[Cs22800] Welcome to the Free Software Practicum mailing list

[Mike O'Donnell]

I took the liberty of entering all of you on the
cs22800 at cs.uchicago.edu mailing list, for discussion related to Com
Sci 22800, Free Software Practicum. You should have already received
an automatic welcome message with URLs and an initial password. Some
of you are enrolled in the course, some of you are considering
enrolling, and some are interested. If you are not enrolled, and I
overstepped, please let me know and I'll remove you from the list.

I set up everyone to receive messages immediately (instead of daily
digests). You can change your personal parameters at

  http://mailman.cs.uchicago.edu/mailman/options/cs22800/odonnell%40cs.uchicago.edu

In the spirit of the course topic, I made the list open for
subscription and posting by the world, but I did not advertise our
individual email addresses, to discourage SPAM. The volunteer
mailing-list-meister who takes over from me can adjust the parameters
if I didn't get them just right.

Please post an initial message introducing yourself, and your type of
interest and participation in the course.

One quarter is *very* tight for doing a serious software project. We
need to hit the deck running. *Everything* that I can control is
negotiable. That's pretty much everything except the registrar's
deadlines. Propose whatever changes in the course organization and
requirements you would like. If you prefer to sign up and take credit
in a later quarter, with a later deadline, that's fine. But at each
quarter's deadline for filing grades I will file something for each
person on my grade list, based on what I've seen up to that date. I
don't do incompletes except for unusual private disasters---not for
difficulties in class.

The creation of this mailing list should be the last item of class
organization for which I take initiative. A class member should take
over as mailing list owner, and other volunteers should arrange
whatever other support you want: CVS repository, Wikki, BBS, MUD room,
IRC channel, Web-based discussion in the HyperNews vein. I will
instruct techstaff at cs.uchicago.edu to co-operate, but you should
discuss solutions with them directly. I will take all such work into
account in the final assignment of credit and grades with the
registrar.

Part of hitting the deck running is for everyone enrolled or thinking
of enrolling to attend the first meeting on Monday, 30 September, at
1:30 PM in Ryerson 257. Please don't schedule any conflicting meetings 
on Mondays before 4:30 PM. The use of meetings, like everything else,
is negotiable. But I expect that we will have some open discussion,
some presentations of people's projects, some appeals for help solving 
particular project problems. All project work is completely open. Get
help from wherever help is available. The point of the course is
co-operating effectively to accomplish a real software goal---not
testing what you can do in isolation.

I will be in China 9-25 September. I will check email when possible,
but don't count on quick response during that time. 30 September will
come just about when I get over the jet lag.

Mike O'D.