Create indoc page for newbs

[BretFisher]

Lets put ideas and resources here, and once we have enough for a page, we can create it as indoc.c4hrva.us or something.

Purpose/goals

• three different audiences:
  • people new on meetup.com
  • people new to physical hangout
  • people that stumble to codeforhamptonroads.org and want more info
  • cut down on the number of people thinking we'll teach them how to code. Give them the resources to learn on their own, and welcome them to the group if they still want to help. Be clear that we are not a education provider.

    What to call it? Some cool and meaningful name X.c4hrva.us

• indoc, newbs, intro, first, try, begin...

  How to build it (options)

• just static html page on github
• could use this bootstrap template to start http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/examples/fluid.html
• use http://www.pathwright.com/ or similar service to create a free course

  Outline

  Purpose and Foundation

• snip some text from our homepage, brigade site, and cfa
• background on cfa and brigade
• what is civic hacking

  Culture

• everything open: open source, open discussions
• we have many projects in many languages, but we're focused on the web (say what that does and doesn't mean)

  Communication

• core tools: google groups, meetup.com, irc, github, github, and oh, github
• get them to signup for each key tool: meetup, google groups, try IRC via webchat

  GitHub

• It's such a big part of everything we do, it deserves it's own section.
• Create their account (maybe do this last)
• View our projects, what do they mean, describe major sections of each project: repo, issues, wiki, etc.
• How to favorite, follow discussions, etc.
• http://try.github.io
• focus less on Git here, maybe put some about it in Coding below

  Coding

• choose your own adventure, focus on cross-platform web languages
• They can build something new, or help with any existing project
• We have plenty of things that need help
• Experienced: Some use the language they know, some want to learn a new lang
• point to online courses, free prefered, list others as well
• http://www.codeschool.com
• http://www.codecademy.com
• http://www.codeyear.com
• HTML/CSS
• Python
• JavaScript/Nodejs
• Ruby

  Calls to Action

• What else can we inspire them to do?
• edit a github readme
• submit an app or data idea
• find some local open data we didn't know about
• help spread the word about the brigade to their communities

[jalbertbowden]

i've said it before but i'll say it again, i think adding a humans.txt file would be beneficial for n00bs. i think it would be beneficial for the landing page in general, but in this case getting people experience with github. all they'd have to do is access the the text file, add their information, submit pull request back.

totally agree with pushing web platform.

[kmcurry]

Yeah, the coder-sounds repo at CfA was sort of like humans.txt. All fellows had to do to earn their track jacket was add a line of text to the file, by forking and submitting a pull request. +1 to the idea of a simple, discrete task for "initiation" to the group that is really about teaching the skill.

On Saturday, July 20, 2013, albert wrote:

i've said it before but i'll say it again, i think adding a humans.txt file would be beneficial for n00bs. i think it would be beneficial for the landing page in general, but in this case getting people experience with github. all they'd have to do is access the the text file, add their information, submit pull request back.

totally agree with pushing web platform.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/c4hrva/tasks/issues/16#issuecomment-21301279 .

Kevin Curry Program Director CfA Brigade 757.613.8158 GMT-4 (EDT) http://brigade.codeforamerica.org

Apply for Fellowship: http://codeforamerica.org/apply

[bcbarsness]

I took a little different approach, more specific to a C4HRVA orientation with a procedural flavor, preferably limited to 1 or 2 pages.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9IPjM5DQQ1AXzJhWWd3Qm92Q0E/edit?usp=sharing

[jalbertbowden]

git for humans - add this vid to list http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp6v7AXQQTY&utm_content=buffer3e706&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

[BretFisher]

Big update: content and your ideas have been moved into a new repo welcome that is a GitHub Pages site (using Jekyll) that's viewable here: http://welcome.codeforhamptonroads.org (shortcut: http://welcome.c4hrva.us). Read the readme for more info on how to use. I need to work on better navigation but the framing is there for us to crowdsource the content.

One thought of caution. CfA and Brigade sites have a lot of good content for intro to brigade, so we don't want to recreate or copy/paste that content. Link to it. The idea of this welcome site is that it's a prescribed walk-though of all the things we end up pointing people to. See my goals at the top of the outline for my intent of this project. Feedback always welcome.

I say we now close this task and work on things in the welcome repo tasks and content.

[BretFisher]

Welcome site is nearly a year old, and continues to see content added. Mission accomplished.