Create a site that describes the attributes of FOI laws that make them human-friendly

[henare]

At AlaveteliCon last year we came up with the idea of creating a site that clearly describes key attributes of what makes good access to information laws. Such as prompt and enforceable response times, no application fees, and accessible reviews of decisions.

This site would allow us to clearly state our position and reasoning on things like application fees. It would also allow us to show how the different laws in Australia stack up. Getting other organisations around the world (Alaveteli community, FOI Advocates Network) to support it would also create external pressure for change.

[Anishka0107]

Hi @henare, I would like to work on this project as a part of Outreachy. How do I get started?

[EkaterinaSemenova]

Hi @henare, Is it purely a technical project (an intern just needs to design pages and put text content that is already created) or is it more an artistic project (you just have ideas of what should be on your website and an intern needs to develop the website structure, write text content and, finally, design pages)?

[equivalentideas]

Hey @Anishka0107 and @EkaterinaSemenova 👋

We'll shape how this project works depending on the skills and knowledge of whoever ends up doing the Outreachy internship :)

As you can imagine we have lots of ideas about what makes good access to information laws, and we'd be working together to design the best solution for presenting them to create pressure to improve our Freedom of Information systems.

If you're interested in applying you don't need to work on this for the application. Just follow the application process described here https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/2017/03/24/join-us-for-a-3-month-paid-full-time-internship-and-start-transforming-our-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-421745 and on the Outreachy website https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Application_Process :)

[ghost]

hey,I would like to work on this project as a part of Outreachy project.

[ghost]

How should I start working on it.Please let me know what are the system installations required.

[equivalentideas]

Hi @artiladdha 👋 you can follow the instructions in this comment https://github.com/openaustralia/righttoknow/issues/640#issuecomment-289261510

[trang20t]

What is a meaningful contribution to make if you have web development/graphic design skills? I am new to GitHub so I find this a bit intimidating :(:(, please help! :)

[Keerti-Gautam]

Hi @trang20t A meaningful contribution is something which will give you a hang of the project while you're doing it. Yes, for starters even the simplest of tasks may look pretty daunting, but they're not, at least not as much as we think they are. And if you're trying to contribute to web development projects then first, you should look up the organisations which work with similar languages that you know already. For instance, most of OpenAustralia Foundation's projects are based on Ruby Once you are done choosing the organisation and the project, try to see the existing issues which you think you can solve. To ease this process for first timers, organisations label some of their issues as "good-for-first-contribution". You can try to solve them, interact with mentors from those projects, ask questions, create Pull Requests if you've resolved them, all the while hacking your way into learning new interesting concepts on the way.

Here are the personal notes which I created while learning Version Control Systems (Git and GitHub) You can read more about git on Git Docs. You can read more about Contributions and how to make one here

[trang20t]

Thank-you so much Keerti! I had definitely messaged my mentor regarding some of the issues on GitHub. You've been very amazingly helpful!

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 8:15 AM, Keerti Gautam [email protected] wrote:

Hi @trang20t https://github.com/trang20t A meaningful contribution is something which will give you a hang of the project while you're doing it. Yes, for starters even the simplest of tasks may look pretty daunting, but they're not, at least not as much as we think they are. And if you're trying to contribute to web development projects then first, you should look up the organisations which work with similar languages that you know already. For instance, most of OpenAustralia Foundation's https://github.com/openaustralia/ projects are based on Ruby https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ Once you are done choosing the organisation and the project, try to see the existing issues which you think you can solve. To ease this process for first timers, organisations label some of their issues as "good-for-first-contribution". You can try to solve them, interact with mentors from those projects, ask questions, create Pull Requests if you've resolved them, all the while hacking your way into learning new interesting concepts on the way.

Here https://github.com/Keerti-Gautam/learning are the personal notes which I created while learning Version Control Systems (Git and GitHub) You can read more about git on Git Docs https://git-scm.com/. You can read more here https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Make_a_Small_Contribution

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/openaustralia/righttoknow/issues/640#issuecomment-290442948, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQoG40kKc_dcNsW-103uUaOfNHhRXLeCks5rq8b1gaJpZM4KMRwX .

[GeneralMeow]

Hi there, I'm working on my application to Outreachy so I can work on this project. Excited to do so! Thank you for the opportunity.

[Shraddha15]

hi henare, I would like to work on this project,would you let me know how to start?

[equivalentideas]

@Shraddha15 If you're interested in applying you don't need to work on this for the application. Just follow the application process described here https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/2017/03/24/join-us-for-a-3-month-paid-full-time-internship-and-start-transforming-our-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-421745 and on the Outreachy website https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Application_Process

[Shreya1771]

Hi @EkaterinaSemenova @equivalentideas ,

From the past few days and weeks I have been reading about the projects and was going through the source code as well. Though I found the project interesting and exciting to work, "creating a site that will describe the attributes of FOI laws that make them human-friendly." Do we need to create using HTML & CSS or Ruby? I feel excited to contribute to open Australia projects.

In addition to enhancing my Web Development skills, I also gained knowledge about multiple architectures in networking, HTTP and how good websites works. I have build my portfolio using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Till then my coding had been largely restricted to basic C++, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and while it was a challenge to learn and implement web development in the Python Django framework within a short span of 5-6 months, it was one I readily accepted and am richer by it. Next looking to learn Ruby.

I've been through the Open Australia websites and it's projects listed for Outreachy may-august 2017. Now it's time to contribute to the organization with whatever skills I've learnt till now. I am confident my exposure to such contributions will quite augment my knowledge base and add tremendous value in enabling me to realize my professional goals. Looking forward to contributing my skills to Open Australia Outreachy Projects.

I'm a fast learner and hard worker with sticking to my work.

Thank you:) Shreya

[kdrosado]

Hi there,

I just found out about the Outreachy Internship and submitted an application to contribute to this project. My programming experience is mostly with Front End using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and Bootstrap. Willing to learn other technologies to complete any project. I'm a quick learner.

Thanks,

Kerry D. Rosado