6.S194  Open Source Software Project Lab

6.S194 is a department lab that teaches students about real-world, large-scale software development through contributions to prominent open-source projects.

In this class, you will learn about project management, how to extend and debug unfamiliar systems, coordinate a distributed team, use modern software development tools, and apply open source as a business model. You will be assigned to an open-source project and contribute to the project as a team member. Teams will be mentored by leaders from their open-source project. Students and mentors will meet face-to-face for a weekend code sprint on February 6th and 7th to get the projects started. The course grade will be based on your contributions and participation.

Logistics:
Classes each week are divided among lecture (Tuesdays) and studio (Thursdays). Studio days are devoted to class discussion and group work.

You'll need to keep track of your progress in a weekly journal, which we'll provide to you in the form of a Google Doc. The journal should be updated every Wednesday by midnight (a few paragraphs to a page), as we will discuss your week's entry in studio on Thursday. Topics could include:
* What you did during the week
* Did you accomplish the plan setup in the previous week?
* What were the problems encountered?
* What were the unresolved issues?
* Updates/changes to the long term plan
* What is the plan for the next week?

You'll have a total of three presentations:
* Project description
* Original idea
* Final presentation

There will also be a final report due near the end of the semester.

Grading:
50% - Overall contribution to the project     
25% - Presentations
10% - Journal
10% - Final report
5% - Class participation     

Questions/Concerns:
You can contact us at 6s194-staff@csail.mit.edu.