Teaching Open Source (Activity)

Browsing a Forge

Preparation:

Description	Learners will become members of the Teaching Open Source mailing list and add themselves to the People page.
Source	Teaching Open Source web site
Prerequisite Knowledge	None.
Estimated Time to Completion	20-30 minutes
Learning Objectives	Ability to: 1) receive TOS list serv mailings, 2) Add your name and contact information to the TOS roll call page.
Materials/Environment	Access to Internet/Web and web browser and email client.
Additional Information	?
Rights	?

Background:

Teaching Open Source is the primary website for academics interested in open source and involving their students in open source projects. TeachingOpenSource.org was set up in March 2009. The goal of the site is for collaboration and members are both academics and industry members.

Directions:

Part 1 - Joining the Teaching Open Source Mailing List

Teaching Open Source (TOS)- http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Main_Page - is a "neutral collaboration point for professors, institutions, communities, and companies to come together and make the teaching of Open Source a global success." You will visit this site and sign up for the list serv.

Do the following:

1. Go to: http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Main_Page
2. Locate the Get Involved section.
3. Click the Join the mailing list link.
4. Read through the information on the resulting page. Click the mailing list link.
5. Complete the information in the form and click the Submit button.

Part 2 - Adding Yourself to the People Page on Teaching Open Source

One tool used by members of the open source world is wiki pages. During this part of the activity you will participate in the TOS community by creating a wiki page and introducing yourself to the community.

1. Go to: http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Main_Page
2. Locate the Get Involved section.
3. Click the Add yourself to the roll call link.
4. Read through the page and see how people describe themselves on this page.
5. Locate Heidi Ellis in the roll call. Notice that her email is via reCAPTCHA. Click on this link. You are redirected to a captcha (for more information on captchas look at:www.captcha.net) . When you put in the two words, the Heidi’s email is shown.
6. As you are looking at the entries in the roll call, notice that many of them include a link to google’s recaptcha mailhide. This link is what allowed Heidi’s email to be hidden on the site and only be shown by using the captcha. The goal of this is to help reduce spam. If you would like to have your email address be revealed through a captcha, go to http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/ and follow the directions to get a URL for your email address.
7. Return to the top of the page and click the create an account link.
8. This will bring you to the page for editing the wiki. Read down to the Join the Wiki section. Click the create an account link from this page.
9. Click the create an account link.
10. Complete the information requested. After you submit, you will receive a confirmation email.
11. Once you have successfully logged in, you can edit the Wiki page to add yourself to the Roll Call. Click edit on the right side of Professors to edit this page to add yourself.
12. The format of your entry should be, your name, your email, your institution/company/project, and whatever information you believe to be relevant about your work. For example,

    Lori Postner, [http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01Rtfg9ZLZQjNmYicvEWSQfA==&c=KlmpA7OQR5-G_yA7RRSa_-yALTitdnnlyUB1Yg2y234= Email Address via reCAPTACH™ Mailhide] 

    Associate Professor at [http://www.matcmp.ncc.edu/~postnel Nassau Community College], I am working with the foss2serve team to learn how to incorporate HFOSS into my Computer Science courses.

    Your entry should begin with an asterisk (*)
13. Click Save. You will be directed to a captcha where you need to count the cats. Click on each cat and then go to the bottom of the page and click Save again. Your changes should now be saved and you should appear in the roll call.