Minutes from 2012-12-19

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Our second all-hands meeting was held on Wednesday, December 19, from 12:00-13:10 Eastern time.

Actions

Dhavide Aruliah
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Unix shell
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for basic Python
Amy Brown
- Proof-read Code of Conduct
- Add Code of Conduct to bootcamp "how-to"
- Create graphic for "Participant" badge
- Create PDF certificates for "Participant", "Instructor", and "Organizer"
- Add wording to web site to clarify what does/doesn't qualify for use of "Software Carpentry" name and logo
- Add wording to web site asking people to let us know if they're using our material, and requiring them to check with us if they're using our name/logo
- Keep track of who's talking to what sites about bootcamps
- Get explicit retroactive signoff on contributions
Neil Chue Hong
- Contact OSS-Watch regarding enforcing trademarks for our material
Matt Davis
- Arrange bootcamp at Cal Poly
- Arrange bootcamp at San Diego State
- matplotlib material
Ted Hart
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for regular expressions
- Arrange bootcamp at ESA conf.
Bernhard Konrad
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for testing
Emily Jane McTavish
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for regular expressions
- Create ticket to arrange bootcamp at U. Kansas
Geoff Oxberry
- Create ticket to arrange bootcamp at U. Delaware
Cait Pickens
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Git
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for basic Python
Karthik Ram
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Git
Joon Ro
- matplotlib material
Alex Viana
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for SQL
Ben Waugh
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for testing
Ethan White
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for SQL
Lynne Williams
- Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Unix shell
Greg Wilson
- Publish Code of Conduct to web site
- Retroactively issue "Participant" badges for 2012 bootcamp attendees
- Issue "Instructor" and "Organizer" badges
- Finish Instructor's Guide by end of Jan 2013
All
- Check locally to ensure that it's OK to ask bootcamp participants to agree Code of Conduct
- Claim ticket for "Arrange bootcamp at [site]"
- Introduce us to one more potential bootcamp site for 2013
- Volunteer to help with online office hours
  - Dhavide Aruliah
  - Erik Bray
  - Shreyas Cholia
  - Matt Davis
  - Ross Dickson
  - Steve Haddock
  - Mike Hansen
  - Geoff Oxberry
  - Cait Pickens
  - Alex Viana
  - Ben Waugh
  - Ethan White
- Send Greg a picture of yourself in a Software Carpentry t-shirt

Roll Call

Aron Ahmadia
Carlos Anderson
Dhavide Aruliah
David Ascher
Azalee Bostroem
Erik Bray
Amy Brown
Shreyas Cholia
Neil Chue Hong
Warren Code
Matt Davis
Gabriel Devenyi
Ross Dickson
Justin Ely
Steve Haddock
Ted Hart
Konrad Hinsen
Katy Huff
Trevor King
Ian Langmore
Chris Lasher
Emily Jane McTavish
Cameron Neylon
Geoffrey Oxberry
Cait Pickens
Karthik Ram
Anthony Scopatz
Alex Viana
Ben Waugh
Ethan White
Lynne Williams
Greg Wilson

Minutes

Staffing
- Amy Brown from Continuum to help with administration starting Jan 2013.
- Jon Pipitone to help with web site and online tutorials starting Jan 2013.
Moved to Git
- Git tutorials to be folded together and put into lessons to teach to scientists
Code of Conduct
- Many sites not sure that we can set a code of conduct for events that happen on campus
- Code of conduct modeled on the PyCon Code of Conduct
- Those who have hosted events/or know of events scheduled at US universitites, please check and let Greg know what your local policy is
- Might apply to overseas schools too (e.g., Saudi Arabia)
- Problems with inappropriate behavious at bootcamps:
  - Rare for problems, but nice to let people know expectations in advance
Criteria for Badges
- Criteria needs to be clear to ensure the instructors are qualified
- Previous instructors will be grandfathered in
- Badges for learners important as part of grant QA process
  - Obstacles:
    - No way to know what attendees learned
    - Not allowed to publish identifying information without consent --> we would need sign-off giving permission to publish names
  - Greg: "We could do a participant badge with consent". Also mentioned "Driver's License Test" to come in future
  - Will use http://openbadges.org as a badging tool
  - Motion passed "Participant Badges" --> will contact 2012's attendees to tell them they can have a record of attendance
    - Will postpone assigning skill specific Participant badges until we have specific criteria (to be developed by the spring)
    - Amy will be designing PDF for certificate
    - Past participants can apply for badges post-attendance
Use of "Software Carpentry" Name
- If events focus on four general areas okay:
  - modular program structure
  - task automation
  - version control
  - testing
- If the event does not fall into one (or more) of these categories, then they cannot call their workshop/bootcamp Software Carpentry or use the Software Carpentry logo
- Not trying to stop people we don't know from using materials, trying to stop people not teaching SWC content areas from using SWC name.
- Greg still needs to speak with a lawyer about international trademark laws
  - Ian Mitchell has a draft, but policy still needs legal review
  - Greg will circulate draft later
- Trademark only licensed in Canada currently
- Need to have people to check with SWC central before using the name. Even if we can't legally enforce it (Thanks Konrad!)
- Motion passed "use of Software Carpentry"
- Neil Chue Hong will get in touch with OSS-Watch regarding enforcing trademarks for open source software
Volunteers to write three-line summary of modules for pre-bootcamp circulation as well as cheat sheets for use in bootcamps
- People going to bootcamps not entirely sure what they will be learning
- Need summary of what SWC teaches to include in agenda
- Summary (for before the workshop) + cheat sheet required --> makes sense for pairs to work on both bcause they will have to think about all the same issues.
- Unix shell - Dhavide -- Lynne
  - Fernando and I gave out this UNIX cheat sheet at the last workshop:
    - It's CC licensed; might be helpful as a starting point at least, but we liked it.
    - That cheat sheet is CC BY-SA, and SWC is CC BY, but maybe not a problem if you keep the cheat sheet separate.
- Version control with Git - Cait, Karthik.
- Basic Python --Dhavide, Cait
- Testing Ben, Bernhard (if you want help) (Yes, thanks, will e-mail you.)
- SQL -- Ethan, Alex Viana
- Regular Expressions - Emily Jane, Ted [what portion of bootcamps include regexp?] [I don't know in general- but folks at UT really liked them last week][I like them too, but we didn't cover them] [Do you guys also cover regexp testers? Kodos is super useful for Python. [like regexpal?]I use regexpal as well Cool! --> grep and sed in shell scripting
Volunteers to write cheat sheets for modules for use in bootcamps
- See prevous point on 3 line summary. The volunteers for each section will do both the 3 line summary and the cheat sheet
Volunteers to lead "sales" conversation with not-yet-scheduled bootcamps
- Go to the SWC GitHub repo and volunteer to help coordinate workshop
Volunteers to make introductions to new sites
- Companies are okay, even though focus is on public sector
- Bootcamps do not have to be in English; welcome moving the material to other host countries
- Amy to keep track of who is talking with which sites
- [katy] Argonne!
  - Katy: Other Chicago area school ideas? [katy] other than UChicago, which we're doing... I can't bottom-line more than one more before this summer... but I could help at Northwestern, UIC. I don't really have contacts at those places... but... hm. [cait] I don't have contacts either (undergrad at Lake Forest College, north of the city, but no grad students there). Northwestern could be interesting.
- [Geoff] Livermore? I could do Philadelphia-area sites also, with enough advance notice, since I grew up around there. I went to the University of Delaware, and can talk to them.
- [Emily Jane] University of Kansas
- [Ted] I have a proposal in for ESA 2013 (Ecological society). [Karthik] yay Ted. I'm maxed out on ESA workshops but will help run it if I don't have schedule conflicts. let me know.
- [Geoff] I could do one at the AIChE conference; it's being run in San Francisco, so it's easy for me to add another couple days.[Karthik] I'm in SF and can help.
- [Matt] Cal Poly, San Diego State
Volunteers for online office hours (Jan-Feb, once a week)
- Online tutorials not well attended last summer
- Will test having individual help to answer that question
- Greg/John will send out a call in the new year
- Volunteers willing to give 1 hour per week:
  - Steve Haddock: sounds like fun to try.
  - Dhavide Aruliah: I'm willing to give it a go for an hour on Wednesdays...
  - Ethan White: Count me in
  - Mike Hansen: I'm onboard.
  - Ben Waugh: me too, and have some funding to pay grad students to help
  - Matt Davis: Definitely in for this.
  - Cait Pickens: I'm in
  - Geoff Oxberry: I'm in, after I get trained in the study group
  - Ross Dickson: volunteers
  - Erik Bray
  - Alex Viana
  - Shreyas Cholia: onboard assuming travel schedule is not too hectic
- Hosts please encourage people to use the service once it goes online
- Goal is to give people enough knowledge to ask their questions on something like StackOverflow
- Lynne to track questions/responses and create FAQ page for webpage
Volunteers for minor tasks
- Someone to volunteer to write numpy/matplotlib (#72) [Joon Ro just developed some material as well] [I thought Matt had a start on this?]
Developers Certificate of Origin/Signed-off-by for Git(Hub) commits. https://github.com/wking/signed-off-by/blob/master/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
- Need retroactive clearance for open source for content developers
Applying to Sloan Foundation to have someone work FT for SWC for a year
New teacher materials? - Instructor's Guide Partially Exists
- Hopefully by end of January with John's help
- Next round of study group starts off in January. Let Greg know if you would like to participate
Big picture question (maybe folded into discussion of long-term assessment): Are two-day workshops the best model for making a difference? I am becoming skeptical about how much sticks two months later...[Steve]
- Greg: "If you can give a three week or three month one, tell me and let me know how it goes."
- We have done a couple 2-week class (and official univeristy quarter-long).
- The two-day format seems good at telling you what you should learn, but not necessarily teaching it (with implications for curriculum).
- I like week long formats, personally [Anthony]
- I'm a fan of 2 day workshops, long enough to get some real material in, but able to fit into busy schedules [Emily Jane]
Greg's Last Request: Send to Greg a nice hi-res photo of yourself in the SWC T-Shirt.