Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
Le dimanche 12 juin 2011 15:27:59, Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
Hello to everyone,
...
During a packagers weekly meeting, misc invited us to read the following
article about mentoring programs in open-source projects:
http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2011/05/31/effective-mentoring-programs/
I invite those who haven't read it yet, to read it. I'll quote one of the
mentoring best practices that were given: "In bigger projects, keeping
track of who is a mentor, and who is mentoring who, and inviting new
mentors, and ensuring that no-one falls through the cracks when a mentor
gets too busy, is a job of itself."
I'm looking for someone who could fill that "job".
Description of the job:
- keep track of:
-- who's being mentored by who, how well it's going
-- who needs a mentor and hasn't found one yet (this is one of the most
important parts: no volunteer must be forgotten, volunteers are too
precious !)
-- who can mentor more apprentices (and sometimes convince packagers to
become mentors or accept one more apprentice)
- be available for questions from apprentices or mentors, by mail, and if
possible, to be present on the IRC channel #mageia-mentoring on freenode
- help mentors with gathering "junior tasks" (bugzilla is a never empty
reserve that can be used for that. Maybe ask the bug triage team to help
identify such tasks. Maybe a "junior task" keyword in bugzilla would do the
trick)
-- small bugs to fix
-- new small packages to import in the distribution
-- backports
- promote mentoring (empower users into contributers. Working with the
marketing team would be great I think):
-- make the mentoring program known (MLs, forums, web, etc.)
-- look for new apprentices
-- look for new mentors
Some useful skills:
- be autonomous (ie no need to check that you're doing the work)
- good written english (communication is very important in this job)
- knowledge about packaging is a plus but not mandatory (the key aspects
can be taught to you)
- being or having been a mentor, or having been mentored would be a plus,
but not mandatory
More information about the job:
- does not require a big amount of work, but real committment to the task
and regularity
- remember that you have a coordination role, not an authoritative role.
The difference in that is that you're not here to give orders but to
facilitate the mentoring program.
- you don't have to be alone to do this job if it's too much for one
person: you can find other helpful people wanting to help you if needed
and rely on the other teams (but finding them *is* part of your job ;) ).
- this "job offer" concerns everything that revolves around the mentoring
of new packagers, but if it's successful maybe other teams can follow the
same approach (i18n, QA, etc... ).
- depending on your level of confidence, experience and will, you could be
helped in your work. Maybe someone from the council can supervise and help
you at least at the beginning; or, if no one steps up, I can help you
bootstrap and organize your new "job".
So, who's in?
Samuel Verschelde
Hello to all,
First, thanks to those to offered to help.
We had 3 candidates, plus one who offered help whoever will be in charge. 2
candidates were retained (Kharec has too many duties already to take the job),
who I interviewed on IRC to try to see who would fit best.
The 2 candidates were good, which complicated my task because I had to make a
choice, but I finally came to a decision : I propose andre999 as a mentoring
program coordinator (or facilitator, if you think it fits the job better).
What made me choose him over Daniel Kreuter (whose candidacy was good, I
repeat it) is the fact he already showed interest in this subject before the
"job offer", has been mentored (even if the mentoring has not been completed
for now), and I already had enough occasions to exchange with him in the past
to think that he will have the required communication skills and diplomacy to
do the job.
Now, it doesn't mean he has to be alone, so I hope than magnus will help him,
for example to bring an IRC presence at hours where André is not available due
to his timezone, and if Daniel is still interested in helping for those tasks,
I'm sure André will be glad to receive his help.
If you have any questions or remarks, don't hesitate to comment.
To ennael and misc : do you want to take part in the boostrapping of André's
work ? I think it could be good to avoid any misunderstandings and be sure we
set the good direction.
Best regards
Samuel Verschelde
Thanks for the vote of confidence. :) I'll do everything to assure that it's
not misplaced.
I see the mentoring program coordinator as facilitating contributions to the key process of Mageia.
To continue our progress in making Mageia one of the best distros available.
(Packaging/development is the "nerf de la guerre", as we say in French. Roughly translates as the
"heart of the war".)
I would appreciate any help, particularly on IRC.
(My availability on IRC is mostly when european contributors are asleep (or falling asleep, as
shikamaru can testify).
And also any advice/guidance/insights from ennael & misc, of course.
As an aside, I intend to complete my mentoring process so as to be able to eventually mentor those
in the North American time zones.
--
André
