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Posted to dev@community.apache.org by Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com> on 2016/02/04 12:06:58 UTC
Guiding volunteers
Several times a month we get people either here, or contacting us
individually, saying that they want to participate, and we don't do a
great job of steering them to Good Things.
I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
better) of ideas that people can work on. Things that take 10 minutes.
Things that take 2 months. Everything in between. People willing to
mentor and help, but who don't have the time to do it themselves.
I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them. But I want
someone to do them.
--
Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Sergio Fernández <wi...@apache.org>.
I used to ignored off-topic (or not so focused) mails to this list. But in
the last months I've change to try to provide a pointer to what people are
actually looking for. Is that find, Rich? What else do you have in mind?
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com> wrote:
> Several times a month we get people either here, or contacting us
> individually, saying that they want to participate, and we don't do a
> great job of steering them to Good Things.
>
> I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
> better) of ideas that people can work on. Things that take 10 minutes.
> Things that take 2 months. Everything in between. People willing to
> mentor and help, but who don't have the time to do it themselves.
>
> I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
> recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them. But I want
> someone to do them.
>
> --
> Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
> http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon
>
--
Sergio Fernández
Partner Technology Manager
Redlink GmbH
m: +43 6602747925
e: sergio.fernandez@redlink.co
w: http://redlink.co
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Tony Stevenson <to...@pc-tony.com>.
> On 5 Feb 2016, at 07:23, Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> This focus on tooling is the wrong focus, especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the job - we're just not communicating it well.
As much as it might be a tad chagrin - Wordpress will do this kind of expiration of posts. It can also be setup so folks can be delegated control etc.
Aside from not choosing tooling - good chat. :)
>
> Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available can take today.
>
> 1) Update the page at http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can put it onto the site for you)
>
> 2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html
>
> 3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all of them are good ;-)
>
>
>
> Ross
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
> To: dev@community.apache.org
> Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
>
> Hi -
>
> It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get started.
>
> Regards,
> Venkat
>
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
>>> according
>>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
>>>> Each
>>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
>>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web page
>>>> potential volunteers could search.
>>>>
>>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
>>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
>>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
>>>> various
>>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors.
>>> This
>>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
>>> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>>>
>>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out
>>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
>>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
>>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
>>
>> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
>> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a
>> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>>
>>
>>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>>
>> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
>> this started.
>>
>> Patricia
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks & Regards,
>
> Venkat Raman. R
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>.
Q1 - already accounted for ("mentor" label)
Q2- already accounted for (and documented, use ComDev JIRA, sub the issue to dev mailing list)
The mentoring docs are already intended to be generic, I.e. Support non GSoC mentoring. Though I have no doubt they can be improved.
Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Dennis E. Hamilton<ma...@acm.org>
Sent: 2/6/2016 10:20 AM
To: dev@community.apache.org<ma...@community.apache.org>
Subject: RE: Guiding volunteers
In the case of GSoC mentoring, one needed change is to add the search case https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fs.apache.org%2fgsoc2016tasks&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7c4cd6f899105745ba25e108d32f223b14%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=6lNYbRG9lkS2SzgNScAS2V0eqo7zXNlTD0wbkirxFFY%3d or maybe a generic https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fs.apache.org%2fgsoctasks.&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7c4cd6f899105745ba25e108d32f223b14%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=hJfc%2bsPUbss9MoEuyDw%2bycYaXAGCzHHzez135tETK4A%3d
Then the Guide to being a mentor can be updated to match that and not continue to mention "gsoc2011".
This requires adding a public filter to the ASF JIRA and I am not certain who has the karma and skills to do that (being on a bugzilla-based project myself and my JIRA skills are past their use-by date).
QUESTION #1: If we want to broaden this mentoring of volunteers under other conditions, I assume that can be done by additional labelling cases along with or separate from any gsoc label. Yes?
QUESTION #2: For non-GSoC mentoring of volunteers on a bugzilla-reliant project, I assume using the special JIRA arrangement and mailing list that has been dedicated to GSoC needs an alternative or modification. We still need a generic place for volunteer to be able to look when looking for mentoring, but that might guide them to a variety of places. Are there thoughts on how to flex that GSoC-focused arrangement in some manner, or to cross-connect with a generic arrangement?
- Dennis
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Bowen [mailto:rbowen@rcbowen.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 5, 2016 23:37
> To: dev@community.apache.org
> Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
>
>
>
> On 02/05/2016 08:23 AM, Ross Gardler wrote:
> > This focus on tooling is the wrong focus,
>
> Yeah .. I was going to say ... we could spend weeks down the rat-hole of
> which tool, which tracker, which technology, and we'll lose track of the
> goal.
>
> Invariably when I travel to events, I get excited about what we could do
> at Apache to get the word out, if only ... and then I get back home and
> real life pushes out those good intentions. Tomorrow is the last day of
> my travels. Perhaps I can get something done today ...
>
>
>
> especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new
> tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the
> job - we're just not communicating it well.
> >
> > Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available
> can take today.
> >
> > 1) Update the page at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fcommunity.apache.org%2fguide-to-being-a-&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7c4cd6f899105745ba25e108d32f223b14%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=3c30cYtsVivKqFCwuQry%2bjTUYvOco5smiw28P3AOI9E%3d
> mentor.html to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the
> goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit
> our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can
> put it onto the site for you)
> >
> > 2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain
> your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fcommunity.apache.org%2fguide-to-being-a-mentor.html&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7c4cd6f899105745ba25e108d32f223b14%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=jzKOdrzMpiM6btUeFMsL4%2b3XpRlR9Z0SLlJCjVYmUHQ%3d
> >
> > 3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they
> can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all
> of them are good ;-)
> >
> >
> >
> > Ross
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
> > To: dev@community.apache.org
> > Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
> >
> > Hi -
> >
> > It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies
> to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like
> to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get
> started.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Venkat
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
> >>> according
> >>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board
> agenda.
> >>>> Each
> >>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
> >>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web
> page
> >>>> potential volunteers could search.
> >>>>
> >>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
> >>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
> >>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
> >>>> various
> >>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new
> contributors.
> >>> This
> >>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
> >>> articulate what they would like help with from new community
> members.
> >>>
> >>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill
> out
> >>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
> >>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
> >>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they
> are still current.
> >>>
> >>
> >> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
> >> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files
> a
> >> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
> >>
> >>
> >>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
> >>>
> >>
> >> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
> >> this started.
> >>
> >> Patricia
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Thanks & Regards,
> >
> > Venkat Raman. R
> >
>
>
> --
> Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fapachecon.com%2f&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7c4cd6f899105745ba25e108d32f223b14%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=6vgPEPR%2bhfgjt4FAKaF2tCs41fNGa9C%2fEnk8OJ5seJg%3d - @apachecon
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>.
In the case of GSoC mentoring, one needed change is to add the search case http://s.apache.org/gsoc2016tasks or maybe a generic http://s.apache.org/gsoctasks.
Then the Guide to being a mentor can be updated to match that and not continue to mention "gsoc2011".
This requires adding a public filter to the ASF JIRA and I am not certain who has the karma and skills to do that (being on a bugzilla-based project myself and my JIRA skills are past their use-by date).
QUESTION #1: If we want to broaden this mentoring of volunteers under other conditions, I assume that can be done by additional labelling cases along with or separate from any gsoc label. Yes?
QUESTION #2: For non-GSoC mentoring of volunteers on a bugzilla-reliant project, I assume using the special JIRA arrangement and mailing list that has been dedicated to GSoC needs an alternative or modification. We still need a generic place for volunteer to be able to look when looking for mentoring, but that might guide them to a variety of places. Are there thoughts on how to flex that GSoC-focused arrangement in some manner, or to cross-connect with a generic arrangement?
- Dennis
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Bowen [mailto:rbowen@rcbowen.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 5, 2016 23:37
> To: dev@community.apache.org
> Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
>
>
>
> On 02/05/2016 08:23 AM, Ross Gardler wrote:
> > This focus on tooling is the wrong focus,
>
> Yeah .. I was going to say ... we could spend weeks down the rat-hole of
> which tool, which tracker, which technology, and we'll lose track of the
> goal.
>
> Invariably when I travel to events, I get excited about what we could do
> at Apache to get the word out, if only ... and then I get back home and
> real life pushes out those good intentions. Tomorrow is the last day of
> my travels. Perhaps I can get something done today ...
>
>
>
> especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new
> tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the
> job - we're just not communicating it well.
> >
> > Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available
> can take today.
> >
> > 1) Update the page at http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-
> mentor.html to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the
> goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit
> our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can
> put it onto the site for you)
> >
> > 2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain
> your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in
> http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html
> >
> > 3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they
> can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all
> of them are good ;-)
> >
> >
> >
> > Ross
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
> > To: dev@community.apache.org
> > Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
> >
> > Hi -
> >
> > It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies
> to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like
> to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get
> started.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Venkat
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
> >>> according
> >>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board
> agenda.
> >>>> Each
> >>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
> >>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web
> page
> >>>> potential volunteers could search.
> >>>>
> >>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
> >>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
> >>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
> >>>> various
> >>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new
> contributors.
> >>> This
> >>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
> >>> articulate what they would like help with from new community
> members.
> >>>
> >>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill
> out
> >>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
> >>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
> >>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they
> are still current.
> >>>
> >>
> >> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
> >> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files
> a
> >> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
> >>
> >>
> >>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
> >>>
> >>
> >> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
> >> this started.
> >>
> >> Patricia
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Thanks & Regards,
> >
> > Venkat Raman. R
> >
>
>
> --
> Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
> http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com>.
On 02/05/2016 08:23 AM, Ross Gardler wrote:
> This focus on tooling is the wrong focus,
Yeah .. I was going to say ... we could spend weeks down the rat-hole of
which tool, which tracker, which technology, and we'll lose track of the
goal.
Invariably when I travel to events, I get excited about what we could do
at Apache to get the word out, if only ... and then I get back home and
real life pushes out those good intentions. Tomorrow is the last day of
my travels. Perhaps I can get something done today ...
especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new
tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the
job - we're just not communicating it well.
>
> Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available can take today.
>
> 1) Update the page at http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can put it onto the site for you)
>
> 2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html
>
> 3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all of them are good ;-)
>
>
>
> Ross
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
> To: dev@community.apache.org
> Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
>
> Hi -
>
> It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get started.
>
> Regards,
> Venkat
>
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
>>> according
>>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
>>>> Each
>>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
>>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web page
>>>> potential volunteers could search.
>>>>
>>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
>>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
>>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
>>>> various
>>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors.
>>> This
>>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
>>> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>>>
>>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out
>>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
>>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
>>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
>>>
>>
>> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
>> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a
>> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>>
>>
>>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>>>
>>
>> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
>> this started.
>>
>> Patricia
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks & Regards,
>
> Venkat Raman. R
>
--
Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
http://apachecon.com/ - @apachecon
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>.
Sorry I didn’t paste the markdown as promised, here it is:
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Submittingideastothementoringprogramme"></a>
# Submitting ideas to the mentoring programme
All ASF projects are invited to submit their ideas for consideration in the
ASF mentoring programme. Any Apache member and experienced committers can
submit ideas via JIRA (if your project does not use JIRA you can [use the Comdev Issue Tracker For GSoC Tasks](use-the-comdev-issue-tracker-for-gsoc-tasks.html). We are looking for as many interesting projects as we can come up with.
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Summary"></a>
## Summary
* Add an issue to JIRA (if your project doesn't use JIRA contact dev@community.apache.org)
* use sub-tasks if necessary
* Label the main issue with "mentor" (these will show up at the [ASF wide list of issues](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=12315361))
* Label the main issue with "gsoc2011" if appropriate (these will show up at <http://s.apache.org/gsoc2011tasks>)
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Detail"></a>
## Detail
To ensure you JIRA issues are included in our list of mentored projects
please add the label "mentor" to the issue. If you want it to be included
in the Google Summer of Code lists also add the "gsoc" label. If you want
to include a number of issues in a single mentored project please create a
parent issue, label that one appropriately and add the other issues as
sub-tasks, do not label each individual sub task as they will appear as
separate tasks.
If a mentor has been identified then please assign the issue to that
mentor.
ASF Members and committers can volunteer to mentor or co-mentor proposals.
When in doubt about all this, contact code-awards@apache.org.
For more information about what it means to be a mentor and on how to write
a proposal see:
- [GSoC Mentoring Guide](http://flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/)
- [GSoC Advice For Mentors](http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/AdviceforMentors)
- [Gnome HowTo on mentoring](http://www.gnome.org/~federico/docs/summer-of-code-mentoring-howto/)
- [How to be a lazy but successful Google SoC mentor](http://ploum.net/post/221-how-to-be-a-lazy-but-successful-googlesoc-mentor)
Note that interest, even by a qualified student, does not mean that any of
those project will automatically go ahead. Depending on the number of
projects; the number of people able to mentor and the timing we will
probably have to make a smaller selection.
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Publicisingyourmentoredissues"></a>
### Publicising your mentored issues
You can link to the [ASF wide list of issues](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=12315361)
or you can create your own lists and feeds within your own website.
Since your mentored issues are recorded alongside your normal issues you
can create and use filters to help people find them. You can provide RSS
feeds, JSON exports and many more goodies for helping to get the message
out.
If you have any cool ideas for using this data please let us know so we can
share them with other projects (mail dev@community.apache.org)
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Examples"></a>
## Examples
- [Wookie GSoC Issues](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=12315360)
- [Wookie RSS GSoC feed](https://issues.apache.org/jira/sr/jira.issueviews:searchrequest-rss/12315360/SearchRequest-12315360.xml?tempMax=1000)
- [Wookie XML GSoC feed](https://issues.apache.org/jira/sr/jira.issueviews:searchrequest-xml/12315360/SearchRequest-12315360.xml?tempMax=1000)
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Stayingintouch"></a>
# Staying in touch
All mentors *must* subscribe to code-awards@apache.org, our list for
coordinating mentor activities.
Subscriptions to code-awards will only be accepted from addresses known to
belong to ASF committers, so please use your @apache.org address to
subscribe if possible, or at least an address that can be matched to your
@apache.org address via the ASF's private/committers/info or
private/committers/MailAlias.txt data.
If you are interested in the mentor programme administration please also
subscribe to dev@community.apache.org.
If you are planning on mentoring as part of the GSoC programme you also
need to register with Google, see our [GSoC](gsoc.html)
page for more information.
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Howmucheffortisinvolvedwithbeingamentor"></a>
## How much effort is involved with being a mentor
Most mentors spend between 3 and 5 hours per week with their students. Most
of this time is spent encouraging them.
Within the ASF we like to think that the whole project community will help
the student just as they would with any other community member. If your
project is supportive in this way then you may be able to get away with
less time. However, as mentor _you_ are responsible for evaluating the
student and helping them deliver on their commitments.
The [GSoC Mentoring Guide](http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoringGuide)
has plenty of useful materials for mentors.
<a name="guidetobeingamentor-Anoteabouteligibility"></a>
## A note about eligibility
If your project has any restrictions on who can participate (as is the case
with Harmony for example) please be sure to clarify these with potential
students as early as possible. It causes unnecessary confusion and
dissapointment if a student is awarded a slot but is later found to be
ineligible. Don't rely on the fact that the student should have read
details on the project web site. You must discuss their eligibility before
offering to mentor them. Please also make a note in the webapp stating that
you have, as far as possible, confirmed the student is eligble to
contribute.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Gardler [mailto:Ross.Gardler@microsoft.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 11:23 PM
To: dev@community.apache.org
Subject: RE: Guiding volunteers
This focus on tooling is the wrong focus, especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the job - we're just not communicating it well.
Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available can take today.
1) Update the page at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fcommunity.apache.org%2fguide-to-being-a-mentor.html&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7cb9b4ac62aae2414c042f08d32dfd3c6a%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=jDZKwkgUrXgJdx7PAqlDb%2fm295zuoT9M7CcN2TqRfZI%3d to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can put it onto the site for you)
2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fcommunity.apache.org%2fguide-to-being-a-mentor.html&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7cb9b4ac62aae2414c042f08d32dfd3c6a%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=jDZKwkgUrXgJdx7PAqlDb%2fm295zuoT9M7CcN2TqRfZI%3d
3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all of them are good ;-)
Ross
-----Original Message-----
From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
To: dev@community.apache.org
Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
Hi -
It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get started.
Regards,
Venkat
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>
>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
>> according
>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
>>> Each
>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web page
>>> potential volunteers could search.
>>>
>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
>>>
>>>
>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
>>> various
>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors.
>> This
>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
>> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>>
>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out
>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
>>
>
> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a
> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>
>
>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>>
>
> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
> this started.
>
> Patricia
>
--
Thanks & Regards,
Venkat Raman. R
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>.
This focus on tooling is the wrong focus, especially for those of us who don't know how to get started on new tooling, or for those who recognize we already have a fine tool for the job - we're just not communicating it well.
Here are three concreate actions *anyone* with a little time available can take today.
1) Update the page at http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html to be more generic (i.e. not GSOC specific) and reflect the goals of this thread (if you don't know how to use the ASF CMS to edit our site I've pasted the markdown below, just edit here and someone can put it onto the site for you)
2) Pick your favourite project. Drop a mail to the dev list. Explain your motivation. Ask them to mark issues according to the guidelines in http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html
3) Get the message out to those who need a little guidance that they can find such issues in JIRA (there are many ways this can be done, all of them are good ;-)
Ross
-----Original Message-----
From: Venkat Raman [mailto:ramanindya55@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:55 PM
To: dev@community.apache.org
Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
Hi -
It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies to dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like to contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get started.
Regards,
Venkat
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>
>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized
>> according
>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
>>> Each
>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
>>> information about their needs. The result would be a public web page
>>> potential volunteers could search.
>>>
>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be
>>> made by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC
>>> chair accessible SVN archive.
>>>
>>>
>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the
>>> various
>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors.
>> This
>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
>> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>>
>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out
>> and keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system
>> would be that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if
>> they aren't visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
>>
>
> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
> months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a
> board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>
>
>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>>
>
> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like
> this started.
>
> Patricia
>
--
Thanks & Regards,
Venkat Raman. R
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Venkat Raman <ra...@gmail.com>.
Hi -
It would be extremely helpful to have systems like savannah to newbies to
dive in based on their skill sets and area of interest.I would like to
contribute as well. But, struggling in the same way as others to get
started.
Regards,
Venkat
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>>
>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized according
>>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
>>> Each
>>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
>>> information
>>> about their needs. The result would be a public web page potential
>>> volunteers could search.
>>>
>>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be made
>>> by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC chair
>>> accessible SVN archive.
>>>
>>>
>>> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the various
>> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors.
>> This
>> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
>> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>>
>> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out and
>> keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system would be
>> that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if they aren't
>> visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
>>
>
> I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three months
> and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a board
> report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>
>
>> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>>
>
> I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like this
> started.
>
> Patricia
>
--
Thanks & Regards,
Venkat Raman. R
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>.
On 2/4/2016 10:35 AM, Greg Chase wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized according
>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda. Each
>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply information
>> about their needs. The result would be a public web page potential
>> volunteers could search.
>>
>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be made
>> by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC chair
>> accessible SVN archive.
>>
>>
> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the various
> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors. This
> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>
> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out and
> keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system would be
> that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if they aren't
> visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
I like the idea of automatic disappearance, but maybe make it three
months and tie it to the board report cycle - every time a PMC files a
board report, it should also check and update its help wanted.
>
> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
I would also like to help, but don't know how to get something like this
started.
Patricia
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Woonsan Ko <wo...@apache.org>.
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:35 PM, Greg Chase <gr...@gregchase.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized according
>> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda. Each
>> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply information
>> about their needs. The result would be a public web page potential
>> volunteers could search.
>>
>> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be made
>> by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC chair
>> accessible SVN archive.
>>
>>
> This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the various
> incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors. This
> would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
> articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
>
> Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out and
> keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system would be
> that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if they aren't
> visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
I've seen a system like that: http://savannah.gnu.org/people/
Information there seems very useful to me.
Woonsan
>
> So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
>
> -Greg
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Greg Chase <gr...@gregchase.com>.
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org> wrote:
> An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized according
> to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda. Each
> PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply information
> about their needs. The result would be a public web page potential
> volunteers could search.
>
> Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be made
> by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC chair
> accessible SVN archive.
>
>
This is a wonderful idea. I've been looking for a way to get the various
incubating communities I'm helping organize recruit new contributors. This
would help solve this problem by making it easier for (p)PMC's to
articulate what they would like help with from new community members.
Obviously it would be an adhoc system, and up to projects to fill out and
keep their want ad's up to date. Perhaps a rule of the system would be
that want ads are automatically deleted after a month if they aren't
visited and renewed by project members to verify they are still current.
So basically, I'm volunteering to help here :)
-Greg
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>.
An alternative approach would be a help-wanted page, organized according
to skills, maintained on the same sort of system as the board agenda.
Each PMC chair whose project is looking for volunteers would supply
information about their needs. The result would be a public web page
potential volunteers could search.
Ideally, it would be on a whimsey-like system, but a start could be made
by just defining a format and keeping the master page in a PMC chair
accessible SVN archive.
On 2/4/2016 3:17 AM, Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
> Hi Rich,
>
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com> wrote:
>> ...I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
>> better) of ideas that people can work on....
>
> Given our distributed and dynamic nature I think such a list can only
> work in terms of a query on our issue trackers, where specific tickets
> are flagged as low-hanging fruit.
>
> We use this for GSoC where http://s.apache.org/gsoc2015ideas returns a
> list of such tickets.
>
>> ... I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
>> recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them....
>
> If those are foundation level ideas you might describe them in
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COMDEV and include them in a
> suitable query.
>
> So IMO what's needed is to define a standard label or set of labels
> for those jira tickets, create a URL like
> http://s.apache.org/gsoc2015ideas that lists those tickets and inform
> our projects of that.
>
> -Bertrand
>
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>.
Hi Rich,
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Rich Bowen <rb...@rcbowen.com> wrote:
> ...I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
> better) of ideas that people can work on....
Given our distributed and dynamic nature I think such a list can only
work in terms of a query on our issue trackers, where specific tickets
are flagged as low-hanging fruit.
We use this for GSoC where http://s.apache.org/gsoc2015ideas returns a
list of such tickets.
>... I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
> recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them....
If those are foundation level ideas you might describe them in
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COMDEV and include them in a
suitable query.
So IMO what's needed is to define a standard label or set of labels
for those jira tickets, create a URL like
http://s.apache.org/gsoc2015ideas that lists those tickets and inform
our projects of that.
-Bertrand
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>.
You are right. What I meant was people here are clearly interested in the act of community development. Therefore, we should each think about what we (as individuals in ComDev) can do to support people in the projects we represent in the broader ecosystem.
That's shouldn't be exclude listing issues in Jira as we do already for GSOC. But it can extend to making sure we actually point people to those lists of issues when someone turns up here.
Ross
-----Original Message-----
From: Bertrand Delacretaz [mailto:bdelacretaz@apache.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 9:23 AM
To: dev <de...@community.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Guiding volunteers
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 4:31 PM, Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> ...Before we go deep and technical in tooling, I think we should put a
> list together that *this* community would like to see....
Maybe I missed something but I haven't seen people looking at doing comdev stuff, the requests I have seen are from people who want to be involved in our projects at the code level.
So from this angle IMO what we can do at the comdev level is encourage projects to advertise their help wanted tasks, and maybe suggest a way of doing that that provides some foundation-wide consistency.
At the simplest we could just suggest that interested projects provide a "help wanted" link on their website front page, as part of our website guidelines.
-Bertrand
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>.
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 4:31 PM, Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> ...Before we go deep and technical in tooling, I think we should put a list together
> that *this* community would like to see....
Maybe I missed something but I haven't seen people looking at doing
comdev stuff, the requests I have seen are from people who want to be
involved in our projects at the code level.
So from this angle IMO what we can do at the comdev level is encourage
projects to advertise their help wanted tasks, and maybe suggest a way
of doing that that provides some foundation-wide consistency.
At the simplest we could just suggest that interested projects provide
a "help wanted" link on their website front page, as part of our
website guidelines.
-Bertrand
Re: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Mike Drob <md...@apache.org>.
Howe about the next volunteer that comes by asking for project ideas, we
have them build a volunteer wrangling system? A bit tongue-in-cheek here,
but there's a need that can be filled there.
The difficulty, from my perspective, in guiding volunteers is that there is
So Much under the Apache umbrella. Volunteers often do not come advertising
their skills - do you want to do Java? Great, there's 100 projects for you.
Do you want to do web development? That could be 75 more. Coming to Apache
and saying you want to work on something is like showing up to work at
<Large Company X> but not having a team there that expects you. There are
hundreds of projects and some of them are likely to be a good fit, but the
process for finding them is very expensive.
The volunteers that show up and say "I want to work on Spark!" are the easy
ones, and we can immediately point them at the appropriate project mailing
lists. The volunteers that have no directions need a process.
Mike
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 9:31 AM, Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>
wrote:
> Before we go deep and technical in tooling, I think we should put a list
> together that *this* community would like to see. We can worry about other
> projects when we have or own house in order.
>
> A simple list, in the form of replies in this thread would be good
> progress. In fact a first contribution from someone could then be to
> summarize this thread.
>
> A brainstorming thread. No judgement of ideas, just a list.
>
> If we get that list then we can think about collating it and making it
> accessible via tools as suggested in this thread already
>
> Ross
>
> Sent from my Windows Phone
> ________________________________
> From: Rich Bowen<ma...@rcbowen.com>
> Sent: 2/4/2016 3:07 AM
> To: dev<ma...@community.apache.org>
> Subject: Guiding volunteers
>
> Several times a month we get people either here, or contacting us
> individually, saying that they want to participate, and we don't do a
> great job of steering them to Good Things.
>
> I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
> better) of ideas that people can work on. Things that take 10 minutes.
> Things that take 2 months. Everything in between. People willing to
> mentor and help, but who don't have the time to do it themselves.
>
> I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
> recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them. But I want
> someone to do them.
>
> --
> Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
>
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fapachecon.com%2f&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7cebe7dc03f0744e0ad6e708d32d535305%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=stCwVmrVW6gFbKnOXYVMNMULnRcLQiZZnCkvxKJncdQ%3d
> - @apachecon
>
RE: Guiding volunteers
Posted by Ross Gardler <Ro...@microsoft.com>.
Before we go deep and technical in tooling, I think we should put a list together that *this* community would like to see. We can worry about other projects when we have or own house in order.
A simple list, in the form of replies in this thread would be good progress. In fact a first contribution from someone could then be to summarize this thread.
A brainstorming thread. No judgement of ideas, just a list.
If we get that list then we can think about collating it and making it accessible via tools as suggested in this thread already
Ross
Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Rich Bowen<ma...@rcbowen.com>
Sent: 2/4/2016 3:07 AM
To: dev<ma...@community.apache.org>
Subject: Guiding volunteers
Several times a month we get people either here, or contacting us
individually, saying that they want to participate, and we don't do a
great job of steering them to Good Things.
I'd like to see a list (I don't care about the technology, and simple is
better) of ideas that people can work on. Things that take 10 minutes.
Things that take 2 months. Everything in between. People willing to
mentor and help, but who don't have the time to do it themselves.
I have a list of ideas that I would like to do some day, and have
recently accepted that I will never have the time to do them. But I want
someone to do them.
--
Rich Bowen - rbowen@rcbowen.com - @rbowen
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fapachecon.com%2f&data=01%7c01%7cRoss.Gardler%40microsoft.com%7cebe7dc03f0744e0ad6e708d32d535305%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=stCwVmrVW6gFbKnOXYVMNMULnRcLQiZZnCkvxKJncdQ%3d - @apachecon