Ushahidi 2013-01-13

[10:01am] You are now known as srebelsky.
[10:02am] srebelsky: Sorry I'm late.  Moving locations and trouble getting on.
[10:03am] You are now known as rebelsky.
[10:03am] KiranBellam_afk joined the chat room.
[10:04am] camm: No worries
[10:05am] camm: My connection cut, but I didn't notice and just though the channel was quiet
[10:05am] camm: How is everyone doing?
[10:05am] KiranBellam_afk is now known as KiranBellam.
[10:06am] rebelsky: I've been busy trying to deal with my summer students.  I did get Ushahidi installed (a second time) and updated the instructions to be quite detailed. 
[10:07am] camm: excellent
[10:07am] rebelsky: #link http://foss2serve.org/index.php/Ushahidi_Installation_Instructions
[10:07am] camm: did you upload the Zombie data set?
[10:07am] rebelsky: camm: Is someone recording this?
[10:07am] rebelsky: camm: Yes, I uploaded the Zombie data set.  I got a weird server error afterwards, but it seemed to work.
[10:08am] rebelsky: I also ended up switching the default location to somewhere in the US (since there weren't many Zombie attacks in Kenya).
[10:08am] camm: Good
[10:08am] rebelsky: I'm having my summer students try to build the Ushahidi Android App - since it's written in Java, it seems like a good opportunity to incorporate *something* in my Java course.
[10:08am] camm: Yes, I remember that server error from my students
[10:09am] camm: it could be a potential bug fix project.  I don't think it's a trivial fix, but clearly an interface with a progress bar, etc. would be much better
[10:09am] rebelsky: Yeah ... we're not doing PHP, so it's not a fix that I think we'll take on 
[10:10am] camm: It would be a combination of PHP and Javascript/jQuery
[10:10am] rebelsky: My students are encountering all sorts of fun problems building the Ushahidi Android App.  It appears that they need a Google Maps key, which means that they need to sign the application, which means ....  But, hey, it's probably a good learning experience for them.
[10:10am] camm: rebelsky: I also had students build some standalone Java apps as a first step
[10:11am] camm: rebelsky: OpenStreetMaps should be an option for the maps as well
[10:11am] camm: It is the default in the webapp, not sure about the Android app though
[10:11am] rebelsky: camm: I'd love to hear more about what kind of standalone Java apps you had the students write.
[10:11am] rebelsky: Is your assignment posted to the Web?
[10:11am] rebelsky: (And, hey, is anyone else from the Ushahidi group out there?)
[10:12am] rebelsky: (That is ... the foss2serve Ushahidi group.)
[10:12am] camm: It's not on the web.  We use blackboard  for hosting assignments and stuff
[10:12am] KiranBellam: I am here..lurking 
[10:12am] camm: Hold on, I'll put it up in dropbox
[10:14am] rebelsky: Let's see ... Monisha said that she was on vacation this week.  Don't see Karl.
[10:14am] rebelsky: KiranBellam: How are things going with you?
[10:14am] camm: Here's my assignment: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37108785/assn1.pdf
[10:14am] camm: There are some non-Ushahidi parts, just skip over those.
[10:14am] camm: You'll want to look at the "API parsing" section
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[10:15am] rebelsky: Yeah ... Parsing the API stuff will be a bit advanced for the CS2 students, at least at first.  I thought that would be a good exercise when we get to trees.
[10:16am] KiranBellam: I haven't had a chance to explore much on Ushahidi..We just concluded a workshop yesterday, was very busy with that stuff. Should be able to catch up this week.
[10:16am] rebelsky: KiranBellam: I know that feeling.
[10:17am] rebelsky: camm: Is there a follow up to "Parse the XML/JSON, tell me something about the data?"
[10:17am] howardf left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 252 seconds)
[10:17am] howardf_ is now known as howardf.
[10:17am] rebelsky: Can you approve/verify through the API, for example?
[10:18am] KiranBellam: I am guessing Monisha is rebelsky
[10:18am] camm: nope, Sam is rebelsky
[10:18am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky is sam
[10:19am] camm: I believe monisha is "pulimood" when she's here
[10:19am] rebelsky: pnutzh4x0r: Where do you run your department chat?
[10:19am] KiranBellam: oops sorry 
[10:19am] rebelsky: (That is, on what IRC server?)
[10:19am] KiranBellam: thanks!
[10:19am] camm: rebelsky: there are different APIs for approving
[10:19am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: freenode
[10:19am] camm: https://wiki.ushahidi.com/display/WIKI/Ushahidi+REST+API
[10:19am] rebelsky: camm: Thanks
[10:19am] camm: The public API is for viewing stuff, the admin API does approvals
[10:19am] rebelsky: pnutzh4x0r: Aren't freenode channels supposed to be for FOSS?
[10:20am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: generally yes, but they are also available to different communities
[10:21am] rebelsky: camm: My idea was to have them provide a simple text UI for approving or verifying.  (And it's an opportunity to talk about stacks vs. queues vs. priority queues ... in what order do you want to see the incidents - most-recent-first, oldest-first, or most-important-first (determined using some criterion).)
[10:21am] rebelsky: pnutzh4x0r: Do you use # or ## for prefix?  (Sorry, just trying to understand the freenode policies.)
[10:22am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: #, probably should use the ## but again it's not enforced
[10:22am] camm: rebelsky: I would encourage a text UI, some students did GUIs, but the GUIS were actually easier because of things like netBeans GUI creation tool
[10:23am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#ontopic i think no. 8 would apply to us (we also have a LUG channel)
[10:24am] rebelsky: camm: Thanks.  I'll be playing with ideas over the next few weeks.  It strikes me that any data feed can be useful for the kinds of things we do in a CS2 course - searching, sorting, arranging in data structures, etc.  So I'll be focusing on ways to have them use the Ushahidi data feed.
[10:24am] camm: using the admin API requires authentication whereas the public API does not. 
[10:25am] rebelsky: pnutzh4x0r: Thanks.
[10:25am] rebelsky: camm: Do we have other things to discuss?  Do you have homework for next week and/or the week after?  (I'll be on vacation next week.)
[10:25am] camm: which provides an interesting point to discuss security which could be appropriate for a CS2 course
[10:25am] rebelsky: I like the security idea.  Thanks.
[10:26am] rebelsky: rebelsky: Self-assignment 1: Set up IRC channel for department.
[10:27am] rebelsky: Self-assignment 2: Set up IRC channel for research team.
[10:27am] rebelsky: Self-assignment 3: Get Twitter feed working for Ushahidi.
[10:27am] rebelsky: Self-assignment 4: Pick "theme" for course install of Ushahidi.  (Incidents of some sort on campus or in town?)
[10:27am] camm: what kind of assignment do you want?  One working within the Ushahidi code, or one working externally?
[10:28am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: http://toxin.jottit.com/freenode_chanserv_commands < this will be handy for setting up your channels
[10:28am] camm: or more ushahidi configuration stuff?
[10:28am] rebelsky: camm: I don't care.  I thought ghislop and heidie wanted us to stay involved and connected somehow.
[10:28am] camm: rebelsky: sure, but do you have a preference?
[10:29am] camm: I would be interested to hear your lessons of working with the Android app
[10:29am] rebelsky: camm: No significant prefs.  Perhaps just having us join the listserv or whatever and maybe reading the "next generation Ushahidi" document that you pointed us to.
[10:29am] camm: that could be your "assignment"
[10:29am] rebelsky: camm: I like the Android App lessons.  I'll work on that for two weeks from today.
[10:30am] camm: rebelsky: Skype is the tool of choice for Ushahidi
[10:30am] camm: If you have a skype id, I'll get you added
[10:30am] camm: to the dev chat
[10:30am] camm: I believe Monisha joined the community chat as she is more interested in the deployment side rather than the hacking side at this point
[10:31am] pnutzh4x0r: KiranBellam: i applied to the hpc educator's program... i'm not sure if i will be accepted, oh well
[10:31am] pnutzh4x0r: rebelsky: is your course in python? or java?
[10:31am] rebelsky: pnutzh4x0r: Java
[10:31am] rebelsky: And it's their first Java course.  (We do Scheme in CS1 and C in CS1.5.)
[10:31am] KiranBellam: pnutzh4x0r: Fingers crossed..lets hope we get in!
[10:32am] rebelsky: So they know lots of the syntax from C, but need to learn about objects.
[10:32am] camm: pnutzh4x0r: do you work with the Pnuts system?  Just wondering of your id's origin
[10:32am] rebelsky: camm: srebelsky on Skype, although I'm rarely on.  When does the dev team usually meet?
[10:33am] pnutzh4x0r: camm: nope, id is from high school...
[10:33am] rebelsky: The community team might be more appropriate for me, too.
[10:33am] camm: rebelsky: people are on 24/7 discussing stuff, truly 24/7 due to the strong Kenyan contingent
[10:34am] camm: there are scheduled community discussions
[10:34am] rebelsky: Hmmm ... Okay, I'll see about connecting.  That can be my other assignment.
[10:34am] camm: for the community discussions, they actually do a skype conference voice call
[10:35am] bobbit joined the chat room.
[10:35am] • ghislop waves.... and is glad to see the Ushahidians meeting!
[10:36am] • ghislop would also suggest using zodbot to record the meetings like this... others may need to catch up
[10:37am] rebelsky: I asked at the beginning but didn't get a response.  I'll cut and paste and post to foss2serve.org.
[10:37am] camm: rebelsky: ph yeah, there's also a mobile chat channel
[10:37am] rebelsky: camm: Wow.  That's a lot of chatting.  Would you be willing to post a summary on the foss2serve Ushahidi page (or a link to a summary)?
[10:37am] camm: ghislop: thanks, I'll take care of that from now on
[10:38am] rebelsky: By summary I mean "summary of where Ushahdii folks meet online"
[10:38am] ghislop: Thanks.  
[10:38am] camm: rebelsky: sure thing
[10:38am] camm: One disadvantage of skype is that one cannot just add themself
[10:38am] rebelsky: Well, I think I have more than enough work for the next two weeks.  I'll try to be online for Tuesday's and Thursday's meetings, but I'm doubtful.
[10:39am] camm: that and the lack of good logging facility
[10:39am] rebelsky: At some point we should discuss why Ushahidi uses Skype rather than IRC, given what ghislop and heidie told us about why communities use IRC.
camm: rebelsky: there is no explicit reason why, it's just habit
[10:40am] ghislop: rebelsky: different communities use different channels.  Generally you just need to figure out what a given team does and go with the flow.
[10:41am] camm: it's an interesting FOSS aspect in that no individual can declare "now use IRC"