My (Remote) Mozfest Experience
What I commit to for Mozfest. This experience will help me move closer to my 2016 goals for empowering contributors and facilitating quick learning.
This is an experiment. I believe in open learning and that any knowledge that exists can be attained through the Web. Fortunately, I have got a chance to test that theory against knowledge obtained through an intense experience like that of MozFest
Most of these experiences depend on the corresponding session in MozFest. But since there’d be too much going on in MozFest for anyone to facilitate remote participation, many experiences will be experienced after MozFest by catching up with participants. I’ll try to design alternatives to sessions wherever possible.
Primary Pathway
The pathway that resonates with my personal goals the most is scaling participatory learning experiences. I want to figure out ways to best engage learners and tools that allow them to create experiences for others. The following things must be explored:
- Getting down with github
- Find out what resources are available on github (issues, labels, geojson, milestones, checklists, etc.)
- Think of creative remixing of the above features in ways nobody ever has (like participation team did).
- Find out what resources are available online to teach people git (think of what resources are needed when trying to merge a PR in a MozillaIndia repository)
- What else can be built using the entire power of github (CORS, raw github content, gh-pages)
- bl.ocks.org
- static websites that does dynamic things using ajax
- discourse as blog (tell this to Phillip Smith)
- Read more of his ideas
- Federated learning with open source tools
- This will be complementary to the previous session.
- What other tools are there?
- thimble?
- Badge based learning pathways
- Can open badges be used like checkpoints in a race to make learners grow?
- Can these badges be used for recognition? For example, can people who complete a git tutorial or a git task be given a gitter badge which would be compulsory to become a member of a github organization. Can people who write a blog post that passes the XKCD writer or Hemingway app be given a “writer” badge that’s compulsory to be blog editor, so on.
- Can we host some badges on MozillaIndia repo? Can we make people collect them?
With these, I hope to
- learn how to motivate and engage learners and lead them to become contributors
- create an awesome list for learning topics
Other Sessions
- Go through the resources for growing an inclusive diverse project
- Explore possibility of bringing in more women contributors to Mozilla Kerala.
- Explore flyweb. Tell FSMK people about this.
Post-event Blogposts I’m Looking Forward To
- Scaling the leading & learning program
- New technologies for participation & demo
- Digital Literacy in the World of Accelerating Returns
- Iceberg model
- Use your skill to change the world : Can the “interactive stories” stuff be used in learning? Interactive learning. How?
Experiences
- Create a definite pathway for getting motivated, learning & contributing to MozillaIndia repositories.
- Create a badge creator that allows one to host created badges on github.
- Anything that strikes when going through other things.
Conversations
Conversations I should have before MozFest
- Emma Irwin: My ideas about scaling the leading & learning program and tech speakers program
Conversations I should have after MozFest
- Personal, with all participation leaders from India who attended: about the various things they learned.
Making Up for Things I will Miss Out
There are multiple sessions that are specifically targeted at participation leaders which I will not be able to attend. After MozFest I should ping other participants and figure out what happened during these sessions.
- Community leadership Summit
- Facilitator skill-building
- Participation leadership orientation & kick-off
- Sign making
- Mozilla strategy
- Participation leaders specific track
Also
- Opening keynote
- Lightning talks
Since I have all the Time
Explore
- Design Thinking
- Cynefin game
- Atlantis. (Figure out where to download this)