Rochester Institute of Technology prides itself upon co-operative educational component of its degree programs.

Most students, depending on the accreditation of their degree programs are required to do one or more 10-11 week quarters of full-time, paid work study known as Co-Ops in order to graduate. Again the number of blocks depends on the degree program, with most Golisano School of Computing programs requiring three throughout their academic program. This means that there are thousands of eager students applying for co-op positions every 10 weeks.

*Most* co-op students who manage to land a co-op with an opensource company are required to have a paid position. To help close this gap between large companies like Red Hat and Mozilla, and small student created projects, the LTL and the CSI have developed new models for working with 501c3 not-for-profit corporations and un-funded student projects. The FOSS@RIT Initiative works with professors and faculty within multiple departments, so if a student wishes to contribute to a FOSS project, or a not-for-profit FOSS corporation, they can still work for the company unpaid and receive co-op credit, with the help of these faculty advisors.

One such Professor, is Stephen Jacobs. Professor Jacobs has championed the connection between organizers and organizations in and around Rochester, to create an Honors Seminar Course, based on development of activities for the OLPC. When Jacobs proposed the course, he knew that he would need community support, and initiated a local users group for the OLPC program hosted at RIT.

This decision resulted in a wonderful confluence of circumstances that grew the course and its impact beyond anyone’s initial expectations. It began when Karlie Robinson (Arguably one of the most involved Hacktivists in the Upstate NY region) attended the User Group. Robinson knew that David Nalley had begun an initiative to have the OLPC community create Math Software for Fourth Graders. Nally backed the initiative with the offer to provide some of the 75 OLPC XOs that Fedora had inherited for QA.

When Jacobs mentioned he was having trouble setting up the RIT labs to support the course, Robinson lobbied on his behalf and then connected him to Nalley and 25 XO’s showed up at RIT in time for the course. Robinson and Fred Grose, a Rochester based OLPC volunteer who had begun working with Jacobs after Give-1-Get-1 in 2008, also joined the User Group. Both Robinson and Grose attended the class regularly and brought others in via IRC during the class sessions. Jacobs then worked with Sugar Labs (another connection provided by Robinson) and his department to allow for unpaid Co-Ops for student projects; supervised remotely by Sugar Labs and locally by Grose.

With the third offering of the course, the beginnings of a natural ecology emerged.

Student projects initiated in the fall session attracted new students in the winter quarter. The original student developers (some pursuing Co-Ops on their projects, others not) are so invested in their projects that they eagerly assumed the role of mentors, bringing the new students into the fold. The original developers, of their own initiative, even attended the Winter session of the course they’d already taken in the fall. These students acted as additional voices of experience in the classroom and mentored the new students regardless of which project the newbies were pursuing, whether or not they were directly involved. Some of these novice students from the Winter quarter then become the next wave of Co-Op and independent study students that continue to move class projects forward in the spring.

Coursework begets projects, projects beget mentors, mentors beget new contributors, that beget more course material.

1. Coursework creates contributors and projects.
2. Projects generate Co-ops.
3. Co-ops generate mentors and TA’s.
4. Mentors and TA’s generate coursework.
5. Goto(1)

The course will be offered again in the fall, and every effort will be made to see that the cycle can continue. Jacobs’ Lab for Technological Literacy will be disseminating details of the model and the curriculum off the FOSS@RIT website and at FOSS and CS education conferences in the next six months. The LTL will also be seeking internal and external support to formalize and institutionalize the emerging ecology at RIT.

Here is a link to one of the first products of the course->co-op cycle.

Storytellers interview with Fortune Hunters Development Team:

• Demo of the current version of their game Fortune Hunter

A few weeks ago the Storytelling Team announced CrisisCampROC here on the innovation blog. The event, sponsored by the CSI, and organized by Vickie Krauchunas of Computer Science House saw a group of 15+ students and volunteers to help work on several projects, databases, and data collection projects.

Storytellers interviews with the teams at CrisisCampROC:

One team worked on the SahanaPy project, who’s popularity has been on the rise as the platform is incrementally improved/deployed with each CrisisCamp. The team spent their cycles squashing bugs, and getting a local instance of the project up and running. Sahana is a set of opensource web-based disaster management tools that provide solutions to large-scale problems in the aftermath of any disaster. Sahana has been deployed after multiple disasters worldwide; Haiti is just one of the most recent.

Another team worked to populate a database of public school information in Haiti. The database existed, but much of the data was incomplete, incorrect, duplicate, or missing all together. The RIT CrisisCamp team wrote a Python script to take data from a web site and add it to their spreadsheets automatically.

Our last team did research and data entry for updating spreadsheets and databases of organizational contact information for the siteReliefOversight.org The compiled spreadsheet we have made available as a .csv (comma separated value) file, to be easily added to their db’s. That file can be found here: Relief Information (.csv)

The Reporter also covered CrisisCampROC in today’s (2/19) issue! For our friends who are not on campus and can not access the print, here’s the online version.

Again, thanks to Vicki and CSH for organizing this event, and the CSI was happy to take part in and tell the story of such an important and successful endeavour.

Our storytellers covered a story Two weeks ago on the Knights of Columbus at RIT, participating the the Rochester Polar Plunge (a frigid excursion into Lake Ontario) to benefit the Special Olympics.

After seeing our first interview Ian Gatley, Director of the CSI, graciously agreed to sponsor our own TJ Miller, to take the plunge with the Knights. TJ braved the cold and with camera in hand, shoulder to shoulder with the Knights brandishing iron and mail, charged into the icy waters. So for your viewing pleasure, The Polar Plunge 2010:

The Knights of Columbus raised $762 for the New York Special Olympics, and the Polar Plunge event as a whole raised nearly $1 million. Thank you to Ian and the CSI for sponsoring and making this possible, TJ for going the extra mile to cover this story, and the Knights of Columbus for being the story they wanted to tell.

Registration

http://tinyurl.com/CrisisCampROC

Spread the word

Crisis Camp ROC Flyer (pdf)

Recently our Storyteller Team introduced InterlockROC, Rochester’s newest Hacker/Maker space. We met and interviewed with Al and Mark, President and Vice-President of the organization. This weeks big news at the meeting was that Interlock will be moving to a much larger space–almost double the size! Coincidentally, the new space is located at #42. (For those of you who forgot your towel see; Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life The Universe and Everything.)

InterlockROC will be showcasing this new space during Rochester’s First Fridays; a well-known city-wide gallery night every first Friday of every month. Many of the building’s other spaces open their doors to the public on First Fridays too, so the whole complex should be abuzz on the 5th!

We had a chance to meet the architect behind this event, Sneha Rao, Interlock’s Community Outreach Director, and captured another CSI “hello and hi there” with this Public Relator, and RIT Mechanical Engineering Alumna.

Questions about ongoing community outreach can be directed to Sneha Rao, snehapriyarao(at)gmail(dot)com

During the meeting, there was also talk of putting on a free writing weekend seminar series, including resume workshops. Interlock is passionate about giving back to the community, and helping others tell their stories, as much as catalyze them themselves. On behalf of the CSI’s Storytelling Team, Thank you Sneha for your time, and best of luck with the showcase! Maybe we’ll even come see for ourselves. Big thanks to RyanSB as well for covering the Story.

Come see Interlock Rochester’s New Space this First Friday, February 5th!

InterlockROC Quick Facts and Links:

• General Meetings: Tuesday Nights, 8pm
• Programming Nights: Wednesdays, 8pm
• 1115 E. Main St.
• Meetup Group
• Website URL
• Wiki
• IRC: irc.freenode.net #interlock
• IRC: irc.slashnet.net #interlock
• President: Alan(at)interlockROC(dot)org
• Vice-President: Mark(at)interlockROC(dot)org
• Community Outreach: snehapriyarao(at)gmail(dot)com

RMS@RIT::2/23/10::10:30-12:30pm::Bldg 87

RMS@RIT Poster (Full-size pdf)

Innovation in technology has come to be expected of the RIT community. President Destler even challenges the community personally to become the leaders. But what people may not expect is how these communities of technological innovators can come together in new and innovative ways to help people–and even help people help others.

When we spoke with Grand Knight Joe McLaughlin, 5th year CS major, about a service event that his group, the RIT Knights of Columbus, would be participating in, we told him we’d be happy to meet with his group and cover the story. We knew our discussion about the upcoming Polar Plunge would be official, but “armor-clad, brandishing iron, chain, and plate, and marching through the glass panes to meet our storytellers” was a bit more official than we expected.

(Above:Joe McLaughlin 5th year CS, Dan Muggeo 3rd year CS, Michael Delles 4th year CE, and TJ Wasik, SE Alumnus, brandish their metal for a good cause)

So here’s the skinny on the upcoming Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics:

• What: Teams will be diving into Lake Ontario in the middle of the winter to raise money for the Special Olympics of New York.
• When: Feburary 14th, 2010 @ Noon
• Where: Ontario Beach Park, Lake Ontario
• Who: RIT Knights of Columbus
• Why: To support the Special Olympics of New York
• How: Do’s and Don’ts of Taking The Plunge
• CLICK HERE to sponsor the RIT KOC Plungers

After speaking with the group, they invited us to cover the actual plunge on the 14th. We agreed, but found out the rule is that you’d have to be a sponsored plunger to even get close enough to take a picture… So I guess that means our resident videographer TJ will be taking the plunge as well! Stay tuned for our continued coverage of this story, and please help us help others help.

Our resident Hacktivist, RemyD trekked out into the frosty Tuesday evening in search of Rochester’s newest Hackerspace, InterlockROC. The space, located at 1105 E. Main St., sits behind the Door #1 entrance to the massive brick business complex.

(Door #4 it turns out, goes to another allied non-profit organization, RRCDC or Rochester Regional Community Design Center, and we thank you Joni Monroe whose board meeting was totally crashed, but still managed to help Remy find his way. We’ll be back for your story soon.)

Down the cement stairway, and through the double doors, a din of tech-talk and LCD backlights fills the room. Those without chairs sit on “re-purposed” computer cases. A projector at the front displays the previous meeting minutes (on a wiki ofcourse), and business is conducted in an orderly fashion. Introductions are made, old business is covered, new business is brought forth, announcements are opened to the floor, and then the lightning-talks begin.

This is most fortuitous for us as newcomers to the space being able to get a feel for many of the people and projects all at once, a veritable sampler of Rochester hacker-culture. The topics touched on everything from book binding, to bump keys, to wii-motes, to machine gun mechanics. Our favorite quote of the evening came from our friend Alan Dipert, President of InterlockROC before dropping into an informative adventure through the history of human, machine, and electric motor powered artillery.

“Machine guns did for Humanity, what internal combustion did for the environment”

After the lightning talks, Remy met with the core organizers, and captured this quick introduction to some of the folks behind interlockROC.

InterlockROC Quick Facts and Links:

• General Meetings: Tuesday Nights, 8pm
• Programming Nights: Wednesdays, 8pm
• Linux Workshop: This Saturday only, 12pm to 4pm
• 1115 E. Main St.
• Meetup Group
• Website URL
• Wiki
• IRC: irc.freenode.net #interlock
• IRC: irc.slashnet.net #interlock
• President: Alan(at)interlockROC(dot)org
• Vice-President: Mark(at)interlockROC(dot)org

The most innovative start-ups know that gathering user-feedback in the development process is key. So it comes as no surprise that the folks at Newdigs are holding some focus groups in the Innovation Center over the next few weeks.

Newdigs is  a comprehensive  apartment search website founded by RIT alum Ben Munson and is  one of the many start-ups working out of RIT’s incubator, Venture Creations. Ben’s a smart guy, so he’s hired an HCI expert, Katie Coles, to be the Director of User Experience at Newdigs. O yeah.

Want to learn what this is all about? Come to one or all of the next few sessions. They are fun, educational, and they’ll even feed you pizza. All sessions held in room 1680 in the Innovation Center from 12pm-2pm. Here are the dates:

Mon. January 18
Mon. February 1
Mon. February 15

For more information, email Katie at katie[at]newdigs[dot]com

After all was said and done, about 15-20 people from all over the country and here at RIT participated in a nationwide event focusing on the leading priorities of the Public Information Economy; Access, Openness and Transparency. This Hackathon was so in mode with initiatives from the highest governmental levels of the Transparency Movement.

Slideshow of pics snapped during the event:

These projects will only become more and more relevant as politics and democracy catch up with technology and the internet. Case in point; the new Whitehouse open government directive seen here:

The Open Government Directive:

The Sunlight Foundation announced this Hackathon months ago, and invited all of the project leaders from their development arm Sunlight Labs, to put on events on their own home turf. We were a bit apprehensive about running a hackfest with less than a week of of leadtime after covering FUDcon Toronto 2009, but we weren’t going to NOT run one…

You organized a Hack-a-what???

We’re sure you’ve heard of a Marathon, but you are probably wondering what a Hackathon is? Well, its a lot like a marathon in that you commit to covering a lot of ground over one extended period of effort. A hackathon happens at a common venue, in realspace and/or cyberspace, where groups of people, whether they are coders, programmers, designers, or other innovators, creators, and like-minded folk, put in a concerted effort to accomplish explicit goals and tasks identified at the outset of the event, usually culminating in some kind of running code. Some hackathons are impromptu, and spring up out of other conference(or unconference) talks and activities. Some are announced months in advance, and have an explicit course of action, or field of application, like this past event.

The Re-Cap:

The Hackathon ran from noon on Saturday til about 10pm on Sunday. Over the course of the 2 days, we had 8 Students from the OLPC Honors Seminar course, a handful of RIT students(4 or so), 2 RIT Professors, and members of the CIVX project in attendance at the Center for Student Innovation. There was also a small contingent of Boston Hackers from CIVX in attendance via IRC and Codecast, making this 2 day event stretch across 2 states atleast.

The first day was mostly an introductory session on using git, and gitorious to clone, push and pull from code repositories. Over the course of the day, CIVX was tested on multiple platforms and Operating Systems, with success installing on Virtual Machines running on a windows box, and even getting the Moksha Hub Running on an XO!

The second day of the Hackathon was less about introduction and bootstrapping, and more about diving into the code. We discussed the Dataset Lifecycle, and how external raw data is converted into open formats and open API’s using the CIVX Scraper API.

After a more thorough look under the hood of CIVX, the group decided to experiment with the FiftyStates Client API. After a few run throughs, we managed to expose all legislators and their roles in the fiftystates api(**BE KIND** – Link is a json dump, and it hammers the fiftystates API, so use sparingly), through the CIVX People Controller. We started to get into using the Bill.search() functions as well, but that will be an event for the next hackathon…

In Conclusion:

Little known to most–we hope he doesn’t mind us blowing up his spot–but RIT has had a huge impact on Transparency Innovation already. We’re not sure if RIT is even aware of it, but one of Sunlight Labs’ Top Gun Hackers–James Turk whom has authored massively useful and OPEN libraries, apps and APIs for sunlight labs–also happens to be an RIT Alumni. In our (few admittedly) conversations with Clay, James Turk’s name was brought up as soon as RIT was mentioned. Kudos to you, James Turk, who has also been leading up the FiftyStates Project for the Sunlight Foundation(the API that we were experimenting with at the RIT Hackathon). Your code and presence is still shaping Innovation at RIT, even in your absence, and we are grateful.

Events like this hackathon highlight open development for opensource projects and have the ability to provide a basis for long-term innovation, not just short term publicity. Running code is tangible, and can be iteratively collaborated upon, in a very public way that highlights the importance of process as much as end product. The blueprint IS the building in information architecture, and rapid web development translates into rapid innovation and deployment.  The CSI will be continuing these types of events in the future, and are looking forward to collaborating with the next generation architects and innovators of the Information Economy.