Errietta Kostala, Shadowcat's latest staffer and intern from the University of Huddersfield, will be attending and presenting at the MozFest in London in October . Errietta, like the rest of the Shadowcat team, is a keen contributor to a number of Open Source projects and events. The MozFest will be the first time Errietta has presented and she is bounded with enthusiasm, and probably nervous anticipation, at the prospect.
Errietta wil be talking about how using IRC is still just as relevant in a modern project as it was fifteen years ago and the manner in which you can contribute and collaborate using it as a valuable tool in your OS toolbox.
A full list of the proposals can be found at this location, but the text of Errietta's presentation is shown here:
## IRC isn't just old school: enriching community through text-based chat
What will your session or activity allow people to make, learn or do?
Participants will learn how to use IRC networks like freenode and moznet to communicate with other contributors of open source projects. They will be taught the necessary IRC commands to connect to a network, register a nickname and find channels and, if applicable, how to create a chat room for their own community.
How do you see that working?
We will help people install an IRC client if they do not already have one installed - a relatively quick process. We will have short tutorials of teaching IRC commands and after each one we will encourage participants to experiment with using them and also learning other IRC commands on their own. The session will use material adapted from this blog post.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?
An IRC client doesn't take long or much background knowledge to install, so as long as people have that set up on their laptops they should be able to keep up with the session relatively easily. Having a co-organizer means we can split helping people in between us, and participants can even help each other.
What do you see as outcomes after the festival?
After the festival, participants will be able to access IRC channels for their favourite projects and collaborate with other contributors. They will also know how to get additional help on IRC features and commands, if needed. Ultimately this could mean more contributors to Mozilla and Mozilla projects!
Facilitators
- Errietta Kostala – @errietta
- Aki Rose Braun – @gesa
Organization
Shadowcat Systems LTD
Theme
Build and Teach the Web
