Open Source Comes to Campus/UMD/Staff

About this page
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 UMD.

Venue logistics
How to get there, by public transit: (These directions start at Union Station in DC.) Take the Red Line train (toward Glenmont); transfer at the Fort Totten station to the Green Line train (toward Greenbelt); get off at the College Park/U of MD station. Then take the university shuttle bus that picks up university-bound passengers on the EAST side of the metrorail station. This shuttle comes every 20 minutes, starting at 9am weekends.

How to get there, by car, or for more details: See the official UMD Visitor's Guide

Once on campus, you'll have to find the Computer Sciences building . Note that we have reserved the entire third floor of this building, for both days. (Close to this intersection)

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


 * Sat, Feb 25 is the workshop day:

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


 * Sun, Feb 26 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"

People involved

 * 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.
 * Jessica McKellar is writing up laptop setup instructions. Also responsible for "Communicating as a user".
 * Deonna is our local contact with UMD AWC.
 * Maco Morgan is leading the command-line module.
 * Kaitlin Lee will be TAing the command-line module.
 * John Stumpo will be leading the Getting modifying and verifying module.
 * Venkatesh Srinivas is TA-ing.
 * Asheesh Laroia will lead the Project organization module
 * Tentatively: Luke Faraone will TA. Otherwise, Jessica McKellar will.

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

 * Curriculum details (still work in progress)
 * Laptop setup info

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 Jessica McKellar
 * 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.