BoFs/Jan27-2006

Minutes of BoF held on 27 January 2006.

Seven of us met at Cafe Coffee Day in Kunningham Road to discuss the plans of the proposed FOSS Month 2006. The participant were Praveen (HP), Peeyush ( Spatagiri College), Anuj Bhatt, Srichand P, Srivatsa V (all three from MSRIT), Arky and Surjo (SAIC).

We started with introduction and then Praveen explained the idea of FOSS Month to everyone.

Coherency
One suggestion was to put up notices with the events in each campus in a single one. To have a continuity in topics. Like if there is a talk on python next campus can have a workshop on it. After every meet gets over one person from the next campus should invite every one for their event.

Challenge
One challenge rised was about convincing the management about it. Praveen seems to be confident about it after the positive responses he got from both BMS and PESIT. The teachers were very enthusiastic and supportive in BMS.

Opportunity for students
Arky had a good point that now every student atleast heard of FOSS and see it as an opportunity for them. From an employers perspective if you have contributed code then they can easily asses the capabilities by simply checking the cvs commits. Thejesh talked about the advantage that students get when doing a real life project in BMS. He will be co-ordinating a session in Saptagiri where FOSS projects done by students will be highlighted and students will be guided to chose FOSS for their academic projects. Arky had an experience in guiding a team of students to do a project for NGOs. He is ready to guide more students.

Community presence
Arky stressed that we all should make sure that atleast we should be there and spent time with students even if no talks are there. The very interesting thing about BMS event was the response from audience who sat in the front row (essentially the foss community). When they asked questions like how do you make money with foss? It very cool when someone from front row stands up and say. Look I work on foss and I'm getting paid. So we had put up an FAQ to be better prepared with that kind of questions. [You can add the questions which you have to answer commonly]

Keep in mind
Important points to keep in mind are, more time for interaction, speakers from students' side, continuous process [weekly/monthly meetings locally rather than just one big meet once in a year]. Another point rised was that people prefer direct meetings than a mailing list and many doesn't know about IRC. It is not necessary that everyone meet every week, may be four or five folks meet one week and another next week etc. They can just share one cool thing they did in the week. Or have a talk on a particular topic or show a foss video (We have a page for the list of videos we have or links). Some of the suggested videos are

Videos
GNU/linux on xbox. Revolution OS (we are planning to show it in Saptagiri), The code, hacknick and better someone suggested to make our own video. So we will be making our own video to promote FOSS EDU groups efforts.

Schedule
The plan for MCC is here

Spatagiri we have

Atul/Surjo to talk on what is cool about FOSS. Tejas to talk on his experience in blug hackfest and will explain what to do and get more students for the project.

Shreekumar with his popular quake 3 fun and more. Then Thejesh's talk/discussion/showcase (discussed earlier )

More interaction than just talk. So more details about the speaker and the topics and suggested reading will be given in advance. And possible activities will be identified. More hands on sessions (also known as spoon feeding). SJCE march first week. PESIT Feb last week. more workshops. BMS March first week.

NITC schedules. MSRIT we have Mukti 6.3 (ubuntu naming) march 25
 * Already they had a what/why kind of talk Mukti 5.11. So most students are introduced. Now we will get into next level.
 * Python (depending on talk at MCC). Free Elektron/phoenix -> into hardware. Quiz on FOSS. FOSS projects done by students.

It was a very interesting meet and we came up with a lot of positive ideas. Now it is time for hardwork. If you think it is a great idea Volunteer [Volunteers page] now!

Reminders.

Summary of BoF in the main BoFs page. Video for FOSS EDU (Logo from Hari). NITC schedules.

Co-ordinators (contact persons) for each college. Media coverage, News reports [daily, LFU, ...] Radi City and other FM stations [very important], TV ... Our video is important.