21:10:22 <rebelsky> #startmeeting
21:10:22 <zodbot> Meeting started Wed Feb 29 21:10:22 2012 UTC.  The chair is rebelsky. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
21:10:22 <zodbot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic.
21:10:39 <rebelsky> irc://irc.freenode.net/#chair member:suehle
21:10:50 <rebelsky> #chair heidie
21:10:50 <zodbot> Current chairs: heidie rebelsky
21:10:58 <rebelsky> #chair suehle
21:10:58 <zodbot> Current chairs: heidie rebelsky suehle
21:11:19 <rebelsky> #topic Tools and Resources
21:11:31 <rebelsky> Including face to face.
21:12:02 <kwurst> rebelsky: #chair me please
21:12:37 <rebelsky> Justis: Lives by principles of face-to-face.  5-10 per month.  User groups and special interest groups that have a monthly meeting.  Goes to quite a few meetings at hacker space.
21:13:42 <rebelsky> Justis: Helps arrange the annual Barcamp RDU, the open-access answer to Foocamp.  A model open meeting.  Typically no fee to attend.  Whoever shows up can be a presenter.  Everyone is supposed to support.
21:14:03 <rebelsky> Justis: About 200 attendees for Barcamp RDU.  Once per year.
21:14:47 <rebelsky> Citicamp is another example.  Get community members involved in open data.
21:16:03 <rebelsky> NCState FossFair provided another place for the exchange of knowledge.  The format does a good job of bringing out the impromptu presenter even in shy kids.  As people see the low bar (no pun intended), they find that they want to present later in the day.
21:16:18 <rebelsky> It's okay to have a halltrack.
21:16:53 <rebelsky> Organizing a Barcamp is straightforward.  Lots of info online.  Start a Wiki page.  Give everyone access.
21:17:42 <rebelsky> Typically a registration list on the Wiki page.  People post what they might talk about, but it's not a binding contract.
21:18:16 <rebelsky> Alyce: How do you draw in novices, people who have never been to a Barcamp before?  (Novice in terms of speaker.)
21:19:52 <rebelsky> Can play with a lot.  For example, two subsequent sessions can be combined for a workshop-style activity.
21:20:13 <rebelsky> Fedora conference typically has one day of BarCamp and one day of HackFest.
21:21:06 <rebelsky> Ruth: Anecdote from BarCamp: Someone's thirty-second presentation was "I'm going to strip this junk code out.  Come stop me."
21:21:48 <rebelsky> #chair kwurst
21:21:48 <zodbot> Current chairs: heidie kwurst rebelsky suehle
21:22:22 <rebelsky> Justis: A dense hi-tech concentration like this can permit UGs and other activities.
21:23:07 <rebelsky> Justis: These events are generally welcoming to fresh faces, including students.  Most are also welcoming to lightning talks (5-10, whet the appetite about some topic).
21:23:46 <rebelsky> Ruth: Many conferences are adding IGNITE-style talks, 20 slides, 20 seconds each.
21:24:31 <rebelsky> What tools do people need?
21:24:46 <rebelsky> Justis: git is important as a tool, but github as a community is even more important.
21:25:21 <suehle> http://opensource.com/life/10/11/introducing-students-world-open-source-day-1
21:25:23 <rebelsky> Justis: github can be like facebook or twitter.  Communication is via commits and forks, rather than posts.  Pull requests.
21:26:41 <rebelsky> rebelsky: The link Ruth just posted is from a place where they realized that lots of students could contribute to FOSS, but needed some introduction.
21:27:47 <rebelsky> Some students need basics: How to unzip a file; a text editor; etc.
21:28:18 <rebelsky> Justis: ./configure, make [Sam would add make test, /usr/bin/sudo make install, etc.]  How to compile code in the traditional Unix way.
21:28:43 <rebelsky> An even more basic skill: How to use a *nix.
21:29:21 <mmatalka> How to use *nix is a pretty advanced skill in the spectrum of things :)
21:29:30 <mmatalka> But remember, this year is the year of the Linux Desktop
21:29:43 <rebelsky> Bonnie: Unix course is not required.  Many students don't take it.  When they go to industry, they'll be doing Windows development.
21:30:14 <rebelsky> How do you explain open source to students?
21:30:51 <rebelsky> Alyce: Institutions will clearly vary in their opinions.
21:31:52 <rebelsky> Alyce: In Sierra Leone, she was surprised that the tendency was to use Microsoft products, rather than Open Source (as she expected) b/c support is clearer for Microsoft products.  [Side notes from folks that open source can have a good support chain, too.]
21:32:18 <rebelsky> Alyce: What does the institution teach more generally about professional ethics?
21:32:59 <rebelsky> Bonnie: Her students, often first-generation, don't "get" open source.  The idea of working for free is not fathomable.  (Most are working long hours out of school.)
21:33:54 <rebelsky> Justis: Important to remind students that not everyone who works in open source does it for free.  Many get paid to contribute to open source projects.
21:35:34 <rebelsky> ???: Brownie model.  You've seen brownies as model of algorithm.  When I buy a box of brownie mix, I can adapt it.  I can add cinnamon, etc.  [A great model of open source.]
21:36:19 <rebelsky> Justis: Will we see crowd funding of open source break out?  (Rather than corporate financing of particular features.)
21:36:37 <rebelsky> #link gun.io
21:37:16 <rebelsky> Justis: Suggests that gun.io provides an interesting model.  Bounties on various projects.  People can increase the bounty.  Hackers can sign up.
21:37:53 <suehle> Justis/Ruth: Need a Kickstarter-esque site for open source projects, which would be the inverse of gun.io
21:38:31 <rebelsky> If students are already doing community-oriented projects, open-source is a natural add-on.
21:38:44 <rebelsky> Justis: May be useful to introduce open source as a consumer rather than producer.
21:39:06 <rebelsky> Justis: Get them used to contributing back to the community.  Even finding a bug.
21:39:27 <rebelsky> Ruth: Remind students that lots of major services are running on open source systems.
21:40:04 <rebelsky> Bonnie: Ask students to think about *why* the tools they use are free.
21:40:21 <suehle> .moar openness world
21:40:21 <zodbot> here world, have some more openness
21:40:33 <rebelsky> #link http://stackoverflow.com/
21:40:55 <rebelsky> Justis: Stack overflow is a useful resource
21:41:20 <rebelsky> Bonnie: Is it a good resource if we're trying to encourage people to build good, reusable code, rather than kludgey solutions?
21:41:48 <rebelsky> Justis: Important to look at how many votes there are on the question and the answer.  [Sam notes that this is part of understanding the tool.]
21:45:27 <rebelsky> Justis: Note that StackExchange provides links to other similar sites that may be useful.
21:46:30 <rebelsky> ???: At many of these sites, you have to earn a reputation to do certain things.  (E.g., everyone has permission to vote up and down, but perhaps not to answer?)
21:47:09 <rebelsky> #link jsfiddle.net
21:48:56 <rebelsky> An opportunity to share small snippets, fork, and so on.  A good place to try out ideas at the intersection of HTML/CSS/JavaScript.  Discovered on JQuery in FreeNode IRC.  Good place to answer short questions.  "Once you distill it down to the piece you think is broken, you've fixed it.  And if you haven't, usually it's concise enough for someone to fix it."
21:49:03 <rebelsky> #endmeeting