Any website to see open source project for contributions? I'm willing :)
Github has a lot of them.
Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
31–40 of 179 posts
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#32> in the 21st century programming proficiency on its own is neither representative of the skills that the marketplace requires from computing graduates, nor does it offer the strong vocational qualifications it once did. Universities are not vocational education facilities though. Time a student has in university is better spent on getting deeper understanding of things that are hard to pick up in the workplace, and…
> Universities are not vocational education facilities though
I see this argument a lot; universities would like to not be vocational education, but unavoidably they are. Certainly for all the older class of professional job: engineer, actuary, lawyer, doctor. For those you absolutely have to go to university to even begin your vocational training.
Programming is different in that the degree is less of a hard requirement (but still mandatory for your CV for a lot of employers), and you can get by with a three-year degree. But the history of non-university vocational training for programmers is a bit controversial (e.g. Lambda school https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25415017/ ) and there's not that many of them even in the US. What's the UK equivalent to Lambda School? The French equivalent?
> Conversely, Jira-fu, unit testing, peer reviewing etc. is something a junior engineer learns in their first year at work
A formal apprenticeship model would be great for programming, but there's a lot of obstacles to that.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#33It isn't the education system's job to produce model employees. Nearly all the "modern skills" mentioned in the article all squarely fall under the moniker "industry knowledge", which is... the industry's job. Those that don't fall under the umbrella of maturity, which only experience can teach.
In my opinion, employers should start investing in their employees again, as they once did. It's neither morally laudable nor enlightened self interest to throw someone in the deep end and expect them to swim. And in our capitalist system, it's self-indulgent to say that you want something without paying for it. That is ultimately what the article is proposing: that open source contributors sacrifice their spare time to be the mentors companies should provide.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#34Any website to see open source project for contributions? I'm willing :)
GNU help wanted: https://savannah.gnu.org/people/?type_id=1
GNU high-priority enhancements: https://www.gnu.org/help/priority-projects.html
GNU looking for maintainer: https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#35I felt the same when I studied Biology, I proposed to the prof to let students write Wikipedia articles, instead of making them write so much text that ended up in a bin. It would mean a meaningful contribution to the world, + a prof was going to check it already anyway, so it would probably result in a good Wikipedia article.
They never went for it.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Universities are of course nowadays also vocational education facilities (with a strong track on research). I'm always flabbergasted where this misconception about higher education as some form of romantic ivory tower comes from.
I don't really see why they shouldn't be understood as both. Specially in fields like CS, engineering, law, medicine and economics and so on. There is need for highly skilled and educated people in industry even for regular roles. On other hand there is also need for scientist and researches. Both roles are somewhat different, but I dont' see now reason why they couldn't be trained at same facilities.
Well I'll take a stab at why CS should not be vocational. The field is first and foremost a branch of applied mathematics. The tooling taught in a CS program only has utility insofar as it serves to teach the fundamental mathematical concepts. This is especially true for undergrad.
In my opinion, there are far too many people enrolled in CS programs who would be much better served by a software engineering degree or program. However, modifying the way CS is taught us not the answer. A separate niche needs to be carved out.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#37Lovely. I hope university teachers help with reviewing the PRs too.
Reviewing even a trivial PR, making sure it doesn’t introduce any regressions, costs time. Every added functionality needs to be maintained until it’s retired.
I hope students who do that understand that contribution to an open source project is not a trivial thing.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#38I felt the same when I studied Biology, I proposed to the prof to let students write Wikipedia articles, instead of making them write so much text that ended up in a bin. It would mean a meaningful contribution to the world, + a prof was going to check it already anyway, so it would probably result in a good Wikipedia article. They never went for it.
I finished my PhD and am still mostly at a loss for finding notable Wikipedia articles I can contribute to. I'd fear a day when undergrads are writing Wikipedia articles with perverse incentives.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#39> in the 21st century programming proficiency on its own is neither representative of the skills that the marketplace requires from computing graduates, nor does it offer the strong vocational qualifications it once did. Universities are not vocational education facilities though. Time a student has in university is better spent on getting deeper understanding of things that are hard to pick up in the workplace, and…
> Universities are not vocational education facilities though I see this argument a lot; universities would like to not be vocational education, but unavoidably they are. Certainly for all the older class of professional job: engineer, actuary, lawyer, doctor. For those you absolutely have to go to university to even begin your vocational training. Programming is different in that the degree is less of a hard require…
The taxpayers want skills education and that's what they are paying for. The ones receiving the taxpayer funds want to promote fringe ideas and revolutionary societies. So this is a typical principal-agent problem -- the universities take public funds and public guarantees and then try to redirect those for their own private agenda.
Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects
#40> in the 21st century programming proficiency on its own is neither representative of the skills that the marketplace requires from computing graduates, nor does it offer the strong vocational qualifications it once did. Universities are not vocational education facilities though. Time a student has in university is better spent on getting deeper understanding of things that are hard to pick up in the workplace, and…
> Universities are not vocational education facilities though I see this argument a lot; universities would like to not be vocational education, but unavoidably they are. Certainly for all the older class of professional job: engineer, actuary, lawyer, doctor. For those you absolutely have to go to university to even begin your vocational training. Programming is different in that the degree is less of a hard require…
france has a lot of engineering schools, which are not universities. autoconf is one famous project from a french engineering school.
likewise germany has the fachhochschule, which is also expressly for vocational education at university level.
i would not call those equivalents to lamda school, mostly because lambda school is private profit oriented startup, whereas french and german engineering schools are established government funded public schools with a history of more than 50 years.
one could argue that maybe US community colleges should be the US equivalent of those schools with a focus on vocational education.