[Campus-morris-staff] My e-mail to the faculty at UMM

[Nic McPhee]

Below is the e-mail I sent to all the faculty. I followed up with
individualized e-mails to a handful of non-science faculty that work with
students that we thought be interested.

Thanks,

   Nic

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nic McPhee <mcphee at morris.umn.edu>
Date: Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 8:32 PM
Subject: Cool opportunity for students to learn about Open Source software
To: UMM FACPA <UMMFACPA at lists.umn.edu>


On Saturday the 28th OpenHatch and the UMM Computer Science discipline are
hosting a day-long open source software immersion event. This event is
designed to provide students from all backgrounds with an opportunity to
learn more about open source software development and how they can become
involved.


While this might seem a fairly exclusively computer science event, projects
often badly need people with non-programming skills such as technical
writing, graphic design, and planning and management. Also, I'm constantly
struck by the substantial number of non-CSci majors that are now making a
living in some sort of IT work, a reality indicative of the value of a
broad liberal arts education, the intellectual strength and creativity of
Morris students, and the remarkable strength of the IT job market. (Many
estimates put the demand in IT at something like 4 times the supply.) UMM
alum Noah Keitel, for example, has leveraged his music and English majors
and tech skills to create the tech start-up
LessonLogs<http://www.lessonlogs.com/>(to help manage practice logs
for music teachers) and the web development
business AugmentJ <http://www.augmentj.com/>.


This workshop will be a great opportunity to work with mentors from the
OpenHatch project, several experienced UMM CSci alumni that are coming to
town to help for the day, CSci faculty, and a variety of students. The
students will learn how to use the tools, speak the language, and navigate
the spaces, all experiences and skills that will be valuable across a broad
range of interests and majors.


So if you have students that you think might benefit from this kind of
experience, please encourage them to sign up at
http://morris.openhatch.org/– there are a limited number of spaces so
people should sign up soon.


Below is the message that was sent to the all-students list for your
information.


Questions always welcome.


Thanks,


Nic


=====================


On Saturday, September 28th, OpenHatch and the UMM Computer Science
discipline are hosting a day-long open source software immersion event. We
invite you to join us! You can sign up here: http://morris.openhatch.org/.

You don’t need to be a programmer to contribute to open source, or to
attend and enjoy our event. Most open source projects are also in need of
designers, translators, documenters, bug-finders and testers. Open source
development is a fantastic opportunity for any technologically-motivated,
liberal arts student who wants to contribute to a group project that people
will benefit from.

Open source software -- software that is shared freely and available to
build upon -- has become part of our daily lives. Popular projects like
WordPress, Firefox, OpenOffice, VLC, and Android have millions of users.
Many cities and countries are also moving towards using primarily open
source software for their technological infrastructures.

The morning of the workshop, open source contributors from various projects
will teach you about open source licensing, collaboration tools, and how
free software projects are organized. In the afternoon, they'll help you
make hands-on contributions to open source projects. And throughout the
day, they'll feed you, get to know you, and talk with you about
opportunities for students in open source.

Open source participation is one way to gain real-world skills and make
connections that will last you through your career. Volunteer staff will
include professionals, academics, and alumni who use open source daily.

The event is open to all students. Learn more, and sign up, here
http://morris.openhatch.org/
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