[tor-project] Idea for the Tor open hackdays

[Allen Gunn]

Hi friends,

I think this is all great thinking. Few more thoughts below:

On 08/25/2017 06:57 AM, Alison Macrina wrote:
> These are great ideas. We are planning to create the open hack day
> schedule in advance (just like we're sharing out the regular meeting
> schedule in advance). I think this schedule could have a few components:
> 
> 1) introduction to teams/projects (Arturo's idea, beginning of day one
> (with some brief summaries of those on the wiki for people who show up
> after these introductions)

I encourage "modeling for scale" here; if you actually give folks the 10
minutes mentioned below, 6 topics fill an hour. I recommend a much
shorter e.g. 1-minute verbal format, focused on goals, with details
being provided in smaller groups.

Otherwise lots of folks could get stuck in a much longer intro death
march when they know what they want to start working on. And every
minute spent in plenary is at least an hour of collective work time not
happening.

Also, in terms the excellent "user-centered design" you are advocating
for Arturo, a couple more thoughts:

* I think we want to model for folks drifting in through the day, I
doubt folks will all be present for a morning plenary.

* To that end, I suggest we add some "real time way-finding" support,
which is fancy language for putting up signs for any hack sessions that
are open for joining. Format TBD.

* I have also seen excellent work done with "designated greeters" who
can engage new/late arrivals through out a hack day, explaining what's
going on, and walking them around to explain their choices at that moment.

* There is also the issue or orienting new folks to norms around
guidelines and code of conduct.

peace,
gunner

> 2) planned work that is open for newcomers to participate in
> 3) planned work that is open for newcomers to listen in on quietly
> 4) planned work that is not open for newcomers
> 5) free space for spontaneous meetings (with a way to note whether they
> are read-only or write-access, or whether newcomers have no permissions).
> 
> At some point I'll create space on the wiki to fill in these categories,
> but in the meantime, people should keep sharing ideas about how to
> structure these days.
> 
> Alison Macrina
> Community Team Lead
> The Tor Project
> 
> Silvia [Hiro]:
>> Hi Arturo,
>>
>> This is great. And it is something that could generally help people to
>> start working on something. Some projects highlight entry level bugs and
>> do something like this:
>>
>> https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/labels/E-easy
>>
>> https://starters.servo.org/
>>
>> Talk soon,
>> -hiro
>>
>>
>> On 25/08/17 13:50, Arturo Filastò wrote:
>>> Hi Tor people,
>>>
>>> I would like to propose an idea for the Tor open hackdays at the
>>> Montreal dev meeting.
>>>
>>> I think we can improve how people coming to the Open hackdays are
>>> guided towards finding some interesting Tor related project to hack on.
>>>
>>> If I were a new comer, showing up to the open hackday I would probably
>>> have a hard time figuring out:
>>>
>>> a. What are all the various projects that Tor is working on and which
>>> ones would be most suited for my interests and skills
>>> b. Who are the people that I should be speaking to in order to get
>>> guidance on what and how to hack on a thing
>>>
>>> Given this, what I would like to propose is that we have a very
>>> minimal agenda for the first part of day 1 of the Open hack days,
>>> where 1 representative from each Tor team (or project) or anybody else
>>> interested in pitching their idea, gives a 10 minute max presentation
>>> telling people:
>>>
>>> - What is the project they are working on
>>> - What are some of the open problems/things they would like people to
>>> hack on
>>> - What sort of skills are needed in order to hack on them
>>> - Who they should speak to
>>> - If there is some sort of semi-planned designated time and location
>>> mention that too
>>>
>>> I would make the whole thing also open for people from the community
>>> to pitch their own ideas and recruit people to join them.
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>>
>>> ~ Arturo
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> tor-project mailing list
>>> tor-project at lists.torproject.org
>>> https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-project
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 

Allen Gunn
Executive Director, Aspiration
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www.aspirationtech.org

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