Glossary

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This glossary originates from Mozilla’s Open Leadership Training series (view on their website, GitHub; License: CC-BY-4.0). It will be adapted to include relevant items as this project evolves.

Bug

Bugs are problems in a project, particularly one in code, they are either problems where a program/project does not perform according to intention, or situations where the users’ expectations are not met in a program/project. You can read a more granular definition in Code Simplicity or in Wikipedia.

Bug Tracker Tool

bug reporting tools are applications for processing and organizing bugs submitted by product contributors or users, Bugzilla is Mozilla’s bug tracking tool, and Github has it’s own issue system built into every repository, in the “issues” tab of your repo. See Wikipedia for more details.

Branch

a copy of a repo that is contained within the orignal repo. Branches are used to work on a project features without altering the original or “master” repo.

Code of conduct

a set of rules outlining the social norms and rules and responsibilities of, or proper practices for, an individual, party or organization.

Commit

a saved change to a document in a repository.

Contributor

a person that contributes content or services to an open source project.

Discrimination

treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing is perceived to belong to rather than on individual merit. types of discrimination include race, color, religion, sex, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, public assistance status, disability, and age.

Elevation / Escalation

the process of flagging an issue or violation to be addressed by the Safety/ Code of Conduct behavior.

Enforcement

the process of moving from elevating an issue to be addressed, to acting on resolving that issue.

Fork

a copy of a repository that is saved in another user’s GitHub account.

Git

the command-line software that tracks all changes to a collection of documents

GitHub

a service that hosts your repository online and helps you work with contributors. GitHub adds a web-based interface to version control.

Global Sprint

is an event with multiple sites around the world where participants work on projects for a set time period within their timezone.

Harassment

covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour which disturbs or upsets, and it is characteristically repetitive. It also includes behaviours that are threatening or disturbing.

Inclusion

a state of being valued, respected and supported. often referred to in terms of an event or community, as in an “inclusive event”, meaning one that’s welcoming and a respectful environment.

Issue

a message on gitHub that outlines a task that needs to be completed.

Jargon

a type of language, especially vocabulary, that is particular to a certian trade or discipline, and is not understood by anyone outside that discipline.

Licensing

A license gives explicit permissions for the use of something. This is particularly important if you want to make your data open as some jurisdictions assign copyrights to data sets which limit their use. There are several types of licenses that are in common use for data. You can read more about them here: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data.

Local sprint

is an event that has projects, project leads and contributors that come from the local area.

Markdown

a lightweight way of annotating a document with instructions that tell a web browser how to format and display text.

Merge

the act of incorporating new changes (commits) into a repository.

Metadata

Information that describes, explains, locates, or in some way makes it easier to find, access, and use a resource (in this case, data). For example, metadata for a photograph may include the name of the photographer, when and where it was taken, as well as the type of camera and settings used to take the photograph.

Milestone

An event or state marking a specific stage in development on the project.

Naming Conventions

These are a set of predefined rules for the naming and structure of folders, files, field names, etc. (E.g. All files begin with a date, location and project name.) Naming conventions help provide context to a data set, as well as make sure a standard of data collection and management is being followed by all members of a team.

Open Data

Data that is made easily and freely available for anyone to access, use, and share without restrictions, the possible exception being a requirement of attribution.

Permanent Identifiers

A permanent identifier (or PID) is a set of numbers and/or characters, frequently in the form of a URL, that points to the location of a resource. PIDs are set up in such a way that even though the storage location of the resource may change over time (e.g. moving data from one university server to another), the PID will always point to the correct location. DOI is a commonly known type of PID.

Persona

A fictional user, based on real-world observations of actual or potential users. personas are used to test and shape the design of a product or experience, so that the final design responsive and relevant to user needs.

Project Lead

a person that is the main contact for a particular project.

Pull Request

a request to add a commit or collection of commits to a repository.

README file

a document that introduces an open project to the public and any potential contributors.

Repository or Repo

a collection of documents related to your project, in which you create and save new code or content.

Roadmap

A document outlining the schedule of work to be done on a project.

Sprint

is an event where project leads connect with contributors from the community to work on open source projects.

Swag

promotional merchandise given away at events, trade fairs or conferences.

Venue

the place where the sprint will be held.

Version Control

a way of tracking changes to a document or collection of documents. Version control is like a time machine, it can take you back to the moment your document was created, or any other point in time when you or a collaborator saved that document.

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