Ubuntu Wiki

Level

Characteristics

Comments

Link to further information

Fundamentals

Freedom to access information from the commons

For a better understanding about the fundamentals please see also Tim O'Reilly's interview at the link section

Tim O'Reilly's interview

Freedom to analyse and edit the information

Freedom to co-operate

Freedom to synthesis new information and contribute it to the commons

Emphasises that learning is about interacting with people and emotional intelligence as much as cognitive development

Learning Environment

Not one, but various spaces

Relatively simple tools and structures

Open and transparent

Regarding information and communication flow

User input based

Every one can contribute, though some limitations on code

Voluntary based

Though a software might be backed through company funding / HR

Tools

Revision control system

Mailing lists

Developer focus

Forums

Targets the community at large

Knowledge Base

FAQs

Wikis

Blogs

Chats

Demos

Learning Materials & Content

Code at repositories

Manuals

Guides

Demos

FAQs

Use cases

Forum posts

Mailing list archive

Blogs

News

Support

Community based / peers

Roles

Learner

Support provider

Content creator

Peer

Mentor

Types of Learning

Self-studying

Collaborative learning

Interacting with others

Problem / practice based learning

Learning through solving real problems, working on real cases

Experiential learning

E.g. the try and error method

Re-experience

Learning through re-experience what others experienced

Learning Activities

Fix bugs

Other self-study

Reading source code of programs and patches

Reading other developers' feedback to my patches / bug-reports / bug-fixes

Checking programs' for errors and their causes

Reading books or articles on programming

Participate in the discussions within the FLOSS / open source communities

Reading bug reports

Participate in workshops or congresses

Learning by participating in training courses

Skills acquired

Technical skills

Basic / introductory programming skills

To write code in a way that it can be re-used

To re-use code written by others

To document code

To become familiar with different programming languages

To design modular code

To run and maintain complex software systems

To look for and fix bugs

Managerial skills

To clearly define and achieve targets

To evaluate the work of others

To coordinate own work with the work of others

To lead a project or a group of people

Social skills

To express personal opinions

To clearly articulate an argument

To accept and to respond to criticism from others

To settle conflicts within a group

To motivate people

Legal skills

To understand copyright law issues

To understand patent law issues

To understand licences

To understand the differences between copyrights, patents, and licences

To improve understanding of liability issues

General skills

To better understand English, especially technical discussion

To interact with other people

To understand and work with people from different cultures

To get an overview of the skills you need in the software professions

Recognition of acquired skills through:

Self assessment

Peer-assessment

Evaluation through seniors

E.g. once applying for positions / group entrances