call the CDTA (cdta.org) and they will generally be able to tell you how to get where you want to go.

How to get there, by car, or for more details: FIXME

Rooms reserved:


 * Sage 4101
 * Sage 5101

Concept behind the weekend
The website about these events in general explains.


 * Sat, Apr 21 is the workshop day:

"a workshop where we teach you how to use the tools and lingo associated with open source software development"


 * Sun, Apr 22 is the project day.

"a project day where you and your fellow students choose an open source software project to work on, find a bug to tackle, and (hopefully) write your first patch, make your first documentation fix, or otherwise make a contribution to open source software"

Our attendance goal is 30 people. Alex believes we could see up to 50.

People involved

 * Sat + Sun: Asheesh Laroia (585 506 8865) is formally running the event, so he's the personal fundamentally responsible for making things succeed. Also responsible for opening ceremonies, playtesting, history+ethics discussion, ordering food, sending pre-event reminder email to attendees.
 * Sat + Sun: Alex Gaynor is the primary local contact.
 * Sat + Sun: Christopher Schmidt (from Nokia) will be a co-instructor. Nokia is an event sponsor, also!
 * Sat and/or Sun: Justin Azoff
 * Sat afternoon, probably, awaiting confirmation: David Czarnecki
 * Sat + Sun: Attendance unconfirmed: Luis Ibáñez
 * Sat: Moorthy
 * Sun: Greylin Kim.

What it means to be a module lead instructor
You prepare whatever teaching aids are necessary -- slides, exercises -- and help students understand the part of the curriculum that you are assigned.

You also should discuss your teaching plan with your TA so that the TA can help answer students' questions.

We aim for about half of the module time to be lecture/discussion, and half to be hands-on exercises. If you need help designing lecture, discussion, exercises, let Asheesh know and he will help.

What it means to be a TA
The purpose of TAs is to help make sure students get the most out of a module. Specifically, you help the primary instructor by answering student questions about the material and help them past problems with their laptops, either by showing them how to solve a problem or escalating the issue to the instructor if you can't fix it.

On Friday or Saturday, before the module's first run, you should spend some time (5 to 20 minutes) discussing the module with its lead instructor.

You're welcome to participate in other ways, as they make sense to you -- for example, help elucidate under-addressed topics during the Ethics and Economics section by asking questions.

Other essential links
For staff:


 * Curriculum details
 * Laptop setup info

For attendees:


 * FIXME: Signup link

Saturday schedule
Detailed Saturday schedule. We're fairly confident it will stick to this.


 * 10:00 AM: Laptop setup begins (if you are done early, you can Q&A with instructors)
 * 10:30: Brief opening ceremonies -- explain structure + goals
 * Led by Asheesh
 * 10:45 - 11: More laptop setup (if you are done early, you can Q&A with instructors)
 * 11 - 11:30 AM: Communicating as a user: finding the community and getting help
 * Led by Alex Gaynor, if he desires!
 * 11:30 - 12 PM: History and ethics of free, open source software
 * Led by Asheesh
 * 12 PM: Break + lunch.
 * 1 PM: Split into groups of max size 10, with 2 staff in each group. Students stay put; staff rotate between rooms.
 * 1 PM - 2 PM: Module 1 (1h)
 * 2:05 - 2:55 PM: Module 2 (50min)
 * 3:00 - 3:45 PM: Module 3 (45min)
 * 3:45 PM: Come back into the full group
 * 3:55 PM: Wrap-up: feedback, and next steps

Students rotate between the following three modules:


 * More about the command line
 * Getting, modifying, and verifying open source software
 * Project organization (bug trackers; git format-patch; github; people's roles in a project)

Sunday
Goal: Get students to pick a FLOSS project that seems interesting, and make a direct contribution of effort of some kind.

Schedule:


 * 10:00 AM: Coffee is here; doors open.
 * 12:30 PM: Lunch arrives.
 * 5 PM: Wrap-up.

To do:
 * We should come up with a hand-selected list of good bite-sized bugs across projects.

Outreach
Places we should email: sample signup email


 * RCOS - Alex sent a note
 * All CS undergrads - Alex sent a note
 * All CS grads - ??
 * Albany.edu women in computing: http://www.albany.edu/cci/cciwit.php (Asheesh pinged Jennifer Goodall here on Thu Apr 12; on Fri she replied saying someone had sent a note to their mailing list already)
 * UAlbany American Society for Information Science and Technology: http://ualbanyasist.drupalgardens.com/ -- Kim sent a note
 * RPI Women in tech point people: Asheesh pinged Barbara and Sehrish at http://www.eng.rpi.edu/wmp/contactNew.cfm
 * Union college CS department -- Asheesh pinged Dr. Barr

Instructors I've tried to reach:


 * Justin Azoff (no response)
 * James Toy (unavailable)
 * Friends of Mo's
 * Slash Root folks (no reply)
 * David Czarnecki of Agora Games (no reply)
 * Nathan Fixler via Github
 * Zachary Bedell via Github