[tor-project] Idea for the Tor open hackdays

Fri Aug 25 15:27:02 UTC 2017

+1 to everything said.

It might also be a good idea for the various Tor projects to identify in
advance:

1. The specific areas that would benefit the most from some external help

2. The specific skill sets required to work on those areas

Based on the above, Tor projects could do some outreach for the Open
Hack days, encouraging people with those skill sets to join the event.

In any case, I think it's super important to clearly advertise the types
of things that people can work on and, in addition to the generic
hackathon announcement on the website, reach out to specific groups in
advance.

On 08/25/2017 04:12 PM, Allen Gunn wrote:
> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
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