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COMP 491/492

Dickinson College Computer Science Senior Seminar

Blog / Slack / GitHub / Wiki Activity

Introduction

Professional and open source software development makes use of many different communication channels, each with its own strengths and purpose. We will be making use of four such communication channels (Blog, Slack, Wiki, GitHub) in this class and many of you will find yourselves also using others (IRC/Gitter/etc.) as they apply to your selected H/FOSS projects.

Blog

You will be using a blog to post two written reflections on the reading and discussion topics (see the syllabus for more details.)

Tasks:

  1. Create an account on a blog site. If you have a favorite blog site, you are welcome to use it (just create a new blog for the course). If you do not, then we recommend Tumblr, as its minimal interface is relatively easy to learn. Note that if you prefer, you may use a pseudonym for your blog username so that you are not personally identifiable on your blog. You will later be asked to post a link to your blog on our (secure) course Wiki for grading purposes.
  2. Make an initial post to your blog. Your initial post should include:
    • A statement that the blog is being created for this course and will be used to post reflective writing on reading and discussion topics related to social, ethical and legal issues in technology.
    • Then also respond in a few sentences to the prompt: “My plans after college are to:”

Slack

Slack is “A messaging app for teams”. Slack helps teams working on projects to do all communications within a single app rather than spreading information across e-mail, IM, texts, etc. Everything posted on Slack is indexed and searchable, making it easy to go back and find information and resources or reconstruct ideas and processes.

Tasks:

  1. Skim the What is Slack? page and watch the video (1:13) to familiarize yourself with the Slack.
  2. Use the link comp491.slack.com/signup to sign up directly for the COMP491 Slack Workspace.
  3. Edit Your Profile to include at least your first and last name. You can also upload a photo or avatar if you’d like.
  4. Using the links on the Using Slack page do the following:
    • Join the #sample-live-log and #tips-and-techniques channel.
    • Create a private channel using your name.
    • Set the description of your channel.
  5. Using the links on the Using Slack page do the following:
    • Post a message to the #general channel.
    • Edit the message you just posted.
    • Star your private channel and note where your starred channels appear.
    • Star a message in the #general channel channel and note where your starred messages appear.
    • Unstar the message you just starred.
    • Add a reaction to a message in the #general channel.
    • Team up with a classmate or two:
      • Mention another member in a message in the #general channel.
      • Find the list of your mentions and reactions.
      • Send a direct message to someone.
      • Reply to a direct message from someone.
      • Start a huddle with someone from a direct message.
  6. Using the Slack search feature do the following:
    • Find and star the message that talks about “wiki formatting codes”
    • Find and star the message that talks about “adding a wiki page”

GitHub

GitHub is a source code repository, but also has a number of communication tools that open source communities use for communication. We will be working more extensively with GitHub in a few weeks. For now you just need to ensure that you have a GitHub account.

Tasks:

  1. If you do not already have one, or would like one just for this course, create a new GitHub account. Be sure to remember your username and password.
  2. If you are curious and new to GitHub and can’t wait a few weeks until we get to it, you can watch the “Getting Started with GitHub?” video on the GitHub Training & Guides page to learn more about it. If you want to go further, you might try the Hello World activity. Neither of these are required as we will spend a few days learning about GitHub and git in a few weeks.

Wiki

A Wiki provides a way to collaboratively create, modify and structure the content of a web site directly through a web browser. It is very useful when a large group of people need to contribute directly to the creation and maintenance of the information on a site. Many FOSS projects use Wikis for design documents and end-user documentation so that lots of people can contribute to these resources. We will use a Wiki to maintain information about the projects you are working on in the course and to track your progress on the projects.

Tasks:

  1. Log into the Moodle for the course (see link on course home page).
  2. Open the “COMP491/492 Wiki”
  3. Go to the “Useful Information about Class Members” page
  4. Edit this page and add a section for yourself, using mine as a template:
    • Add yourself in alphabetical order by last name.
    • You must include at least:
      • Your slack handle
      • Your GitHub username
      • A link to your Blog for the course (created above)
      • A link to a new personal wiki page that you will create for yourself.
      • Any other contact information you would like others in the class to have.
  5. Click the link to go to your personal wiki page (it will be blank).
  6. Edit the page by adding your name and a few sentences of introduction so that your classmates and I can get to know you a little better.
  7. Also ensure that your page contains links back to the main COMP491 page and to the COMP491 member page.
    • NOTE: You can find the code for this by clicking “Edit” on my page (but please don’t change it.)
    • NOTE: With our Wiki anyone can edit any page. This is great for collaborative creation of the site, but it also comes with great responsibility. Please do not edit anyone else’s personal pages. Keep in mind that the Wiki software logs all changes and the user that makes them (Have a look at the “History” tab).