1-pager draft proposal

Summary

Adds a general purpose, high level proposal intended to establish the broad need for a campus-level git service. Takes benefit to programmers as a given, and focuses instead on value to students and faculty. Does not cover implementation details, which would be handled in a future phase/proposal. Intended audience is department-level decision makers who could authorize further investigation.

Git Service 1-Pager

Review needs

• Impact
  • Does the proposal make a convincing case that a shared git service would be beneficial to students, faculty, and staff?
  • Can assertions be backed up by faculty statements or public data?
• Wordsmithing
  • Check for readability
  • Minimize jargon
  • Add a snappy title
• Sources
  • I lean heavily on github's blogs. Can sources be diversified?
  • Do footnotes match references appropriately?

Proposals/campus-git-1-page-proposal.md

@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## Summary
 
+The University of Illinois should launch a campuswide git service in order to model real world best practice and to remain competitive with its peers. This initiative requires strong backing from campus IT leadership in order to exercise due diligence, ensure interdepartmental cooperation, and authorize release of funds.
+
+## Background
+
 Today's university environment runs on code. From coursework to administration to research and innovation, a robust version control system (VCS) is the bedrock tool in any software development workflow, and git-based version control is the industry standard[1]. Employers expect new Computer Science graduates to have experience using GitHub[2], a leading cloud-based git service. Our academic peers have incorporated git into their classrooms for years[3] [4]. Campus computing organizations offer git training alongside sessions on campus IT orientation, data management, and popular programming languages[5]. Campus IT Pros use git to manage their codebases and also as a learning tool, sharing code snippets and suggestions in order to benefit from each other's experience.
 
 Despite git's ubiquity, the University of Illinois does not offer a campus- or university-level git-based version control service. The closest available option is AITS Subversion[6], which does not support git, nor does it offer the kinds of features commonly found and expected in popular, modern git services[7] [8] [9]. This void has fragmented the campus version control landscape. Though some units do use AITS subversion, many others find this an unsuitable solution. Some units purchase a license and host their own git service, duplicating costs across units; others use cloud-based vendor services, storing University assets offsite; still others, particularly small units and cross-campus affinity groups, simply do without. The net effect is an enormous cost in money, time, and opportunity, with substantial business continuity risks.
@@ -36,7 +40,7 @@ The University could realize immediate administrative support savings by selecti
 2. R. Rutenbar, Department Head, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (personal communication, unverified)
 3. L. Angrave. Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (personal communication, December 2, 2015)
 4. GitHub Education Blog: https://github.com/blog/category/education
-5. Research IT @ Illinois Training: https://researchit.illinois.edu/training/
+5. Research IT @ Illinois Training: https://publish.illinois.edu/researchit/training/coding-in-python-r-or-git/
 6. AITS Subversion Home: https://web.uillinois.edu/subversion
 7. GitLab Features: https://about.gitlab.com/features/
 8. GitHub Features: https://github.com/features