Intro to FOSS Project Anatomy (Activity)

Preparation:

Description	Introduce participant to common tools and processes used in FOSS projects.
Source
Prerequisite Knowledge	None
Estimated Time to Completion	60 minutes
Learning Objectives
Materials/Environment	Access to Internet/Web and web browser.
Additional Information	?
Rights	?

Background:

BLAH BLAH

Directions:

BLAH BLAH

Working Material

• Stoney
• Peter
• Darci

• TO THE ACTIVITY DEVELOPER
• A directed walkthrough into a specific project. Participants answer questions engaging with terminology.

• TO-DO LIST
• Pick project: Peter
• Gather links
• Draft walkthrough

• Candidate Projects
  • OpenMRS
  • Ushahidi
  • Sahana
  • Mifos
  • Sugar (one-laptop-per-child)
  • HFOSS Project list: http://xcitegroup.org/softhum/doku.php?id=g:hfoss_and_oss_projects
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide

• Topics
  • What is a forge?
  • Not all open source projects exist in a forge.
  • The status of a project may be anywhere in the planning to mature stages.
  • Regarding community - What major roles/teams exist within the project?
  • releases: find version number system for project.
  • code repository policies:
    • e.g. http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/
  • packaging
  • upstream (no artifact)
  • downstream (no artifact)
  • trackers: find the tracker
  • tickets: look at some tickets
  • roadmap, etc.: find the roadmap. How are releases managed? How

• Reference materials
  • First couple of chapters in "Productively Lost" ? http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Textbook_Release_0.8
  • Mel has a good overview of some parts in "Roadmap Merge" activity here:http://mchua.fedorapeople.org/posse/POSSE-booklet.pdf
  • http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Source

=== Peter's Silly Attempt

• Pick a project: Lighttpd. http://www.lighttpd.net/
  • Why? Small enough to get a handle on rather quickly (especially since they have a semi-documented plugin system **http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/HowToWriteALighttpdPlugin so you can build a small piece before building a big piece), important enough since used on popular websites.
• Tracker/Tickets: http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/issues
  • tracks both bugs and features
  • ticket status from new to feedback to actual patches
  • locates most issues in modules of architecture
• Roadmap: http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/roadmap
  • outlines which issues are going to be fixed in which release of the project
  • stratifies issues into what's going into the next release and what's going to be addressed (a lot) later
  • release numbering is 1.4.concrete for next release, 1.4.x for issues that's not too far off and may lead to smaller architectural changes (but might never get fixed if things go badly), 1.5.x for their next architectural vision which will overhaul the entire project
• Upstream/Downstream: ?
  • uses svn/bzr?
  • general definition: upstream is where THE source for the project lives, what will get released; downstream is where YOU work and try to fix things; patches go from downstream to upstream, not sure how in lighty yet
• Releases: http://blog.lighttpd.net/ and http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Releases
  • announcements are here but where the plan is I don't know
  • two tracks: release candidates vs. stable releases; candidates are testing fixed issues among a wider group of people, not recommended for stable deployments
• Code? http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/repository
• IRC: irc://irc.freenode.net/lighttpd
• Community: http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/boards
  • prefers IRC and forums
  • has mailing lists as well http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/MailingLists

=== Stoney's Ludicrous Attempt

• Project: Sugar Labs Project: http://sugarlabs.org/
• Tracker/Tickets: http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/
• Major Players: http://git.sugarlabs.org/teams http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=page&page=contributors_teams
• Forge/Repository: http://git.sugarlabs.org/sugar-base
• Release cycle / version numbers
• Upstream/Downstream: diagram with explenation
• Communication:
  • IRC: http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/ & http://chat.sugarlabs.org/
  • Mailing lists: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/
  • Blog: http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
  • Wiki: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Welcome_to_the_Sugar_Labs_wiki
• Roadmap: ???
• Repository strategy: https://wiki.ushahidi.com/display/WIKI/Our+Git+Repository

=== Darci's Excellent Attempt

• Project: Sahana Eden - http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki
• Tracker/Tickets: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/report
• Major Players: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/WikiStart#WanttoContributetoSahanaEden
• Forge/Repository: https://github.com/flavour/eden/fork_select
• Release cycle / version numbers:
• Communication: #sahana-eden Main Sahana Eden Channel;