we were discussing a quarterly event in order to improve engagement in the community and get new people into RIOT OS.
There are two possible ways we can imagine such an event. I am going to present you the two options and would like to know what you prefer. You can, of course, give your input on each one.
Both events would be completely online, in order to reach a global audience.
Matrix channels, website etc. would be needed for such an event and created accordingly.
Option 1: Hackathon
This event would function like any other Hackathon. You get together with a couple of other people and create some application. We would rate the applications and choose some winners. We cannot offer any prizes, but we can shoutout the winner via Twitter.
Optional we could also have a couple of people helping the contestants with their little projects.
This would requires enough people who are willing to support newcomers.
Option 2: Hands On Training
This event would rather focus on ready to use applications. There are a couple of examples which can be used and the newcomers try to run them on their microcontrollers.
There would be some sessions in which different perspectives of RIOT get explained.
This event would rather be educationally focused and less hands on app development.
What option do you think would be better for RIOT?
Option 1: Hackathon
Option 2: Hands On Training
0voters
What do you think, how long should that event be?
Weekend
One week
2 days during the week
0voters
Would you be willing to support people in such an event?
Yes
No
Maybe
0voters
This event would be aligned with other W3C and IETF in order to get more people from there involved in RIOT OS.
Do you have any other important events, we should take into considerations?
It shows that many of you are in the academic world, since you all vote “Two days during the week”
Keep in mind though that your target audience (that probably will not be able to vote here) will most likely be preoccupied during the week.
Indeed it were not the academics that asked to add this options (most academics are workaholics who even drive to conferences during the weekend ), but the people with families. So I think it speaks more to the age and family demographic of the RIOT community.
Ahh, yes. That’s also a possibility that I didn’t consider yet
Point still stands though: keep in mind that your target audience might prefer very different days than you guys as organisers. And that the target audience is currently not participating in the poll.
Hi, I guess the email integration for the forum doesn’t work for polls
I think that the term and structure of the Hackathon is wrong.
I think that the competitive aspect of it translates poorly online, and to a 24-hour day.
The IETF and RIPE hackathons are much less competitive and a lot more cooperative in nature, but you might want to read Charles’s Hackathon ID in Shmoo. My comments (from last fall) about the other non-coding, non-competitive aspects of the in-person Hackathon were added to his document. https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-shmoo-hackathon-01.html
It’s hard to deal with hardware issues remotely, so we need to focus on the emulated or native versions.
The IETF hackathon VPN situation has gotten better, and seems will become permanent. That gets us a L2 with IPv6 that we can play on.
I voted for both Hackathon and Training, but what I had in mind was a short mentoring.
I suggest that what we want is an event where someone comes to the group with a problem and is mentored to solve it. How to import a new module, how to assign GPIOs differently, how to fix their local IPv6 configuration to be useful, how to do a better pull request.
The mentees aren’t necessary newbies, but more intermediate people.
Maybe the Hackattack sessions do this already, but it’s not well known.
As for integration with IETF and W3C: I don’t know the W3C hackathons, but I think that it’s a good idea.
Circumstances have prevented me from deploying my RIOT-OS based RFC8995 code this week, but if I had, and run into WTFs, it would have been nice to know I could find someone.
Also: not everything can be done well online. The people who have the most “desktop” related issues in getting RIOT-OS running, also tend to have the biggest challenges getting online. Most of the time, it’s the result of poor choices in desktops, in home routers, and in ISPs. [There’s an undertext here of IPv6, btw]. Maybe some of this is better just delayed a bit.
Keep in mind though that your target audience (that probably will not be able to vote here) will most likely be preoccupied during the week.
), but the people with families. So I think it speaks more to the age and family demographic of the RIOT community.