Cookbook - OpenHatch wiki

This is the OpenHatch cookbook -- a catalog of tools and events that we have found useful for growing and improving tech meetups and open source software projects, with materials and instructions for how you can replicate and adapt them for your community!

This document is extremely in progress; please bear with us!

Introductory Programming Workshops

Curricula and guides for running introductory programming workshops.

Goal of the event: Introducing more people to programming in a way that encourages them to stick around.
Photo of one (if available): (TODO)
How to run it: BPW curriculum
How OpenHatch usually helps: (TODO)
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances of the event: Blog post about the 6th BPW, Video of Jessica and Asheesh's talk about BPW
Links to resources they'll find useful when organizing: The Boston Python Workshop for Women and Their Friends's curriculum, Railsbridge's Ruby on Rails Workshop for Women and Their Friends curriculum, Scala curriculum (forthcoming).

Project Nights

Project nights are open "hack" nights typically run by a programming user group.

Goal of the event: Help newcomers and old hats work on programming projects, while also enabling newcomers through lightweight mentorship

Photo of one (if available): (TODO)
How to run it: A simple way to bring new people into your local tech meetup group (e.g. a Python user's group) is to run a project night. All you need is a venue (preferably with food), a few experienced developers who are willing to answer questions and mentor newcomers, a sign to mark part of the venue your "Beginner's Corner", and friendly verbiage in the marketing copy for the event (we've found that many people find "project nights" less intimidating and macho than "hack nights").
How OpenHatch usually helps: (TODO)
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances of the event: Boston Ruby's blog post
Links to resources they'll find useful when organizing: N/A

Free Software Contribution Workshops for Students

Two-day workshop that introduces undergraduate students to the process of contributing to free software and connects them to communities that can mentor them.

Goal of the event: Get more undergraduate students involved in free software

Photo of one (if available): (TODO) [1]
How to run it: (TODO)
How OpenHatch usually helps: (TODO)
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances of the event: [2]
Links to resources they'll find useful when organizing: Open Source Comes to Campus, UPenn's instance of the workshop

Newcomer Inclusion Contests

Highlight specific, needed tasks to provide clear entry points for potential contributors to join your project's community.

Goal of the event: Bring in new contributors to a FOSS project

Photo of one:
How to run it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances: Fedora Design Bounties
Links to useful resources: Starling bounties

Build-It Days

A few hours or a day specifically spent helping new contributors set up devel installs of your project (in real life or in IRC).

Goal of the event: Have more potential contributors be technologically prepared to contribute to your project.

Photo of one:
How to run it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances: Fedora Design Bounties
Links to useful resources: Build it, (TODO: docs playtesting guide, devel install screencast guide)

Bitesize Bugs

Tag simple, easy-to-fix bugs in your bug tracker as good for newcomers and make it easy for new contributors to find those bugs.

Goal: New contributors can find bugs appropriate for their level of experience and familiarity with the project and fix them.

Photo of one:
How to run it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances:
Links to useful resources:

Community Metrics

Setting up mechanisms for tracking how people get involved with your project and what changes might increase contribution.

Goal: Know whether or not your FOSS project community is meeting your goals and learn what may be inhibiting community growth

Photo of one:
How to run it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances: A/B testing of Wikipedia revert messaging to avoid discouraging new contributors
Links to useful resources: (TODO: Ubuntu's three-column Trello workflow for tracking package uploaders), Notes from a CLS 2012 session on community metrics, including a mind map of all (?) the community metrics one might track, [http://communityleadershipsummit.wikia.com/wiki/Entrance_and_exit_Surveys Notes from Asheesh's session on running surveys, Gentoo tracking GSoC student retention using a spreadsheet plus regular check-ins with mentors

Automated Learning Tools

Creating and using plot-driven, interactive, automated tutorials for learning a new free software-related language or skill.

Goal: Help newcomers learn programming languages or common FOSS tools without embarrassing themselves or demanding unnecessarily repeated effort from overworked mentors

Photo of one:
How to run it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances: [3]
Links to useful resources: (TODO: trypython/tryruby/codecademy/codingbat/etc), OpenHatch Training missions, Mission suggestions

Diversity Statements and Codes of Conduct

Ways to make sure your project's messaging and community behavior are welcoming, not hostile

Goal: Newcomers of all sorts feel welcome in your community; assholes either behave civilly or leave.

Photo of one:
How to do it:
How OpenHatch usually helps:
Links to blog posts etc. of past instances:
Links to useful resources: Dreamwidth's diversity statement, ThinkUp's developer guide: "Welcome! You are a programmer! The ThinkUp project eagerly welcomes new contributors from all communities, even if you don’t think of yourself as a programmer. (Yet!)", Geek Feminism Wiki's example Code of Conduct for conferences

If you have any questions on how to run a successful event or use these materials effectively, or are otherwise interested in open tech community outreach, please sign up for the OpenHatch Events mailing list.

All of these materials are both free as in beer and free as in speech to use. If you do use them, though, we at OpenHatch would love to hear about how it goes, either on the Events mailing list or a guest post on our blog!