[OH-announce] OpenHatch newsletter, January 2013
Mike Linksvayer
ml at openhatch.org
Thu Jan 24 19:55:03 UTC 2013
As this [0]newsletter was about to go to press, we heard that [1]Aaron
Swartz had died. He was a friend to many in the OpenHatch community; we
mourn his loss. You can see rememberences at [2]rememberaaronsw.com.
One of the many ways people are acting in memory of Aaron is to
organize hackathons to maintain software projects he contributed to,
and others aligned with his passion for [3]sharing. Hop on #aaronsw or
[4]visit the coordination page to participate.
Finally, read [5]on hackers and suicide. If you or someone you know is
at risk, please reach out for help. There are many [6]resources
available. You are [7]not alone. We don't want to lose anyone else, but
acknowledge that there [8]are no easy answers.
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Happy new year and welcome to the 6th OpenHatch newsletter!
Thanks to all who contributed to OpenHatch during 2012, in any and
every way, including:
* Helping people find projects to dig into on the #openhatch IRC
channel;
* Scouting out, organizing, and helping to run Open Source Comes to
Campus events;
* Improving the OpenHatch website, bug importer, project finder,
wiki, and contributing to the blog;
* Identifying companies to sponsor OpenHatch events and otherwise
support our work;
* Working with OpenHatch to improve your community's ability to
welcome newcomers, increase diversity, and grow;
* Using our website to [9]help you find contributors;
* Donating money to support our work.
We'll need your help, and that of many more people, to make 2013 as
bright as it might be.
As mentioned in our [10]call for year-end donations, we have big,
important plans:
In 2013, we're focusing on gender diversity in our community. That
means honing our Open Source Comes to Campus series and working with
women in CS groups to create workshop and project nights to change
the gender ratio with our practical, tested outreach. These
in-person events bring bitesize bugs together with training missions
and in-person mentorship.
Events
In December, we helped organize a sprint and workshop on the [11]Python
data processing package known as pandas. Many of our attendees
expressed an interest in continuing to contribute, and plenty kept
working on pull requests well after the event. Thanks to NYC PyLadies,
37% of our attendees were women, and we're hoping to organize a general
Python diversity outreach event with them in the upcoming months.
Two upcoming [12]Open Source Comes to Campus events in the Boston area
need volunteers, sponsors, and career panel members. We're in the final
stages of planning events with Harvard Women in CS and at Wellesley
College on Feb 16 and 23 respectively. We've been discussing it on the
Events list; you can read the [13]thread in the archives, or (best)
just [14]subscribe and join in!
We're still looking for more women's colleges and women in CS groups
excited about bringing open source teaching to their campuses. If
that's you, or your company wants to sponsor such events, let us know:
hello at openhatch.org.
OpenHatchy but not OpenHatch things around the web
OpenHatch friend Mako Hill [15]announced he's joining the
communicaitons department of the University of Washington. His
[16]research agenda is a must-read:
I study collective action in online communities and seek to
understand why some attempts at collaborative production -- like
Wikipedia and Linux -- build large volunteer communities while the
vast majority never attract even a second contributor. I am
particularly interested in how the design of communication and
information technologies shape fundemental social outcomes with
broad theoretical and practical implications -- like the decision to
join a community or contribute to a public good.
...
In other work with Leah Buechley, I have analyzed sales records of
hobbyist microcontrollers to argue that relatively simple design
changes in the LilyPad Arduino -- a electronics toolkit minimally
re-designed for women and girls -- led to large increases in the
proportion of women contributors and drastic shifts in the type of
projects created.
We're hoping to work with Mako on quantifying and improving OpenHatch.
Derick Bailey writes [17]Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A
Jerk:
I can't think of a better way to get people to stop contributing to
open source projects. Seriously... there is nothing more demotivating
and demoralizing than this kind of high-school-bully response. It
needs to stop.
Get involved
We can always use more people on our IRC channel to discuss events and
the like. If you're a programmer, get in touch on the [18]Devel mailing
list!
And it bears repeating: as a non-profit, we rely on the community for
support. We need your help to get more people involved in open source,
so please [19]donate now.
[20]Read previous newsletters.
[21]Like, follow @openhatch at [22]identi.ca or [23]Twitter.
References
0. https://openhatch.org/blog/2013/newsletter-january-2013/
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
2. http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/
3. http://archive.org/details/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto
4. https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Worldwide_Aaron_Swartz_Memorial_Hackathons
5. http://evanprodromou.name/2013/01/14/on-hackers-and-suicide/
6. http://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
7. http://bluehackers.org/
8. http://blog.valerieaurora.org/2013/01/12/suicide-and-society-where-does-responsibility-for-preventing-suicide-lie/
9. http://twitter.com/DreadKnight/status/293779194679287808
10. https://openhatch.org/blog/2012/last-chance-to-support-openhatch-in-2012/
11. https://openhatch.org/blog/2012/pandas-pydata-workshop-in-nyc/
12. http://campus.openhatch.org/
13. http://lists.openhatch.org/pipermail/events/2012-December/000383.html
14. http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/events
15. http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20121214-00
16. http://mako.cc/academic/bmh-research_statement.pdf
17. http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2012/12/14/dear-open-source-project-leader-quit-being-a-jerk/
18. http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
19. https://openhatch.org/donate/
20. https://openhatch.org/blog/tag/newsletter
21. https://www.facebook.com/openhatch
22. http://identi.ca/openhatch
23. http://twitter.com/openhatch
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