| richardb
| The agenda for this meeting is at http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/7_May_2009
| 14:02
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| richardb
| I'll update that page as we go with notes on the discussion.
| 14:03
|
| richardb
| While we're waiting for latecomers, let's get started with introductions. If those who were at the last meeting could please just say their name and affiliation, and if you weren't at the last meeting, also put a brief introduction about themselves.
| 14:04
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| * ctyler logs
| 14:04
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| richardb
| I'll start: Richard Boulton, xapian project.
| 14:04
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| richardb
| ctyler: thanks
| 14:04
|
| stjepan
| Stjepan Rajko, urbanSTEW, Rehearsal Assistant project
| 14:05
|
| manus_eiffel
| Emmanuel Stapf, EiffelStudio project
| 14:06
|
| * [_FireSoul_] (n=[_FireSo@59.90.65.92) has joined #teachingopensource
| 14:09
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| richardb
| hmm - a bit quieter than the last meeting, then. Let's get started, anyway.
| 14:09
|
| richardb
| I put "Scope of the project" on the agenda first.
| 14:09
|
| richardb
| We discussed this quite heavily last time, though.
| 14:09
|
| richardb
| So really I just wanted to check that people were still happy with what was "agreed" then.
| 14:09
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| richardb
| which is described on http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/24_April_2009 but is basically that we'd try and make resources which are useful to anyone, but focus on only students/educators for now.
| 14:10
|
| stjepan
| that summary looks good
| 14:10
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| richardb
| ok, that was easy, then. :)
| 14:11
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| richardb
| let's move on to Outreach, which is the main body of what I think we need to discuss.
| 14:11
|
| richardb
| Firstly, has anyone done anything regarding this in the last two weeks?
| 14:12
|
| stjepan
| I really wanted to approach someone at my university by this weekend but got too busy with graduating
| 14:12
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| stjepan
| But I have an idea on how I would approach an instructor
| 14:13
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| richardb
| I've not been in touch with anyone yet either.
| 14:13
|
| richardb
| stjepan: would you want to develop some resources before contacting someone?
| 14:13
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| richardb
| possibly just some pages on teachingopensource.org to point to.
| 14:14
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| manus_eiffel
| I've only contributed the letters that can be found at http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/FOSS_Mentor_Projects#Outreach_Messages
| 14:14
|
| stjepan
| Rather than going with "would you like to get involved", trying a "we are trying to figure out how to get people involved. IF I were to approach you about getting involved, what would your concerns be? what would you be interested in?"
| 14:14
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| manus_eiffel
| I know that lh updated some of the content
| 14:14
|
| stjepan
| ... sort of approach
| 14:14
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| stjepan
| that way they don't feel the pressure of getting involved into something
| 14:15
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| richardb
| stjepan: that sounds more likely to draw people in, yes.
| 14:15
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| stjepan
| but if they get interested, then we can move it further
| 14:15
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| richardb
| manus_eiffel: great templates
| 14:15
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| stjepan
| richardb: sure, I can add to the templates that manus_eiffel prepared
| 14:16
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| stjepan
| when we get the templates to a place where we think they would work, maybe we can all contact someone and report back
| 14:17
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| richardb
| I think the answer to this is no, but should we be keeping a log somewhere of people that we've tried to contact? Given there are so few of us, I don't think there's significant risk of more than one person contacting the same academic, and it's probably not good to have this kind of list in public, but I'd be interested in opinions.
| 14:17
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| stjepan
| maybe we can ask the people that we contact. maybe there is a way of putting it that incentivises them ("would you be OK if we credit you with your suggestions on teachingopensource.org?")
| 14:19
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| richardb
| cunning
| 14:21
|
| richardb
| might help bring them to the site
| 14:21
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| stjepan
| oh yeah, that too :-)
| 14:21
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| richardb
| We also need to write templates for letters to students, still.
| 14:21
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| manus_eiffel
| I originally created two pages, but I think lh put the students templates in the teacher one
| 14:22
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| richardb
| Would those be wanted when talking to teachers? You could bring them, as letters which they could send or pass on to their students.
| 14:22
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| manus_eiffel
| See http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/FOSS_Mentor_Projects_For_Teachers
| 14:22
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| richardb
| manus_eiffel: that page just has letters for sending to teachers, as far as I can see.
| 14:23
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| manus_eiffel
| The students page is still empty (see http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/FOSS_Mentor_Projects_For_Students)
| 14:23
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| manus_eiffel
| I'm not sure to understand the page then, there are 3 sections: Students, Teachers & Students, Teachers
| 14:24
|
| richardb
| Those templates look like they're intended to be sent to professors, or other teachers.
| 14:25
|
| richardb
| the students one is for FOSS people who wish to mentor students to send out
| 14:25
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| richardb
| telling the professors that they're looking for students to mentor.
| 14:26
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| manus_eiffel
| Ok I got confused
| 14:26
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| richardb
| We could also put together a template for sending directly from FOSS people to students
| 14:26
|
| richardb
| which we could either send directly, if we can find the students, or pass to professors to pass on to students who might be interested
| 14:27
|
| richardb
| I think pretty much the same text would work for that, though.
| 14:27
|
| richardb
| It's probably better if we can get professors engaged enough to write their own messages to students, but people are lazy/busy, so reducing the work for them to do could be worthwhile.
| 14:28
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| manus_eiffel
| yes, the less choices the better imho
| 14:28
|
| richardb
| I think those templates are good enough starting points, anyway.
| 14:30
|
| richardb
| The suggestion was that we should start trying to contact professors in the next few weeks, to catch them before they plan their curriculum for next year.
| 14:31
|
| richardb
| Is there anything which needs to be put on the site before doing that.
| 14:31
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| manus_eiffel
| this is what will be what requires the most resources
| 14:31
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| manus_eiffel
| this is what will require the most resources (pardon my english)
| 14:32
|
| richardb
| (perfect second time :) )
| 14:32
|
| richardb
| contacting professors, you mean?
| 14:32
|
| manus_eiffel
| is there anyone who has a already build the list of professors we can contact?
| 14:33
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| manus_eiffel
| yes
| 14:33
|
| richardb
| lh said that she has a large list
| 14:33
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| richardb
| from GSoC. whether it can reasonably be used for this purpose, I don't know.
| 14:33
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| manus_eiffel
| should we just do a blind mailing, we might be accusing of spam which we certainly don't want
| 14:33
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| richardb
| I personally plan to contact 2 teachers who I know.
| 14:33
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| richardb
| Personal contact is definitely preferable, where possible.
| 14:33
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| richardb
| I'm not a fan of unsolicited mailing, indeed.
| 14:34
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| manus_eiffel
| I agree. We should then certainly involve professors in spreading the message to other professors
| 14:34
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| richardb
| precisely my thoughts
| 14:34
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| richardb
| Perhaps the templates should be updated to reflect this.
| 14:34
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| 14:35
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| * [_FireSoul_] (n=[_FireSo@59.90.65.92) has joined #teachingopensource
| 14:35
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| manus_eiffel
| indeed
| 14:35
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| stjepan
| yeah I'm definitelly planning to start off with only a few professors I know personally. I agree that encouraging them to pass the message on would be a good thing.
| 14:36
|
| richardb
| ok.
| 14:39
|
| richardb
| Any more plans for Outreach?
| 14:39
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| stjepan
| nope. just finishing up a draft of the initial-getting-feedback message on the wiki
| 14:39
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| richardb
| ok, good. So let's start contacting people we know, and encourage them to contact others. moving on.
| 14:40
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| richardb
| "Any Other Business"?
| 14:40
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| manus_eiffel
| Using the list from lh, I'm nost sure but it would be best to divide the list of professors in domains. For example, mine is mostly compiler, runtimes, IDEs. So if I contact people in this domain, I'll have more success than contacting professors in other domains because I can relate to them
| 14:40
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| manus_eiffel
| nost = not
| 14:40
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| richardb
| manus_eiffel: good point
| 14:41
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| stjepan
| http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/FOSS_Mentor_Projects_For_Teachers#Message_for_getting_initial_feedback
| 14:41
|
| stjepan
| manus_eiffel: yeah, having something in the message that relates to the person would be really good
| 14:42
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| stjepan
| maybe even mentioning a project in the project list that is related to what they do/teach
| 14:42
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| richardb
| that definitely helps to avoid the message being dumped straight in the bin...
| 14:42
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| manus_eiffel
| yep
| 14:43
|
| richardb
| So, when we next meet, let's aim to have contacted at least a few people each.
| 14:46
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| richardb
| that'll be in about a month, I think.
| 14:46
|
| manus_eiffel
| early june is fine for me
| 14:47
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| manus_eiffel
| I guess you can past a doodle link
| 14:47
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| richardb
| I'll set up a poll, as last time.
| 14:47
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| stjepan
| ok, I added a paragraph with a personal project connection to the draft
| 14:47
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| richardb
| stjepan: excellent.
| 14:48
|
| stjepan
| please feel free to add / edit. Shortening it all a bit would probably be a good thing.
| 14:48
|
| manus_eiffel
| Maybe we can put at the beginning of the template that it cannot be copy/pasted as is since an edit is required
| 14:49
|
| stjepan
| manus_eiffel: yeah, a copy/paste would probably not come accross very well :-)
| 14:49
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| richardb
| stjepan: can you add a note saying that?
| 14:50
|
| stjepan
| done
| 14:51
|
| richardb
| great.
| 14:51
|
| richardb
| ok, good.
| 14:52
|
| richardb
| So, I'm assuming no "Any Other Business"
| 14:52
|
| manus_eiffel
| none for me
| 14:52
|
| stjepan
| none here either
| 14:52
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| richardb
| Next meeting; I'll set up a doodle link as last time, and mail to the list about it.
| 14:52
|
| richardb
| I suggest the week starting 8th June, though.
| 14:53
|
| richardb
| Far fewer people were available on the friday or saturday than on a thursday
| 14:53
|
| richardb
| so I think a midweek time is probably best.
| 14:53
|
| richardb
| I'll suggest times on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th June.
| 14:54
|
| manus_eiffel
| midweek is indeed best
| 14:54
|
| richardb
| However, I'll be away for the preceding fortnight.
| 14:54
|
| stjepan
| my schedule is pretty open, all sounds good to me
| 14:55
|
| richardb
| So it would be best if someone else could take responsibility for closing the poll, selecting the winning time, and sending a message about it.
| 14:55
|
| richardb
| and volunteers?
| 14:55
|
| richardb
| any volunteers?, I mean
| 14:55
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| stjepan
| ok i can do that
| 14:55
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| richardb
| cool - I'll set the poll up, and send you a link to it.
| 14:56
|
| stjepan
| tnx
| 14:56
|
| richardb
| ok - poll at http://www.doodle.com/tiqy5wm23hnqkhbv
| 15:00
|