---
title: Quickstart Guide
---
***Note:** this is the latest draft, still subject to more edits. Last updated January 20th, 2020.*
This [Starter Pack](link_to_google_doc) is a short guide for anyone who wants to work together with others to learn or produce something. If you want to help us make more things like this, you can work together with us. Here, in a short "Quickstart Guide" we explain how, in simple terms.
In the Peeragogy project we are trying to figure out the best ways to do peer learning and peer production. You can help us improve this guide by asking questions if you have any.
# Simple Quickstart Guide
1. Check out the Peeragogy Handbook at https://peeragogy.org but please do not feel obligated to read the whole thing! You can contribute to improving the handbook right away.
2. Our ongoing public discussions are on Google Groups at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/peeragogy.
Sign up there to get email and post to the wider contributor community. Remember to ask questions!
3. We use a site called "GitHub" to share our work with the world and coordinate our work together. We sometimes use other platforms such as Google Docs for editing the book together in real time. At any given point in time, the master copy of our shared work lives in a repository in Github. If you browse to https://github.com/Peeragogy you will see our "organization". The master copy of the Handbook content is at https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io. Github has a learning curve. There is something we can help you with. A good first objective is to submit an "issue" that points out a way we could improve the content. A good second objective is to create a Github "pull request" in order to get your changes into the Handbook. If that seems too complicated at the moment, don't worry. You can also join one of our live meetings and we will work together using tools that make it easy for you. Details about live meetings follow.
4. We have live discussions using Jitsi Meet on Mondays at 8PM UK time. We use Zoom for some of our other meetings. You can install this software on most computers and smartphones. Get in touch with one of us via peeragogy@gmail.com if you want to join the meetings.
5. Peeragogy is distributed across the web in other ways, and we are happy to see that it has been used in many projects. In our work together we have tried out many platforms and plan to continue experimenting! If you find peeragogues online, or offline, we hope you reach out!
# Somewhat more complicated
1. Learn what is Peeragogy??
1. Create a Github Account https://help.github.com/articles/signing-up-for-a-new-github-account/
1. (optional) Contact us in real time via our public rooms in the Gitter discussion forum https://gitter.im/Peeragogy
1. (optional) Create a https://hypothes.is/ account if you want to make comments.
(optional) Connect with <b>[+Peeragogy Project](https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/104434173211092362220/)</b> on Google+ and join our weekly meetings.
Start editing, discussing, and commenting.
We will expand on this below.
Before that, let's just mention what you're looking at right now. This is a wiki page associated with one of the Peeragogy Project's repositories on Github. In particular, this repository contains the source code for the **print** edition of the Peeragogy Handbook. The Peeragogy Handbook is
> The no longer missing (free/open source) guide to peer production and peer learning
There are lots of other things to discover here and we give you a quick guided tour, next.
# Introduction
We aim to welcome all contributions to the Peeragogy project with unconditional love.
We've started to illustrate what we mean by that in this mindmap, and we hope the image is a useful first step toward making our project easier to understand, access, and work with.
[[source](https://coggle.it/diagram/VVofxTk2IWpKt7y3)] _To view a large version of this, right click and "View Image"._
You'll probably have some questions in mind at this point. Great!
# Nontechnical: Getting to know us.
The easiest way to get started would be to join one of our weekly hangouts. Send your expression of interest to <b>[+Peeragogy Project](https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/104434173211092362220/)</b> or <i>peeragogy</i> `@` <i>gmail</i> `.` <i>com</i> to get an invite to one of these.
For a quick overview of the project's current priorities, please read the [Distributed Roadmap](http://peeragogy.github.io/distributed_roadmap.html) page in the _Peeragogy Handbook_. Feel free to have a browse through the book -- you certainly don't need to read the whole handbook before taking your next steps with peeragogy. But, if you find a part you think you can improve, that's awesome. You can download the book for free, or read it, on [peeragogy.org](http://peeragogy.github.io/).
Recent comments from across the site are collected in this [Digg folder](http://digg.com/reader/folder/Peeragogy) (requires login).
You can generally contact one of us *live* or almost-live via our public rooms on the Gitter chat service https://gitter.im/Peeragogy (requires a Github login).
To review recent work on the project, please visit [http://is.gd/peeragogy_wrap](http://is.gd/peeragogy_wrap).
# Semi-technical: Making an edit.
First, join [Github](http://github.com) if you have not done so already. Have a look at https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io which is the backend of [peeragogy.org](http://peeragogy.org).
## If you're already a member of the Peeragogy organization on Github...
... Then you have edit access and you can change pages in that repository directly. In fact, you can use Github like a wiki, and to begin, that's the simplest thing to do. For example, to edit the license page -- to make sure you've signed the license, or to link your name to your home page, for example -- browse to [license.md](https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io/blob/master/license.md) in the main directory and click on the "pencil" icon. You'll get a straightforward editing interface. Add a summary of your change in the box at the bottom of the page, and go ahead and commit to master. Once it's saved, your change will show up on [http://peeragogy.github.io/license.html](http://peeragogy.github.io/license.html). Hopefully you'll agree that it really couldn't be simpler. Other source files for the book are also saved in the [main directory of Peeragogy.github.io](https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io) in markdown format, and now that you know how, feel free to dive in and edit any page you like. A history of changes appears [here](https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io/commits/master).
## If you're not a member of the Peeragogy organization....
.. then you can still contribute, but it will require a couple extra steps.
Fork the page via the "Fork" button in the upper right on
https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io and then make changes
in your own version, then send pull requests and they can be merged.
You can also do all of this online through the Github interface if you want!
Browse to the file you would like to edit in your fork, for example:
[https://github.com/USERNAME/Peeragogy.github.io/blob/master/a_specific_project.md](https://github.com/USERNAME/Peeragogy.github.io/blob/master/a_specific_project.md).
Click the "pencil icon" in the grey bar near the top of the screen, and carry out your edits. Once you've made the change you'll have to submit a pull request. Note: for us to include changes, you'll have to agree to our [license](http://peeragogy.github.io/license.html) in writing.
# Making new pages
If you create a new page, make sure to add the title metadata at the top of the file, so that Jekyll/Github Pages will know that the file is there. For example, here's how the top of the Social Bookmarking article is formatted:
```
---
title: Social Bookmarking
---
Social Bookmarking
==================
*Author/Editor*: Howard Rheingold April 2 10:41 AM Pacific;
editor Gigi Johnson, April 10, 1:59pm PDT
```
The `title: ...` tag that's necessary for conversion to HTML to work.
# Technical: Editing via commandline.
If you like, you can also use the power of Git to edit the book comfortably in your favorite text editor. This can be faster and you can make more wide-sweeping changes.
```
git clone https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io
[or your fork, if you're working in a fork]
[edit .md files]
git commit -a -m "describe changes"
git push
[some time later]
git pull
[edit .md files]
git commit -a -m "describe new changes"
git push
[repeat]
[If working in a fork, send pull requests from time to time.]
```
# Previewing changes
If you want to *preview* changes you before you post them, in other words, see how they will look on the site
before you run `git push` and/or send a pull request, then you can install Jekyll and build the site locally on your own machine. Alternatively, you can view your fork of the site using Github Pages, but you'll need to make one change before the Github Pages will work on a fork. The reason it works like this is explained, more or less, on Github's [User, Organization, and Project pages](https://help.github.com/articles/user-organization-and-project-pages/) documentation.
## Previewing your fork over the web
Here are the glorious details:
```
git checkout gh-pages
git rebase master
[now make some changes]
git push origin gh-pages
[see how they look at http://USERNAME.github.io/Peeragogy.github.io]
git checkout master
git merge gh-pages
git push origin master
[now submit a pull request]
```
(More info: [Easily keep gh-pages in sync with master](http://lea.verou.me/2011/10/easily-keep-gh-pages-in-sync-with-master/), [Merging vs Rebasing](https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/merging-vs-rebasing).)
## Previewing locally
To preview changes using Jekyll on your own computer, you can skip the above, but you will need to do some other setup steps instead:
```
gem install github-pages
gem install bundler
gem install execjs
gem install therubyracer
```
And then, from the top-level directory, when you want to preview, run:
```
bundle exec jekyll serve
```
Browse to `http://0.0.0.0:4000/`. Read the Jekyll docs for more information.
# So you really want to geek out?
This section of the Quickstart guide is for people who want to help with technical editing for the production of the print version of the book, or who want to write some CSS or other code to improve the look and feel of peeragogy.org -- or who want to dive into other more technical topics. If that doesn't describe your interest, no worries.
If it does, please help us finish this manual :-)
- Technical editing to produce the PDF version of the book with LaTeX: [start here](https://github.com/Peeragogy/peeragogy-handbook)
- Website stuff: learn more about [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/) and contribute via the [Peeragogy.github.io](https://github.com/Peeragogy/Peeragogy.github.io) repository, or send [pull requests](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/) from your [fork](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/)
- Learn more about [Git](http://git-scm.com/doc) and help manage our repos and releases
- Legal stuff: organizations, rights, lawsuits, subpoenas, and other exciting stuff as needed!
- Other technical and non-technical stuff: talk to us during a hangout, or join the [peeragogy google group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/peeragogy), or hop on [Gitter](https://gitter.im/Peeragogy) and discuss more with us there.
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