[Koha-devel] KohaCon11 hackfest: discussion

[Koustubha Kale]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 2:37 PM, Paul Poulain <paul.poulain at biblibre.com> wrote:
> Hello everybody,
>
> 3 weeks ago we had our 1st IRC meeting about the next KohaCon in India.
> It seems I've been selected to start the discussion about the Hackfest !
>
> We've had 3 KohaCon already : one in France (2006) one in USA (2009),
> one in NZ (2010).
> In Marseille, it lasted one week and was mostly about hacking.
> In USA it lasted 3 days, we had one day (and a half ?) teaching new
> developers how to hack, then one day hacking
> In NZ it lasted 3 days too. the 1st day was dedicated to some
> -technical- lightning talks
> (http://www.kohacon10.org.nz/2010/hackfest/index.html), then teaching
> new hackers, then doing a few hacking
>
> What should be the hackfest in India then ?
> We have two goals during those meetings: welcome new developers, and do
> some real hacking: it's very efficient to work in the same room and
> without clock/time differences !
>
> I proposed during the first IRC meeting to split the hackfest in 2
> sub-parts, each of them dealing with one goal:
> * Hackfest part 1 = "become a Koha developper"
> * Hackfest part 2 = "do some hacking".
> We could say part1 is about theory, and part2 is about practising what
> we've learned on part1 ;-) (and of course, ppl coming for part1
> would/should/could stay for part2 !)
>
> The 1st part would be dedicated to teaching Koha to ppl wanting to know
> how to join: things like using git, Koha source code organisation, Koha
> database, working with templates, dealing with translations, submitting
> patches. kmkale suggested to have 2 days for this part, just before
> sunday (that would be a day-off)

Yes, the conference is from Monday 31st October to Wednesday 2nd
November. On Thursday 3rd November, we are tentatively planning a day
trip to Mumbai. It will be a nice break after 3 days of conference. (
Nothing is fixed yet about the day trip. It depends on peoples
interest. It might not be a bad idea to let me know if you are
interested in the day trip as well.. ).
We can have the first 2 days "Learning to Hack Koha" or "become a Koha
developper" part of Hackfest on Friday 4th November & Saturday 5th
November. Then again a break on Sunday 6th November.  ( Shopping
anyone? ;) )


>
> The 2nd part would be dedicated to hacking: showing what is underway,
> showing POC if applicable (Proof of Concept), playing with bugzilla,
> writing unit tests,...
>
> How long could/should it last ? There are 2 opinions here:
> - staying & taking time is expensive, so not too long
> - once you're here, we must make the trip worth, so as long as possible
> What's your opinion on this matter ? Mine is that once we're here, we
> must stay as long as possible, those meetings are precious.
> So how long should this part last ? kmkale said there will be a room
> available for us for as long as we want.
> My proposition would be to say 3 days (mon-wed): not too short, we will
> be able to do useful things, not too long, we'll be back home on
> tuesday, before or for the next week-end, back to work next monday.

3 days * Hackfest part 2 = "do some hacking" +1 on my part. So it
could be from Monday 7th November to Wednesday 9th November.

>
> What's your opinion on those ideas ? anything to add ? Feel free to give
> your opinion, nothing has been decided yet !
>
> --
> Paul POULAIN

Yup, we need feedback from the Koha developer community on this so
that the program could be finalised & people can start booking flights
and hotels.

Regards,
Koustubha Kale
Anant Corporation

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