Open Source Hackathon at Pablo’s Fiesta

This is something several of the Los Techies crew have been talking about doing as a little something extra around Pablo’s Fiesta. The idea is that with so much brainpower all in one place, we might be able to do something for the Open Source projects that we all use and love, and learn a little something along the way. So far we have a couple of different ideas. Our first idea was to have a ‘bugsmash’ where people get together and work on fixing some bugs in people’s favorite OSS packages. Or it could be that folks have an idea for an OSS project that doesn’t exist yet, and maybe people would like to help out and get something kick started. Along the way, we could have people who are experienced working in open source help guide people who would like to get involved but who don’t have the experience yet. There would be lots of opportunities for working in all different kinds of areas – whether it is simple git/github/bitbucket workflows, an introduction to open source project etiquette, or diving deep into certain technologies you’ve always wanted to use, but don’t get a chance to use at work.

So that’s the plan (such as it is) for now. We know we have a few of the Los Techies crew interested, and we’ve talked to some folks about securing some working space close to the conference site. Tentatively, we’re thinking this would be either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. In either case, we could have food involved, beer, whatever!

I’ve set up a Google group specifically for this, so please join that if you are interested and want to learn more details.

http://groups.google.com/group/pablos-fiesta-hackathon

By the way – details for Pablo’s Fiesta are at http://lostechies.github.com/fiesta/