OpenHatch newsletter, January 2013
As this newsletter was about to go to press, we heard that Aaron Swartz had died. He was a friend to many in the OpenHatch community; we mourn his loss. You can see rememberences at rememberaaronsw.com.
One of the many ways people are acting in memory of Aaron is to organize hackathons to maintain software projects he contributed to, and others aligned with his passion for sharing. Hop on #aaronsw or visit the coordination page to participate.
Finally, read on hackers and suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk, please reach out for help. There are many resources available. You are not alone. We don’t want to lose anyone else, but acknowledge that there are no easy answers.
Happy new year and welcome to the 6th OpenHatch newsletter!
Thanks to all who contributed to OpenHatch during 2012, in any and every way, including:
- Helping people find projects to dig into on the #openhatch IRC channel;
- Scouting out, organizing, and helping to run Open Source Comes to Campus events;
- Improving the OpenHatch website, bug importer, project finder, wiki, and contributing to the blog;
- Identifying companies to sponsor OpenHatch events and otherwise support our work;
- Working with OpenHatch to improve your community’s ability to welcome newcomers, increase diversity, and grow;
- Using our website to help you find contributors;
- Donating money to support our work.
We’ll need your help, and that of many more people, to make 2013 as bright as it might be.
As mentioned in our call for year-end donations, we have big, important plans:
In 2013, we’re focusing on gender diversity in our community. That means honing our Open Source Comes to Campus series and working with women in CS groups to create workshop and project nights to change the gender ratio with our practical, tested outreach. These in-person events bring bitesize bugs together with training missions and in-person mentorship.
Events
In December, we helped organize a sprint and workshop on the Python data processing package known as pandas. Many of our attendees expressed an interest in continuing to contribute, and plenty kept working on pull requests well after the event. Thanks to NYC PyLadies, 37% of our attendees were women, and we’re hoping to organize a general Python diversity outreach event with them in the upcoming months.
Two upcoming Open Source Comes to Campus events in the Boston area need volunteers, sponsors, and career panel members. We’re in the final stages of planning events with Harvard Women in CS and at Wellesley College on Feb 16 and 23 respectively. We’ve been discussing it on the Events list; you can read the thread in the archives, or (best) just subscribe and join in!
We’re still looking for more women’s colleges and women in CS groups excited about bringing open source teaching to their campuses. If that’s you, or your company wants to sponsor such events, let us know: hello@openhatch.org.
OpenHatchy but not OpenHatch things around the web
OpenHatch friend Mako Hill announced he’s joining the communicaitons department of the University of Washington. His research agenda is a must-read:
I study collective action in online communities and seek to understand why some attempts at collaborative production – like Wikipedia and Linux – build large volunteer communities while the vast majority never attract even a second contributor. I am particularly interested in how the design of communication and information technologies shape fundemental social outcomes with broad theoretical and practical implications – like the decision to join a community or contribute to a public good.
…
In other work with Leah Buechley, I have analyzed sales records of hobbyist microcontrollers to argue that relatively simple design changes in the LilyPad Arduino – a electronics toolkit minimally re-designed for women and girls – led to large increases in the proportion of women contributors and drastic shifts in the type of projects created.
We’re hoping to work with Mako on quantifying and improving OpenHatch.
Derick Bailey writes Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk:
I can’t think of a better way to get people to stop contributing to open source projects. Seriously… there is nothing more demotivating and demoralizing than this kind of high-school-bully response. It needs to stop.
Get involved
We can always use more people on our IRC channel to discuss events and the like. If you’re a programmer, get in touch on the Devel mailing list!
And it bears repeating: as a non-profit, we rely on the community for support. We need your help to get more people involved in open source, so please donate now.