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Rochester, NY
At the Fedora Project Remy served as Community Action and Impact Lead, bringing more heat and light to the distro's user and contributor base. As resident Hackademic, Remy led the Fedora Council's University Involvement Initiative, expanding and replicating the models used in RIT's courses on Humanitarian FOSS Development and Business/Legal Environment of FOSS that built the first academic minor in FOSS and Free Culture at a university in the United States. With help from Sugarlabs, TeachingOpensource, The Software Freedom Law Center, Aleph Objects, and many others, Remy brings The Open Source Way to campuses, conferences, and campaigns everywhere he can. You can keep up with his story via Twitter and his decauseblog.
Authored Comments
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"So you're trying to utilize a limited resource (dedicated, hard-working undergraduates) and ultimately you need to bring value to the table.
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Telling the story behind not only projects and initiatives, but the people who make them happen, provides a kind of value you just can't get from a pile of money; recognition, appreciation, and legacy. Most people who are willing to put themselves headlong into a project are seeking more than just an intern's payday. A well-timed plug on a few upstream blogs and sites can quickly build bridges and rapport with resource and attention starved projects--possibly remedying both situations without much (material) input.
One strategy that has been effective at getting students involved at our University has been Hackathons. These events serve as an opportunity for intensive short-term commitment (12-48 hours), with immediate results (running code) and a great story when documented properly. You may not get the same kind of long-term buy-in as you would with a semester program, but Hackathons can be utilized as a shotgun approach to seeking talent and closing tickets.
Code sprints will build interest and visibility for projects, but more importantly the <em>people</em> that move projects. In the proper environs hacker work ethic presents itself, and is necessarily adopted by those uninitiated caught in the headlights. Rockstars and neck-deep hackers, who become your lead devs and mentors for future students and projects, rise to the occasion when presented with an opportunity. Protohackers and other susceptible movers-and-shakers can witness the productive power of rapid web development, and the responsivity of realworld opensource communities, and inevitably catch the bug.
Our recent <a href="http://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/centerforstudentinnovation/?p=1206">Hackathon for Haiti</a> was a good example of this Hackathon model, but with the added incentive of Community Service Credit. Many student organizations have a Community Service requirement as part of their charters and missions, and easily make the connection between the public domain and the public good.
Regardless of the approach, incentives, or execution, knowledge share is always the added value of storytelling; even in failure.
Thanks to quaid, there is indeed an IRC Channel now. Everybody come hang in #opensource.com on Freenode!
Mizmo, you should talk to Mel about her upcoming trip to the ROC. We'd love to have you then, but if not, then definitely in the very near term. Perhaps FOSScon this Summer? We'll be in touch.