Ditto on the ‘hmmm’. Looks like your 3 year old hunch might be ready for the big bad world. Something else I came across recently is openstax college http://openstaxcollege.org which is compiling and publishing open textbooks/ebooks. As part of this they are letting anyone edit and republish the existing textbook using the Connexions/Rhaptos Software http://cnx.org/. Haven’t really played with any of these but thought I’d share as the project is generating other interesting stuff like OERPub https://trac.rhaptos.org/trac/rhaptos/wiki/TechnicalDocumentation/Code/Sword

Connexions looks good but looks like you are confined to their environment. A git based solution should give the user more freedom to grab whatever files are in the master, fork or edit and republish.

So please go forth and make it happen ;)

@joss It’s a super alpha idea I am writing up now (and I just read your Software Craftmanship post linked from here, it is where I am intending to go). It’s not a course aimed at programmers but people who have drive to have an understanding to be able to manipulate existing code libraries, apis to build things. It came out of the serendipity experience of riffing back on forth on an idea with John Johnston
http://cogdogblog.com/2012/02/27/code-riffing/

I’m thinking of having enough understanding of inputs/outputs to build web tools with jquery, with having a conceptual understanding of using web apis, with being able to manipulate data to visualizations with refine/gephi like Martin and Tony Hirst do. I had thought it was also key to be in an environment like git (which I know actually little of).

It’s vague, but I am seeking ideas on how to frame this, and the work you both do is key inspiration.

On reading, I am just getting about to reading “Shop class as soulcraft: in inquiry into the value of work” that Scott Leslie had recommended.

Do tell us more about ‘Crafting and Computing’; it’s something I’m definitely interested in. Have you read around the use of the term ‘software craftsmanship’? http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2012/02/25/learning-a-craft/

All the best.

On the use of Git for bid writing, I wrote another bid shortly after the Bebop proposal, where I very consciously set out to write it in public, rather than it being an after-thought. https://github.com/lncd/AIM-project

I let people know early on that I was starting to write it, via a blog post (and Twitter) that became the first rough draft of the bid: http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2012/03/05/implementing-oauth-2-0/

It was fun writing it but I also enjoyed documenting the writing of it via the commit messages. https://github.com/lncd/AIM-project/commits/master

Of all the bids I’ve written and published openly, this was by far the most transparent from the outset.

On alternative uses of Git, you reminded me a brief exchange I was involved in on the JISC Repositories mailing list in 2009: http://lncn.eu/gs3

There was also a post recently that brought WordPress and Git together: http://ben.balter.com/2012/02/28/github-for-journalism-what-wordpress-post-forking-could-do-to-editorial-workflows/ Shame he won’t be working on it this summer.

I’d love to build something on Git, or preferably Github, where the APIs are already available. http://developer.github.com/v3/

Hmmmm…….. ;-)

Joss introduced me to the concept of technological craftsmanship. It’s an idea that sits well with me coming from a line of cabinet/watch makers and I sleep easier at night with the thought I’m somehow I’m continuing it (although I hope I’m not remembered as Master Spreadsheet Maker ;)

Thanks
Martin

I had no idea people were side-purposing Git, it makes a ton of sense.

A long way of saying “Thanks”