Presentations and inspirations

In class on Monday and Wednesday this week, we had a round of presentations from six groups. This is our first presentation week, and it is very interesting to see what each group is doing with their projects.

what we are doing with our projects

In class on Monday, we had another round of project stand-up report. There was no class on Wednesday, and we used that time to have a group meeting on Gatsby。

Another round of evaluation

In class on Monday, we did another round of project evaluation. This is a good chance to learn about another set of interesting open-source projects. In Wednesday’s lecture, we looked at different Open Source projects that are success in making profit.

Open Effort on Covid-19

In class on Monday, we had a discussion on the open-efforts regarding the current pandemic.

some big Open Source projects, Wikipedia and more

This week, we had one class and one presentation lecture. We were able to learn about the projects other groups are working on, and give a brief introduction to our project, Gatsby.

History of OpenSource and Guest Speaker

This week, we had one class and one guest lecture. As a team, we also made some progress with our open source project. It is a very productive week.

Contributing and Practicing Git

Using Git on Terminal

On Monday, we had our second remote class, where we were taken to breakout rooms and were completing an activity to practice our skills with GitHub. As Professor Klukowska introduced to us how to rebase our branches the week before spring break, we have the chance to actually do it ourselves on Monday. The process was actually harder than I have imagined, since I have very little experience with GitHub before.

Spring Break

Since it is spring break this week, there were no lecture. I made 2 contributions to open street map close to where I traveled to fro spring break. Otherwise there is no updates for this week.

Git Basics and Deciding on a Project

This week, we had one class and one group meeting due to the new decision of moving classes online because of the intensity of the virus. I still learned much from the class on Monday and the group discussion on Wednesday.

Aspects to consider about Open Source Projects

Research and Data

Vicky provided much information on the reproducibility of researches today in class, and I can see how open sourced projects play a big role in the topic. It first is very helpful in terms of preserving the data used in the research. Second, if the documentation is well-written, it is a lot easier for other to redo the research process. Vicky mentions that almost all research, when performed by someone else, will lead to different results. For example, only 30% of psychology research are going to yield the exact results.

Thinking About OS projects

What to look for in a project

We have looked at several open sourced projects in class on Monday, and the beginning point is usually the website of the project. Most of the available information are listed on the website: what the project is used for; how to use the project; how to contribute to the project; where to download the project; the link to the repository; etc. The websites are different in general, as some have sophisticated design and many different pages, and some are just informative with little design. The main function, in my opinion, is to tell the users what it is and lead the contributors to the repository.

Besides code, what else is open-sourced?

Past Experience with Open sourced Data

In Wednesday’s lecture, Deena and Vicky gave an overview of open source data from different perspectives, and I find it very helpful. Since I have not done any research previous, I have limited knowledge of data and databases. However, I have worked at a small investment company, where I manage their website by connecting their database to the SEC.gov database. This is a huge database, where US companies file their financial reports. I know how powerful the files are, as they contain all the information about the market. And the database is open-sourced, so anyone with an interest in finance, or professional analyst have the exact same access to the data

How to contribute to a project theoretically and physically?

Theoretically

Monday’s class was the most efficient class so far for me. I am very new to GitHub, never have I ever used it for a project before. Although I was pretty comfortable updating my weekly blogs on the web, I have never download it on my MacBook, not mentioning using it through the command line.

Though the different commands are very helpful to know, I think the most significant learning from today’s lecture is actually how local and remote are connected – they are kind of linked together like magic to me. I think I am pretty familiar with the entire logic behind the connection. Chronologically, we first fork the repository to our own, and we clone it to our local environment. Then, we can modify it however we like – creating new files, updating existing files. Once we are done changing stuff, we are able to add the updates back to the remote repository by committing. And after everyone commits, the master repository is able to include everyone’s work in itself.

We are working on a browser extention

How was opensoure software noticed?

I have come across the word “opensource” many times before. Recently, one of the most influential tech company in China, Tencent, the creator of QQ and Wechat, has made many of its internal programs opensourced. This surprises me a little, because these programs even include Tars, an RPC framework used internally by Tencent since 2008.