Now that we're almost half-way into the semester, I think it's time for some oberservations. But first, where are we now? As I previously said, we worked on packaging io and got it in fact to compile. I sent my students off asking them to finish packaging; not without a warning that the process of getting everything into shape can be quite time-consuming.

However, I found an email to the class mailing list saying that they were done. I was impressed. Today, we had the first meeting since, where we talked about a questions they had with regard to the .spec file.

Well, the obvious next step is to submit the package for review in Fedora. And while I'll be at FIE next week, it's their task to work through the review process and identify a community they would be interested in getting involved in themselves. So consider this a little call for reviewers (actually, sponsors) on my part.

Lastly, I said there were going to be observations, right? Well, I find it really interesting how to work with people of different knowledge levels. And surprisingly, this is not only the case in large classes, but also in very small ones. As previously mentioned, I have three students who all come with different preconceptions and previous experiences. I'd like them to work together locally, as well as interact with the community.

Hence, I didn't want them to be working by themselves. But I was also trying to find a way of putting everyone on fair standing when it came to contributing to an assignment. So for packaging io, I decided they would start out in class and finish after class (they met in person for that). But the most important part was that they would start pondering the spec file in etherpad, which enabled them to work on the same goal while addressing different parts that would still be visible to everybody.