FOSS Clubs - 2024 Roadmap

Minutes of the Meeting

Date: February 4, 2024

Attendees:: Ansh, @wisharya , @glitchyi , @Vishal_Kashyap , @Viswanatha_Kartha_V , @Soham_Kulkarni , @Het_Joshi , @Tushar_Bansal

Agenda:

  1. Updates on recent events and initiatives.
  2. Plans for upcoming activities
  3. Open discussion on FOSS evangelism, program structure and other queries

Discussion Summary:

Vishal (FOSS Club IIIT Kalyani):

  • 2 Weekly meetups conducted in January
  • Theme is FOSS alternatives of the week (Penpot, Linux)
  • Linux Installation Fest planned in February
  • Next alternative of the week (linux) post to soft launch the Linux Fest
  • Diversity at meetups is decent.

Advaith (FOSS Club MIT):

  • January - Event on developer essentials
  • The audience was diverse
  • Pointed out that female attendees are more interactive and interested in the event
  • Participants were later divided into groups on basis of domain they wanted to work with
  • Helped them set up development environment on basis of domain (eg webdev)
  • Also showed them how easy it is in Linux
  • Talked about general benefits of open source
  • Happy with the progress overall, the meetups are after 4:30PM and people are staying back after classes for the same.
  • Collaborated with ThoughtWorks for the second event on react fundamentals
  • Theory + Hands on
  • Yet to document the events,will do so in some time.
  • Cybersec event by the end of February.

Het:

  • Conclusion of the event in collaboration with IITB Trust Lab.
  • Paused the offline activities due to exams, online events are ongoing
  • In person session being planned on 22nd.
  • The team will be going for FOSSmeet '24
  • Happy with the overall progress, the students are being enabled by the community to learn more about FOSS
  • Plans to host competitions and monthly contribution sessions.
  • Plans to create a USB that contains 6 Linux distros along with projects on Linux

Soham:

  • Noted previous restrictions by college on events and efforts to establish the club
  • Had to invest 30% of time just for bureaucracy and to get the club established
  • Now focusing on contributions and technical initiatives
  • Successfully organized an unofficial event on FOSS with positive engagement.
  • Team will be contributing to open source projects while the bureaucratic processes continue.
  • Linux installation fest is being planned
  • Another event need to be conducted to officiate the club from college’s end

Tushar (IIT Bhilai):

  • Discussed the ongoing FOSS overflow coding phase
  • Conducted sessions on GSOC.
  • Participants displayed their journey with proejcts
  • Planning a CTF.
  • Working on setting up socials and expanding outreach.

Vishwanatha (FOSS Club GEC Palakkad) :

  • Had been busy with exams
  • Mentioned planning visits to organizations and building team projects.
  • Working on a project - a Telegram fork for college students.
  • Planning meetups, running a CFP a week before the event
  • Session on git/github
  • Documentation is pending, will be done in a few weeks
  • People are not well versed in coding and need to be mentored
  • Planning a session on creating malayalam fonts taking inspiration from SMC.

Open Discussion:

  • Het reminded attendees about the significance of creating own projects along with contributing to existing ones.
  • Soham and Tushar are interested in the hosting a local edition for FOSS hack.
  • I and Vishal shared updates on platform, FOSS Hack, the upcoming internship program, season of commits
  • Expanding reach of student programs
  • Discussions on changing the structure of FOSS clubs program in the future, and potentially introducing new student programs.

Next Steps:

  • Continue organizing regular meetups and events.
  • Focus on documentation efforts and outreach initiatives.
  • Encourage members to contribute to and create their own FOSS projects.
  • Follow up on planned events.
  • Document progress and feedback from ongoing activities.
  • Explore opportunities for expanding FOSS engagement in different regions and colleges.
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