Open Source Experience

POSSE Results

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:49:40 -0400

how does open source apply to your coursework
The students I work with are learning programming and database theory. A large percentage of the software they work with is open source. As students, the open source community allows them to see the development process for software as well as work with a community.

how will you incorporate what youve learned here in your coursework
I am developing an open source development course that students can take to learn about open source development, open source software and operating systems. The entire course will use only open source software. Students will work on developing their own open source software or joining an existing project. The course material will be aimed towards showing students how to use FOSS, use open source operating systems, join communities, integrate with open source services (Apache, MySQL, etc), develop software and develop lifecycles/bug tracking. Outside of class assignments will be students working on open source projects of their choosing within a certain scope decided by the student and their professor as the beginning of the semester.

any feedback/comments on POSSE
POSSE was incredible. I highly recommend it to others interested in open source software. The entire experience is very energetic and involved. Members contributing to POSSE are highly encouraging to those attending and are valuable resources for future networking.

university
Rochester Institute of Technology

college
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences

department
Information Sciences and Technology

full title
Graduate Assistant/Graduate student in Human-Computer Interaction

Open Source Deep Dive

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:38:41 -0400

For the open source deep dive, I worked on a Fedora remix project for RIT. It was mostly about combining the packages for RIT students with the fedora remix. I worked on removing the Fedora branding and other packages unnecessary for the desktop. We packaged a variety of software into the distribution that RIT students could use like scipy and octave. I worked on the packaging, while others determined which packages to remove/include and how to make a custom remix branding.

POSSE Day 3 - Open Source Development

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:50:00 -0400

POSSE day 3 focused on fixing bugs and adding features. We started by building Firefox and then attempting to add a requested feature to the code. Most of us appeared successful with help from others. It seemed us programmer types were challenged by the code and exercise. I think this exercise would be incredibly useful for students trying to get into open source software development or analyzing a codebase they were unfamiliar with.

The other part of the day was us identifying our skill sets and finding open source projects we would like to commit to. These commits were bug fixes, feature requests or development. All of the problems were small in size and could be done in a day or two. This gave everyone a chance to get into an area of their interest and work with people with similar skill sets. It will be interesting to see what people come up with.

Open Source Interests

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:48:44 -0400

Open source software is very promising. The rapid development of open source software at the moment is allowing them to surpass proprietary counterparts. Open source operating systems and software availability is reaching a point where most disciplines have the opportunity to find cutting software for their needs.

I have felt that my experience with Linux has been incredible as a developer. Linux and other open source software has allowed me to tinker and view others’ source code to advance my own knowledge. The advanced UI design and recent focus on HCI in the open source world combined with the tinkering abilities has led to a great user experience with free open source software (FOSS). Being able to contact developers on a certain piece of software certainly has perks. The community is extremely helpful and extremely fast to respond to bugs or feature requests. Based on this, I am interested in giving back to the community by targeting an area than many seem to complain about in open source software; games.

There is an apparent lack of advanced gaming due to the time and effort it takes to make a good open source game. Games in Linux are starting to get moment. Open source games are becoming better, while closed-source games for open source platforms are becoming slightly more common. As a programmer and a human computer interaction specialist I have a lot of interest in game design. I am interested in developing open source games that are considered modern and fun to play. Current Linux systems, android especially, are providing ample opportunity to create new and innovative games or even game genres.

Open Source Summer Experience

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:31:07 -0400

First day of our open source summer experience was great. The topics and licensing issues of the open source world are always interesting. The group attending is from a variety of fields all with various talents. The mix of people interested in open source initiatives, both in software and non-software works, is promising. It’s good to see a number of people who want to give back to communities and further open education.