[OH-Publicity] Two LibrePlanet 2012 proposals

[Asheesh Laroia]

Hey all,

I sent two proposals to the FSF Campaigns staff for LibrePlanet. I thought 
it'd be good to send them to the OH-Publicity list, at the very least so 
that other people can use them as bsis for similar talk proposals 
elsewhere.

(Also, I now see that some of these have typos still in them. Drat.)

This is for the CFP that closed yesterday: 
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2012

-- Asheesh.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:21:52
From: Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org>
To: campaigns at fsf.org
Subject: CFP LibrePlanet 2012

Proposal type: Talk

Title: Running events that attract and retain newcomers

Estimated duration: 20 minutes (flexible; open to requests for shorter or 
longer)

Abstract:

In this talk, we discuss successful hackathon events aimed at growing free 
software projects. How do successful projects grow?

The talk discusses he pros and cons of Google Summer of Code, and in-person 
code sprints such as those organized by Twisted and KDE, and how to optimize 
them for retention. Emphasis is placed on difficulties faced by new 
contributors, since many LibrePlanet attendees are long-time free software 
hackers; we conclude with concrete strategies for overcoming them.

Speaker biography:

Asheesh loves growing camaraderie among geeks. In the past, he has chaired the 
Johns Hopkins Association for Computing Machinery and taught Python classes 
through community spaces in San Francisco and Boston. He realizes that most of 
the work that makes collaborative projects successful is hidden beneath the 
surface. Professionally, he has engineered software at Creative Commons and the 
Participatory Culture Foundation. Today, he works as project lead for 
OpenHatch, a non-profit making collaborative code communities more welcoming.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:02:24
From: Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org>
To: campaigns at fsf.org
Subject: CFP LibrePlanet 2012

Proposal type: Talk

Title: Teaching free software skills to the next generation, in person and 
through the web

Estimated duration: 20 minutes (flexible)

New contributors often have to figure out how to operate the tools of a 
project, like IRC, git, or svn, in a highly social environment: public 
communication between peers. When, for example, you post your first patch to a 
mailing list, it’s intimidating to know that your mistakes with the tools might 
reflect poorly on your programming skill.

This talk begins by discussing the pros and cons of the status quo, including 
its impact on diversity in the community. It then discusses two active outreach 
efforts and their successes and failures so far.

First, we explain the OpenHatch training missions: a group of interactive web 
pages for learning skills you would use when contributing to free software like 
using diff, patch, tar, version control, IRC, and so on. A training mission 
shuns “manuals” and long, boring blobs of text, and it protects its users 
against learning through trial by fire. We say, “Here’s a short, concrete task 
to perform. Interact with our web-based robot, and it will tell you if you 
succeeded.” You can build up your comfort in a space without embarrassment. 
More than one thousand people around the world so far have used these 
free-software tools, and twenty-seven people have contributed patches.

Second, we discuss our campus-based outreach efforts. By working with college 
computer clubs in-person and teaching students the skills and culture of free 
software, we have seen students marvel at the ethics of the movement and helped 
ensure they gain the skills to be meaningful contributors in the future. The 
talk describes the skills-oriented and newcomer-friendly attitude of the event, 
and what we do that results in 33-50% of our attendees being women.

Speaker biography:

Asheesh loves growing camaraderie among geeks. In the past, he has chaired the 
Johns Hopkins Association for Computing Machinery and taught Python classes 
through community spaces in San Francisco and Boston. He realizes that most of 
the work that makes collaborative projects successful is hidden beneath the 
surface. Professionally, he has engineered software at Creative Commons and the 
Participatory Culture Foundation. Today, he works as project lead for 
OpenHatch, a non-profit making collaborative code communities more welcoming.