SBR600 Communication Tools

SBR600 students use a number of communication tools that have been built and heavily adopted by Open Source communities. This page contains set-up instructions for the various communication tools used in this program.

SBR600 Communication Resources

Wiki

The OpenSource@Seneca wiki is locate at http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/ (this page is part of it). To create an account, click on the log in / create account link in the upper-right corner. Once you have created an account and logged in, most of the pages within the Wiki will have an Edit link at the top of the page, and you can use this link to add to, edit, or correct any page.

After creating your account, please update your user page with your personal details including your IRC nick (you can get to your personal page by clicking your name, above), and add yourself to the People page (linking your entry to your user page). Also add yourself to Winter 2009 SBR600 Participants.

Tip: You can have the system "watch" pages that that interest you. First, go to your preferences page using the my preferences link (which appears at the top of each page when you're logged in), and check the box marked "E-mail me when a page I'm watching is changed". Next, click on the "watch" link on the top of any pages for which you want to receive change notification. For example, you may want to be informed when a change is made to pages that you have created, and you may also want to be notified when a page containing due dates or assignment details is changed.

Blog and Planet

A blog or weblog is a (usually personal) website where dated articles are posted over a period of time. In the open source community, blogs are used to announce new projects, project releases, and general information, to comment on current happenings, to record personal reflections, and to comment on other people's blog postings. Many Open Source communities aggregate posts from their community members into a Planet so that it is possible to view posts from the entire community on one web page.

See the Open Source@Seneca Blog Guidelines and Planet List for information about setting up your blog and including your postings in our Planet.

The OpenSource@Seneca planet is at http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/~chris.tyler/planet/

IRC

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and provides immediate, text-based chat facilities. See the Irc article on this wiki for details.

E-mail

When communicating with your professors by e-mail, please your Seneca-provided e-mail address as the "From:" address (yourname@learn.senecac.on.ca). Because your professor teaches multiple courses in multiple programs, it's helpful if you include your course code in the subject line of your e-mail.

The Seneca e-mail student server can be accessed through a webmail interface at https://learn.senecac.on.ca/

Tip: You can have your e-mail forwarded to another address of your choosing using the webmail "Preferences" settings. You can also pick up your e-mail using the IMAP protocol.

Fedora Project Communication Resources

Fedora Account System (FAS2)

The Fedora Account System manages authentication for most Fedora systems, including the Fedora Wiki and Fedora Talk. You will need to "sign" the Contributor Licensing Agreement (CLA) in order to participate in most Fedora activities.

As you start to participate in various aspects of Fedora, your FAS2 account will be added to various groups, giving you particular privileges (such as the authorization to use certain systems). In order to vote in Fedora elections or join the Fedora planet, you simply need to be a member in the group of people who have signed the CLA plus one other group.

FAS2 account holders may also use accountname@fedoraproject.org as an e-mail address which will redirect to their primary e-mail address.

Fedora Wiki

The Fedora Wiki contains documentation, instructions, FAQs, and feature plans for Fedora. Your FAS2 account will give you access to the wiki.

Tip: To link to a Fedora wiki page from the Seneca wiki, use the syntax: [[:fedora:Page Title]]

Fedora Talk

Fedora Talk is a new voice-over-IP (VOIP) service for the Fedora community. To access it, you need a FAS2 account and a headset (available at an electronics store or the Seneca bookstore).

Fedora Planet

The Fedora Planet is open to any FAS2 account holder who has signed the CLA and is a member of another group (i.e., contributes to or participates in Fedora in some way). To add your feed to the Fedora planet, you must fedora:Planet_HowTo edit a file.

Tip: Use your blog's tag-based feeds for the Fedora and OpenSource@Seneca Planets. For example, create a tag named "Fedora" and a tag named "Seneca", and use the tag-specific feeds for the two planets. That way, you can control which planets get each of your blog postings.

Bugzilla

Fedora uses Red Hat's Bugzilla system to track bugs, feature enhancements, regressions, and other issues related to packages in Fedora.

IRC

Fedora uses a number of channels on Freenode for synchronous communication; see the Irc page for details. Registration on Freenode is strongly recommended.

Mailing lists

Fedora maintains a number of mailing lists. It is recommended that you subscribe to the fedora-announce, fedora-list, and fedora-devel lists, using the same e-mail address (and optionally the same password) for each of them.

When to use Seneca tools and when to use Fedora tools

For content that is directly related to the Fedora project, use the Fedora communication tools wherever possible. For example, if you have written up a FAQ or tutorial page related to a Fedora software package, put it on the Fedora wiki, because then you're contributing directly to the Fedora project and your work will reach the widest audience possible. You can then link to that resource from the Seneca wiki if appropriate.

When communicating specifically about the SBR600 course, use the Seneca communication tools. For example, post your lab results on the OpenSource@Seneca planet.