Sebastian and I just submitted this one. ---
Title: Your First Trip To Open Source Land: A Travel Agency Advisory Description: Join your trusty guides as they introduce YOU (yes, you!) to the magic of an open source cultural exchange. From terrible mistranslations from our Hacker/Newbie dictionary to croissant-baking as a method of improving project documentation, this satirical three-act romp through the new project contributor process will leave you laughing and questioning the way FOSS culture looks to the uninitiated. Abstract: Join your trusty guides as they introduce YOU (yes, you!) to the magic of an open source cultural exchange. Just like study abroad experiences immerse students in a foreign land, contributing to an open source project can broaden your world and give you a critical career advantage. However, there are pitfalls that must be avoided - the way to hell is paved with good intentions. An example: * Newbie says: I'd like to start helping with your project. Where can I begin? * Newbie means: I want to make sure I'm not making any mistakes, because I don't know what's the proper thing to do in this unfamiliar context. * Hacker hears: I have no direction and initiative. Please help me waste your time! Fear not! Your tour guides will continue to lead the way, armed with wit and stunning color photographs shot on location. This tour is for both experienced contributors and recent newcomers: open source culture may seem natural to the former, but appears utterly bizarre to the latter for reasons seasoned contributors often can't see. Now we can find out... with TECHNOLOGY. Using the powerful new SWIMNWIS (Say What I Mean, Not What I Say) translation engine, we'll go through some sample dialogues to demonstrate how two perfectly well-intentioned people can end up at each other's throats. (For instance, did you know the phrase "check out our open tickets" generally means "I want to make sure other folks will be interested in helping you on what you work on" not - as commonly assumed - "piss off"?) Finally, there'll be documentation-croissants. (http://blog.melchua.com/2011/02/01/ive-followed-your-instructions-and-i-still-cant-bake-croissants/) How to make one? Join us. This satirical three-act romp through the new project contributor process will leave you laughing and questioning the way open source culture looks to the uninitiated. _______________________________________________ tos mailing list tos@teachingopensource.org http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
