Sometimes, it’s hard to be popular. The increasing popularity of open source means that there are always more students interested in the Open Source Lab than we have the ability to hire and mentor. In order to increase the lab’s reach and educate more people about FOSS, the lab created a new program, DevOps Bootcamp. Spearheaded by Emily Dunham, a student system administrator, and modeled after Portland State University’s Braindump, this program will allow more people from outside of the OSL to learn valuable FOSS skills.

The unique DevOps Bootcamp curriculum focuses on both software development and systems administration. Designed to be accessible to complete beginners, the course aims to take potential open source contributors from no knowledge to a solid grasp of the basics in a year. The informal class covers the following key areas: linux basics, basic system administration, basic FOSS development methodologies, base infrastructure services for any organization (DNS, Email, etc), and building a simulated infrastructure for a company from top to bottom.

Dunham, who also worked as a teaching assistant, feels she is gaining valuable experience sharing her expertise with new people.

“Because it’s the first time we’re offering this class, it’s a learning experience for everyone,” says Dunham. “I’m learning as much about how to teach as they are learning about devops.”

DevOps Bootcamp is held on Thursdays from 6-8 pm and is open to anyone in the community. Not only is the course about open source, the course itself is open source. The curriculum, based on the Computer Science 312 course the lab taught in 2009, is available on the DevOps Bootcamp website. In addition, Youtube videos of the classes are posted online and students can ask questions on IRC (#devopsbootcamp on freenode). The first meeting was successful, with 34 people in attendance.

“I’m really happy with the number of people that weren’t just sitting there,” says Dunham. “They asked questions and demonstrated that they were engaged and participating.”

For more information, please visit devopsbootcamp.osuosl.org.