Bring on the Challenge!

Warning: The following blog post has a lot of links. I would recommend at least looking at the links after reading the post to get a better understanding of where I am coming from.

A new semester begins, and with that phrase students get back into the swing of things. The streets don't feel as empty as they once were during the Winter break and people are hanging out in the computer lab. Everything is slowly changing, but hopefully for the better.

The reason I deleted my old blogs and started this one is now upon us, CSCI 462 (otherwise known as Software Engineering Practicum). After taking CSCI 362 (the prerequisite for 462) I have been looking into testing more. Specifically I have been reading (or re-reading in some instances) papers and books that address the issues of software engineering in relation to: time management, open source ideals, project complexity, licensing, history of Linux, user interface, as well as going into open source projects to see where I can help out. This semester is going to be about putting everything we have learned into real world practice by submitting patches to existing Open Source projects (examples from last years class include Firefox, GIMP, and XBMC). Talking to a bunch of the students who hang out in the computer lab (hereby referred to as 218), every one of them seems anxious to start. I can feel a passion come out when I talk to them about what project they would like to work on.

It might just be my imagination running wild but after seeing a bunch of my peers start attending events that I have helped put on (and others I have attended) aimed at the tech industry it seems like students are more willing to put themselves out there instead of just attending class for a grade. Seeing students talk about the practice programming competitions and the fire in their eyes when talking about how much better they will do next time is great for me. I have talked about my own personal sense of accomplishment when I help a student get over a programming wall, but this seems to go deeper than that. I have setup another programming competition that will be on Friday 1/25/2013 and everyone seems to be paring off already into groups.

I'm really excited to be in 462 this semester for another reason (besides working on open source projects). Every student is given the opportunity to attend POSSCON (Palmetto Open Source Software Conference). My first interaction with the Computer Science department at CofC was actually the semester before I started. Dr. Starr (The department chair) invited me to attend by riding with a teacher who was driving students (for the same 462 class that I am taking right now) to the conference. Wanting to get involved early at the school I accepted. I got to talk to Jon 'maddog' Hall as well as hear talks from people involved with hosting services like github and linode. The best part is that this year one of my friends Adrian who helps with +BarCampCHS might be presenting this year! It will be interesting to see someone I look up to give a presentation in front of a room full of hundreds of people.

After looking on the Class Wiki (which holds all the blogs for this semester) and reading most of my peers initial posts I have to say, everyone seems to be really interested in POSSCON as well as working on an open source project. I do have to give +Tyler Sawyer a shout out for talking about my favorite topic, FOSS. Specifically about the difficulty starting to work on a big project when we are more secure in our old ways of working on a small project for a homework assignment. Everyone can learn from his lessons about how difficult it can be, but to not give up, for the benefits outweigh the pain and struggles that you may face.

Talking about FOSS I'll just throw up a video clip from the movie RevolutionOS (Which we should watch in class *cough cough*), where Bruce Perens talks about free and open source software. Specifically he talks about the (at the time) 9 rights (now 10 rights). The 10 rights of open source spell out the ideals of the open source movement including the idea of "copyleft", the opposite of copyright. I'll talk more about my thoughts on copyleft as well as open source in general thought the semester, specifically when I talk about Eric S. Raymond.