23:43:13 <lorip> #startmeeting 23:43:13 <zodbot> Meeting started Tue Nov 5 23:43:13 2013 UTC. The chair is lorip. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 23:43:13 <zodbot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 23:43:13 <rebelsky> Hi all. Sorry. I had 6pm central on my calendar. 23:43:22 <lorip> no problem rebelsky 23:43:39 <lorip> #topic ushahidi updates 23:43:53 <rebelsky> Ah! 23:43:54 <camm_> #info I'm working on next term for my class, we'll be using Ushahidi as usual. 23:44:02 <lorip> is monisha using it in an upper level class or intro? 23:45:00 <camm_> Monisha is using it SE and a Database class 23:45:00 <rebelsky> I thought it was a lower/mid-level course. 23:45:16 <rebelsky> (Whoops … Camm knows better than I. We just wrote at the same time.) 23:45:38 <camm_> She also has a journalism class using Crowdmap which is a related project 23:45:49 <lorip> cool! 23:45:58 <camm_> she doesn't teach the journalism class, but they are collaborating 23:46:27 <lorip> rebelsky: willing to give a quick update? 23:46:37 <rebelsky> Sure. 23:46:42 <rebelsky> Things are going less well than I'd hoped. 23:46:51 <lorip> sorry to hear that - why? 23:46:53 <rebelsky> Students are doing fine with the API I designed for accessing Ushahidi installation. 23:47:01 <rebelsky> However, it isn't transferring well to Android. 23:47:12 <rebelsky> Which makes the "Build a custom report for Android" project a bit problematic. 23:47:30 <lorip> What are you trying to do? 23:47:51 <rebelsky> Sorry. Let me back up. 23:47:57 <rebelsky> This is for a Data Structures and Algorithms Course. 23:48:06 <rebelsky> We're "Ushahidi Enabling" a lot of assignments. 23:48:24 <rebelsky> After all, DS/Alg is all about working with data. Why not work with data from an Ushahidi installation? 23:48:34 <camm_> Nice idea 23:48:47 <lorip> Cool... so how does Android fit in? 23:48:48 <rebelsky> So I built a Java wrapper around the Ushahidi Web API. 23:48:55 <rebelsky> And that's working fine for assignments. 23:49:19 <rebelsky> But for a multi-week project, there were going to build Ushahidi Installations (on Crowdmap) for clients and provide a custom Android App. 23:49:28 <rebelsky> (That's a *simple* custom Android app) 23:49:45 <rebelsky> For example, they were to provide a Dashboard that summarizes some statistics about the data. 23:49:49 <rebelsky> They can do that from the command line. 23:49:56 <lorip> I'm teaching Android - there is nothing *simple* about it! 23:50:16 <rebelsky> But getting the multiple HTTP/queries/responses right in Android is much more difficult than we'd thought. 23:50:34 <rebelsky> lorip: The plan was to give them a framework that one of my research students had written. But it didn't go as planned. 23:50:58 <rebelsky> Anyway, to make the long story short, I was overconfident in what we could do, and this part has gone less well. 23:51:21 <rebelsky> I think last night was when we realized we couldn't iron out the various issues in time for the students to use it. 23:51:26 <rebelsky> And I've written way too much. 23:52:03 <rebelsky> Camm: Did you mention that Karl is thinking about changing projects? 23:52:09 <lorip> ugh! 23:52:37 <camm_> rebelsky: yes, did you see his email from Oct. 30 from the last one I sent? 23:52:57 <rebelsky> I saw the "I may be about to jump ship to OpenMSR" email. Was there one after that? 23:53:00 <camm_> he hasn't decided yet, but as lori points out, a lot of it is due to Java 23:53:25 <camm_> rebelsky: yes, that's the one I'm basing it on, he mentioned in the chat here yesterday too 23:53:34 <rebelsky> Ok. 23:54:12 <lorip> apparently karl is also working with health information technology students and thought it might be a good system for them as well 23:54:21 <rebelsky> Makes sense to me. 23:55:03 <camm_> rebelsky: so it's something about Android's Java that is the problem? 23:55:29 <rebelsky> It's a combination of things. First, http requests are handled much differently in Android than they are in Desktop Java. 23:56:08 <rebelsky> Second, my students who were working on the sample stuff had difficulty. 23:56:15 <rebelsky> As I said, I think it's something I could do if I had time. 23:56:20 <camm_> Ok 23:56:27 <rebelsky> But it's a crazy semester. 23:56:55 <rebelsky> camm: Are you doing anything new with Ushahidi for the coming term? 23:57:25 <lorip> That's the way I always feel when I teach my Android class - nothing ever seems as easy as I expect 23:57:44 <camm_> rebelsky: It will be interesting 23:58:14 <camm_> One detail is my "Community Director" that was my primary contact left Ushahidi, so it'll be different 23:58:34 <camm_> there is a new person, so we'll see 23:58:43 <camm_> another lesson of FOSS communities 23:59:03 <rebelsky> Who is the new person? 23:59:18 <camm_> I haven't worked much with the new codebase, version 3, yet. I don't have projects set up yet, probably over this month 23:59:45 <camm_> Her name is Angela Adour I believe. Heather is the one who left. 00:00:00 <camm_> #info I submitted a poster to SIGCSE 00:00:09 <rebelsky> I think Heather pointed me to Angela at the end of the summer. The few quick conversations I had with her were good. 00:00:20 <rebelsky> camm: Good luck on the poster! 00:00:26 <camm_> thanks :) 00:00:27 <lorip> that's great! good luck! 00:00:41 <camm_> I'll attend SIGCSE regardless of acceptance 00:01:08 <rebelsky> I'll be there too. Does the HFOSS group have anything planned this year? 00:01:21 <lorip> we are working on that 00:01:53 <lorip> we had a workshop accepted - I think it is scheduled for Fri night, not we just have to hope we get enough people to sign up so it can run 00:02:13 <camm_> lorip: should we signup when we register? 00:02:32 <lorip> we've had some discussions of trying to do a pre-conference workshop on Wed, possibly 1/2 day, but nothing fleshed out yet 00:02:38 <stoney> there is a BoF submitted... waiting to hear back on that 00:03:12 <lorip> i don't know camm, it is going to be introductory, let me check with the rest of the group and get their feedback 00:04:41 <lorip> anything else? 00:04:51 <camm_> not from me 00:04:57 <rebelsky> Not from me. 00:05:51 <lorip> ok, thanks so much for taking the time to give us updates - looking forward to hearing more next time! 00:06:06 <rebelsky> Thanks lorip! 00:06:43 <lorip> #endmeeting