Open Source "Case Study"

October 23, 2018 ยท View on GitHub

On the first day of class, students will be placed into groups of 2. Each group will be scheduled for a "case study" presentation about an open source project of their choosing (some suggestions below and if you are struggling, I am happy to assign one to you.) Projects can anything and do not need to be "code" based. They can range from large ones maintained by a company like TensorFlow) to small and maintained by a single person (Tracery) to medium-sized and funded through donations and grants like The Processing Foundation. Each case study should consist of an in-class presentation and write-up (in the form of a blog or medium post). Case study presentations should be 15-20 minutes with 5-10 minutes of questions and discussion. They should include research on the following:

Case Study Questions

  • Describe what the project is. Does it have a mission statement?
  • Describe the history of the project -- when / how did it start? Has it grown?
  • Who are the contributors to the project?
  • Describe the project's funding. Is it funded? What kinds of support does it get?
  • Describe the project's community. Are there separate developer / user communities? Where are the primary places they interact?
  • Does the project have a Code of Conduct? What does it consist of? If it does not, why?
  • Does the project have a license? Why was the license chosen?
  • Evaluate the project's accessibility (see: Syllabus Acessibility Materials).
  • Evaluate the project's approach to equity, diversity, and inclusion in its community. What's the difference between diversity, inclusion, and equity? by Meg Bolger.
  • Is the project still active? Why or why not?
  • What is the future of the project?

Case Study Schedule

Ideas for Case Studies

Open Source Software

Open Source Data

Other