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OSS Cameroon Vision

Overview

Vision

Most of the fields of activity contain a set of problems which can mainly be solved by Information and Communication Technologies. Our country is developing, he has a strong need for skills in technicals sectors, particularly in ICT.

We want to encourage young people to choose this area of specialization to grow the digital ecosystem; popularize tech culture among the population because the more we will offer solutions to problems encountered daily by the population, shady will be those who will develop this attitude to think digital.

Through this initiative, We want to promote the talent and know-how of Cameroonians by using our technicals knowledge to bring solutions to problems found in our society.

Goals

  • Using our technical skills to create applications that solve a specific need in our society.
  • Encourage collaboration between developers and also encourage the work in team.
  • Share our knowledge because being in a domain who evolves very quickly, we can learn from everybody regardless the skill level.
  • Mentor / Assist less experienced developers who need to be followed in the realization of a project.
  • Create a friendly environment for developers to progress and working on a project they are passionate about.
  • Provide financial assistance to developers who want to improve but lack the means to afford a laptop, internet connection, working environment, paid tutorials, etc...

Conditions for joining the organization

To join the organization on GitHub, no particular condition apart from having the honesty to be sure that you really want to make your contribution. It’s okay not to be in the Telegram group and not interact. As long as you learn new things this is the most important.

Unlike the GitHub organization, not only do we want to know that we can count on everyone, but it also serves as an indicator for an external person wanting to join us. Imagine the disappointment of joining a project of 20 contributors but finding yourself 1 month later to be the only one to participate.

Organization of projects

Submitting a project idea does not mean that you will be working on it immediately. The idea is to put together a list of projects where anyone who wants to contribute can pick an idea and start working on it.

Here is the process

  1. You enter a project idea on the dedicated GitHub repository by creating an “issue”. Link of the repository: https://github.com/osscameroon/Open-Projects
  2. Exchange on it in order to better understand then you can create the project repository
  3. Anyone wishing to contribute to the project can join and contribute
  4. The creator of the project and the contributors have total autonomy over the choices of the project. You can of course ask questions in the group to get feedback from others.
  5. Favour consistency in the execution of the project, for example, it is better to do 1 hour per day than 10 hours in one day per week. The idea is not to find yourself under pressure. Contributing should be a time of relaxation. However, everyone has their own pace.

Ongoing projects

  • The OSS Cameroon Website:
    • Fixed bugs and added functionalities identified by group members.
    • Added new features (we will talk about this with you in the Telegram group 😉).

Upcoming projects

  • CM AppStore This project consists of developing a web and mobile application which will list all Cameroonian mobile applications and allow users to search by category name and then download it.

    Upcoming Tasks:

    • Identification of features to develop for the first version
    • Execution planning

    Number of developers currently interested in contributing to this project: 3

Long term measurable goals

We have been repeatedly asked of what are our measurable long-term goals. In 1 or 2 years for example, what are the elements that will allow us to know if we are getting closer to our objectives? We found it important to share them with you:

  • Increased number of community members on Telegram and Twitter.
  • More presence during live coding sessions.
  • Uses of the applications we have developed by day-to-day users.
  • Democratize participation in the development of open source projects.
  • Developers who tell us they have gained in skills and more confident in their ability to lead a project from end to end.

Internals Rules

We want to create a friendly and inclusive environment as possible and to avoid offending members of the community, it is important to define a set of rules to be respected for the development of the whole mode. We have identified the following:

  • Sexist comments are prohibited and are subject to ban.
  • Rudeness, disrespect, arrogance and condescension should be avoided.
  • The exchange of ideas must be carried out calmly and with respect for the interlocutors.
  • Comments and photos that have nothing to do with the group’s purpose will be removed and the post author will be notified.
  • Sharing of information that may be useful for members is to be encouraged.

Communication inside the group

Cameroon is a bilingual country and since our community aims to bring together all Cameroonians without restrictions, it is important to find a happy medium when it comes to the language used to express oneself in the group.

We made the choice to use English to express ourselves in the group and here are the reasons:

  • English is the professional language par excellence in the world
  • The field of computer science is dominated by English. The best content is in English. We have all known this person who finds the ideal tutorial for his needs but gives up because it is in English. It won’t happen again if you get into this habit by starting with this group.
  • It allows you not to deprive yourself of foreign people who want to join the community to make their contributions in any way.
  • We want our English speaking brothers to be comfortable because we have a lot to learn from them.

Mentoring

It consists of providing help to less experienced developers who need to be mentored.

How’s it going?

We will create a survey to better understand your expectations about this community on this aspect. One thing is for sure there are a lot of developers out there who would like to be held hands and their guide in this crowded area of Library, Framework, Methodology, Language, etc...

We will invite you to take a few minutes of your time to complete it then, from the results, we will take measures to better help you in this direction.

A list will be opened to indicate your availability to mentor a person an a person looking for a mentor can browse this list and contact a mentor of his choice.