It is always a pleasure to speak about initiatives that I am passionate about. Presenting the MOE project at the Your Big Year August Summer Learning Sprint was no different. As the University Lead, I introduced my peers to our project and made them aware of the benefits of contributing to open-source projects.
What is the Mainframe Open Education Project?
The MOE Project, as it’s called, is open-sourcing mainframe education and the transfer of knowledge. The aim is to bridge the skills gap in the mainframe technologies. The retiring professionals use this platform to share their knowledge with the community to ensure that companies that use mainframes have access to new talent. They contribute educational assets, draft learning plans, and provide business leaders with access to free foundational education. As students, we have access to a wide range of educational resources, a platform to share learning resources we found helpful, and we can suggest how to improve mainframe education provision. IBM is giving away tickets to zSystems ambassadors to join the OMP summit in September. Follow this link to get free access to the event.
Which stage is the project currently?
The project has recently went public, your opinions and contributions are critical to its success. Like all the other open-source projects, community engagement determines how big the project will get. We have a network of technical experts, people managers, technology teachers, etc. As a contributor, you will learn more from our network of professionals, upskill your knowledge of mainframes and get recognition for your work. Those are just a few benefits. There could be more, based on how creative you get.
How can you be part of the community?
We have established a student user group, which I am heading with Fatima Ayala from the University of El Salvador. We are using this group to communicate with students on how we can improve the mainframe learning content. Most of us have experience with mainframes and have various areas of interest. This platform will also be used for peer-to-peer learning to help each other solve challenges we are facing.We are identifying those areas where we need more learning resources. As Sugam mentioned, he finds it difficult to get materials to help him complete coding challenges. That is one area we can start with, brainstorm how our network of professionals can help us access those resources easily. Fill in your details in this form to join our user group.