WDD 130: Web Fundamentals

Setup: GitHub Account

Overview

The purpose of this setup activity is to help you obtain a free GitHub account. GitHub is a popular and free online collaboration and version control service. You can think of GitHub repositories as a cloud-based storage system for your projects. GitHub can be used as a web hosting service with a special web service named GitHub Pages.

Instructions

Sign Up for a free GitHub Account

1. In your browser, visit the github.com site.
2. Select the Sign Up button.
3. Enter an email address and select Continue.
4. Create a password that has at least 15 characters or 8 characters with a number and lowercase letter. Then select Continue.
5. Enter a username using only lowercase letters. Your username will show up in the domain of your web projects. If you get a red '❌' to the left of your username, then someone else has already used that username and you need to choose a different one.

   Choose a professional name given that you may use your GitHub account as a portfolio of your work.

6. Record your username and password in a secure location.
7. Enter 'n' for the next step unless you want email from GitHub.
8. At this point, GitHub will ask you solve a few simple puzzles to ensure that you are a human and not a bot. Click Start puzzle and follow the directions. Then click Create Account.
9. GitHub will send a launch code to the email address you provided. Follow the instructions in your email to use that launch code.
10. You can skip any personalization questions by selecting the Skip Personalization link near the bottom.