Connect with the Community (Activity)
| Title | Getting connected with the community |
| Overview | learners should get familiar with different communication tools (such as iRC, TitanPad, Skype etc.) that are commonly used by the Open Source community. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge | |
| Learning Objectives | In this activity learners will:
- familiarize with different communication tools (such as iRC, TitanPad, Skype etc.) that are freely available for everyone. - explore interactions and find out how different open source software development communities (HFOSS in particular) use these tools to perform efficient communications among their members. |
Background:
Directions:
PART 1: iRC
This is the longest and most important part of this activity.
IRC, which stands for Internet Relay Chat, is an essential tool used by open source software developers. It allows members of the community, or those interested in becoming involved in the community, to communicate 24/7, regardless of their geographic location. IRC is much like Instant Messaging with a group. Bear in mind that ‘talking’ is not always a requirement. You will learn a great deal by ‘listening’, especially in the beginning.
- Choose a client from below
- Web-based client: http://webchat.freenode.net
- Web-based client: https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.freenode.net
- Windows: HydraIRC (http://www.hydrairc.com)
- Linux: Konversation (http://konversation.kde.org)
- Mac OS X: Colloquy (http://colloquy.info)
- Everybody should then
- Connect to the server via the command: /server irc.freenode.net
- Join our own (newly created) channel via the command: /join #chooseYourOwnChannel
- Now let’s chat
- each student should write at least one line, and use at least one command!
- A list of useful iRC commands can be found here. http://www.ircbeginner.com/ircinfo/ircc-commands.html
- Commands on using the Meetbot can be found here. https://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot
- HOMEWORK 1: join and observe an existing channel discussion
- Connect to the freenode server via the command: /server irc.freenode.net
- Join the foss2serve channel via the command: /join #sourceforge
- Monitor, then write and return a 1-page paper on the discussion you discover in here for at least a couple of hours:
- Pay attention to the interactions that occur between community members.
- Ignore the technical terms you don't understand.
- Accept that the content may be beyond your understanding at this point
- Observe:
- How do people interact in this context?
- What is the pattern of communication you just observed?
- Can you make any other observations?
PART 2: Titanpad
Titanpad allows authors to simultaneously edit a text document, and see all of the participants' edits in real-time, with the ability to display each author's text in their own color. There is also a chat box in the sidebar to allow meta communication.
In this part of the activity you will need to:
- use a web browser to connect to: https://titanpad.com/ChooseYourPage
- let’s chat:
- do you have any comments you would like to share here about what you just observed in the iRC channel?
- every student should write at least one line!
PART 3: Alternatives
Propose some alternatives ways team can collaborate such as: mailing lists, blogs, twitter, facebook, google+, skype, wiki, iRC, community sites, blogs, twitter, youtube, slideshare, vimeo, etc. which ones do you think are most effective and why? In-class discussion.
- Split the class in teams of 2-3 students each. Each team should visit one the following websites and identify as many ways of communications as possible for this community:
- Discuss, in class, your findings.
- HOMEWORK 2: Write a 1-page paper with these findings.
PART 4: Discussions
- Describe the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication.
- Compare the HCI issues in individual interaction with group interaction.
- Discuss several issues of social concern raised by collaborative software.
- Discuss the HCI issues in software that embodies human intention.
OTHER REFERENCES
- http://foss2serve.org/index.php/Intro_IRC_Activity
- http://foss2serve.org/index.php/IRC_Meeting_1
- http://foss2serve.org/index.php/HFOSS_Communities
SOME IRC CHANNELS
- #openstack general discussion, support
- #openstack-101 guidance for new contributors
- #openstack-doc documentation team discussion
- #wikipedia
- ##java only for registered nicks!!! You must create a registered nick on iRC. Easy!
- ##C++
- ##c++-basic
- #sagemath
- #ubuntu
- ##linuxmint
Deliverables:
A paper with students' findings, or a blog post.
Assessment:
Comments:
Additional Information:
| Knowledge Area/Knowledge Unit | HCI/Collaboration and Communication |
| Topic | The are several topics:
- Asynchronous group communication, e.g., e-mail, forums, social networks - Synchronous group communication, e.g., chat rooms, conferencing, online games - Social media, social computing, and social network analysis - Online collaboration, 'smart' spaces, and social coordination aspects of workflow technologies - Online communities |
| Level of Difficulty | EASY |
| Estimated Time to Completion | 50-120 minutes |
| Materials/Environment | |
| Author | Razvan A. Mezei |
| Source | 50 ways |
| License | Licensed CC BY-SA |
Suggestions for the Open Source Project:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
