If you're an experienced engineer that wants to give back to learners, OSSU is a great place to do so. This can look like:
- Setting a regular time that you'll pair (or mob!) program on a side project of your own with OSSU learners.
- Developing familiarity with one or more courses in the curriculum and responding to students who have questions or are stuck.
- Attending weekly check-in meetings, sharing what you are working on and listening to what learners are working on.
I'm one of the leaders of OSSU and we agree that community, networking, and projects are part of a complete education. That's why we celebrate not only the professors and universities creating free courses, but also the many engineers and practitioners that have volunteered with OSSU learners over the years. I hope some of you will join that group!
It does make me sad that in 2025 we still don't have an open real-time chat service.
IRC was too janky for widespread use... Everything else that has come after it hasn't been able to reach the "network effect". Too many options, too many half finished projects. Lots of missed opportunities.
But network effect doesn't have an impact here, does it? Matrix exists and would be a great fit for this initiative.
If someone is committed enough to help out but using Matrix (either directly from the web browser or installing the Element client) is too big a burden I'd question that original commitment.
I like Matrix but unfortunately it has major stability issues. The GrapheneOS project moved most of their chat over to Discord after their Matrix community got nuked twice. They still maintain a Matrix community which is bridged to their Discord instance, but most users are on the Discord side of the fence.
IMHO, Revolt is a better FOSS Discord alternative: https://revolt.chat/. Relatively young project, but they are unashamedly cloning the Discord user experience (even with the name). By default it uses infrastructure in Europe run by the project maintainers but can also be self hosted.
This is just me, but aside from being complete proprietary spyware, I've got problems with the culture it's designed to cultivate.
On a normal text-based chat like IRC or XMPP, you chat with people, maybe share files and that's about it, the way it should be.
On Discord, everything is grabbing your attention in this pavlovian game where the actual substance of what you're talking about is secondary, on the other hand it's more about cultivating attention towards yourself with reactions and memes. It also promotes segregating everyone into a caste system with "roles" and whatnot. If you've ever been around you'll notice how quickly people sardonically accept Discord as being the name-brand platform for predators and sex perverts.
I think a lot of the problem with kids on the net these days has to do with the way they chat with people like this. When you're on IRC you've got a place to "post into the void", where what you say is ultimately ethereal and even if two people are flaming one day they can go back to being buddies the next day cause it doesn't really matter. When you're on Discord everything you say is logged, and the air hangs thick around you cause what you're supposed to say is meant to matter to someone, even though most people are just cultivating this emotional persona detached from their real selves. So you get this really toxic cesspool as a cultural penchant built-in.
I've never really connected with that many people I've met through Discord the on the same level as IRC-adjacent people, FWIW.
It's a chat program designed to be anti-user inherently.
And it's spyware.
Discord being full of sex perverts and pedophiles are just reasons to avoid it after the fact that it is a terrible, terrible replacement for IRC channels.
If you are afraid of IRC, playing Matrix should be no problem. But please don't play discord.
I understand, too, and "Like the EFF organising their next meet in a facebook event." is a really good way to put it, but then again, were it not for Discord, it might not have a thriving community (assuming it currently has).
Open Source Society University (OSSU) has released an undergraduate math curriculum for self study. Contributors are encouraged to improve the recommendations in this alpha release.
“Young people across the globe want to learn,” OSSU President Waciuma Wanjohi says. “Guiding them to high quality, low cost educational resources unlocks a world of possibilities. We’ve had a steady stream of learners asking us for guidance in learning college level math. We’re happy to provide answers to those questions.”
The OSSU curriculum is an education in mathematics using freely available online materials. It is designed according to the degree requirements of undergraduate math majors, minus general education (non-math) requirements. OSSU benchmarks its curriculum against the 2015 Mathematics Curriculum Guide, prepared by the Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics.
Resources in the guide range from MOOCs on popular education platforms, to open courseware released directly from universities, to Creative Commons licensed textbooks written by open educational resource collectives.
Mathematics is the fourth curriculum developed by OSSU, following Computer Science, Data Science and Bioinformatics. Previous contributors to OSSU led the way in creating the math curriculum.
“As a student, I found the OSSU CS curriculum to be an invaluable supplement to my education,” states OSSU contributor Hassam Uddin. “There is an abundance of free and open-source materials that can supplement or even replace a formal math education. It's just a matter of organizing and creating a community, which OSSU has done.”
"OSSU provides amazing opportunities for students who prefer an alternative to the traditional college experience. The only requirement is a willingness to learn. I'm excited for the opportunity to make education more accessible" continued OSSU contributor Bradley Grant.
Since 2015 OSSU has developed guides for learners to master undergraduate curricula. OSSU additionally supports students with discussion forums, where hundreds of students message one another each day. OSSU alumni have gone on to graduate school as well as into full time software engineering. Curricula are open for users to contribute, as well as to copy and modify for individual use.
- Setting a regular time that you'll pair (or mob!) program on a side project of your own with OSSU learners. - Developing familiarity with one or more courses in the curriculum and responding to students who have questions or are stuck. - Attending weekly check-in meetings, sharing what you are working on and listening to what learners are working on.
To do so - Visit our Discord server: https://discord.gg/wuytwK5s9h - And ping me @waciuma or the @tutor role
I'm one of the leaders of OSSU and we agree that community, networking, and projects are part of a complete education. That's why we celebrate not only the professors and universities creating free courses, but also the many engineers and practitioners that have volunteered with OSSU learners over the years. I hope some of you will join that group!