Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
Hi Asheesh, I just watched your talk on my way home from DebConf and decided I want to join you in the welcoming team or whatever it will be called :). A few more details on what will be happening and what is the expectation of me (and others) would be appreciated. -- Best regards, Michael -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/x6k3jiad6v@midna.lan
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
Hi, On Sun, Aug 04, 2013 at 12:08:15PM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote: > I'm currently processing the answers to the survey I mentioned in [1]. > Looking at what I've processed so far, one of the conclusions, I think, > will be that a very large proportion of people who managed to get their > first package uploaded had a friend or colleague to whom they could ask > questions when needed. This is not a bad thing per se, but it means that > it's much harder for people without such a "direct support channel" to > succeed. IMHO newcomers just do not expect to find such a friend inside the Debian community. My canonical answer to increase the chances that people will be able to easily find friends is to build teams with a certain focus which should try to make themselves visible to users (=potential developers). We just found the name Blends for this and I hope to be able to *prove* that Blends can be help getting new developers in my talk at DebConf[1] when I present numbers that we have won one DD per year (in average) who admitted that he is only in Debian *because* this specific Blend exist. If this is possible for a leaf project as I defintely regard medicine and biology how much better could be our chances in other fields if people would *actively* reach out for users and thus developers as Debian Med did? > This initiative could be the basis for a way for new contributors to > find such a "online Debian friend" that could then answer their > questions about BTS usage, packaging, etc. In Debian Med this is called Mentoring of the Month[2] and besides I will metnion it in[1] as well I will have a dedicated talk about MoM as well[3]. Kind regards Andreas. [1] http://penta.debconf.org/dc13_schedule/events/986.en.html [2] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM [3] http://penta.debconf.org/dc13_schedule/events/987.en.html -- http://fam-tille.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130804184944.gb19...@an3as.eu
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
On 30/07/13 at 12:00 -0400, Asheesh Laroia wrote: > Hi all Debianites, > > I've been inspired by the "Developer Advisory Team" in another > project [1], and so I want to create a similar team within Debian. > In this email, first I'll summarize what the concept of Developer > Advisory Team is, and second I'll request help. > > The stated goals are: > > * Reach out to new contributors, thank them for their work and get > feedback. > > * Reach out to people who might be ready to apply for upload rights > and help them. > > * Reach out to contributors that went inactive and get feedback from > them and offer help. Hi, I'm currently processing the answers to the survey I mentioned in [1]. Looking at what I've processed so far, one of the conclusions, I think, will be that a very large proportion of people who managed to get their first package uploaded had a friend or colleague to whom they could ask questions when needed. This is not a bad thing per se, but it means that it's much harder for people without such a "direct support channel" to succeed. This initiative could be the basis for a way for new contributors to find such a "online Debian friend" that could then answer their questions about BTS usage, packaging, etc. Lucas [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/07/msg00010.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130804100815.ga9...@xanadu.blop.info
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
Hi, On Thu, Aug 01, 2013 at 02:24:43AM -0400, Asheesh Laroia wrote: > > I agree that mentoring is often very effective. I'd like to give some report at DebConf[1] about Mentoring of Month[2]. The report will probably not fill more than 15-20min and the focus of this BoF is rather on "seeking more ideas". People who are interested into this thread might like to join the event. > One of the key > elements I find missing in mentoring, however, is the work to > establish a relationship between mentor and mentee that leads to > them having meaningful discussions rather than not asking each other > questions. I tried to clarify this inside the MoM rules[2]. Kind regards Andreas. [1] https://penta.debconf.org/dc13_schedule/events/987.en.html [2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM -- http://fam-tille.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130801075954.gd10...@an3as.eu
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
On Wed, 31 Jul 2013, Nicolas Guilbert wrote: On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 12:00:18 PM Asheesh Laroia wrote: Hi all Debianites, I've been inspired by the "Developer Advisory Team" in another project [1], and so I want to create a similar team within Debian. In this email, first I'll summarize what the concept of Developer Advisory Team is, and second I'll request help. The stated goals are: * Reach out to new contributors, thank them for their work and get feedback. * Reach out to people who might be ready to apply for upload rights and help them. * Reach out to contributors that went inactive and get feedback from them and offer help. This sounds like means rather than goals to me. My guess is that the goal would be something like "create a feel-good atmosphere around and within Debian" or "get more people engaged in the development of Debian". I think I agree with this clarification. Thank you for that! If the latter is what we want, how about also involving some other leverages: * promoting the mentoring principle as the official Debian way of building the community's skill pool. Mentoring is known to be the by far most efficient pedagogy [citation pending] - a perfect match for the best distribution :) * the mentoring principle holds the promise of exponential growth, which is interesting if you can get the coefficient sufficiently far above 0 (one mentor can teach "two", who can teach "two" etc.). Pushing up the coefficient could also be achieved by contributors to the project acting increasingly as advocates for it. This advocacy could be built around narratives such as "Contributing to a project like Debian is something one can be proud of - tell that you do, what you do, why you do it and encourage others to do it." Social engineering can also be quite efficient :) (-: I agree that mentoring is often very effective. One of the key elements I find missing in mentoring, however, is the work to establish a relationship between mentor and mentee that leads to them having meaningful discussions rather than not asking each other questions. As for your "citation pending" -- clarifying this sort of thing is one of the goals of this project. One plan that Mako and I came up with that since at first, we may not have enough bandwidth to ping everyone, we can see if those who we *do* manage to reach become more active in the project than the people we do get around to pinging. I'm excited by the warm reception to the ideas here! I'll work with David Lu on fixing more our bugs, and y'all will hear more from us soon. (And if that's not soon enough, http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/greenhouse + https://github.com/openhatch/oh-greenhouse + #openhatch on freenode!) -- Asheesh. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/alpine.deb.2.02.1308010211240.4...@rose.makesad.us
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
On Wed, 31 Jul 2013, Paul Wise wrote: I already do similar stuff but without the benefit of the tool you are working on, just based on mailing list mails from folks asking how to get involved or what I remember of folks activities. I might be interested to get more involved here but that would probably need to be later in the year. *nod*! Hopefully as the team gets up and documents the tools and process, and refines the goals, and so on, you'll find it interesting to join! -- Asheesh. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/alpine.deb.2.02.1308010209030.4...@rose.makesad.us
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
I already do similar stuff but without the benefit of the tool you are working on, just based on mailing list mails from folks asking how to get involved or what I remember of folks activities. I might be interested to get more involved here but that would probably need to be later in the year. -- bye, pabs http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/caktje6gk3uzqcifpxd+o7mjqanyy9sfrfsvc2snqcoypm1p...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
On Wed, 31 Jul 2013, Charles Plessy wrote: Hi Asheesh, When I saw a couple of emails about "Developer Advisory Team" on debian-mentors, I had a hard time figuring out what it was about, and since I had no extra time to find an answer, I concluded that Ubuntu do what it wants... The goals that you list above give me the impression that such a team in Debian would better be named "Greeeting", "Reachout", "Encouragement", etc. Team. Not being a native speaker, "Advisory" for me is has strong connotations, that remind me that much of the music that I listened when I was younger had a "Parental Advisory" sticker on it... Now that I am older, "Advisory" means prestigious scientist that give us their point of view from outside, on how to better steer our research institute. With all the respect I have from my experienced colleagues, I think that it would not fit the Debian way. My fear is that after a few years of drifting and rotation of its members, the "Advisory" team, influenced by its own name, might engage in giving less greetings and more "advices"... In summary, I welcome the goal of increasing new contributions to Debian, but recommend to pick a more casual name for your project. I appreciate all this feedback and encouragement! For now I like "Developer Encouragement Team", and I'll take your advice to heart that "Advisory" sounds like "Parental Advisory"; I agree something more casual would be better. I'm not totally settled on the name, and will mull it over. -- Asheesh. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/alpine.deb.2.02.1307301958360.19...@rose.makesad.us
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 12:00:18 PM Asheesh Laroia wrote: > Hi all Debianites, > > I've been inspired by the "Developer Advisory Team" in another project > [1], and so I want to create a similar team within Debian. In this email, > first I'll summarize what the concept of Developer Advisory Team is, and > second I'll request help. > > The stated goals are: > > * Reach out to new contributors, thank them for their work and get > feedback. > > * Reach out to people who might be ready to apply for upload rights and > help them. > > * Reach out to contributors that went inactive and get feedback from them > and offer help. > This sounds like means rather than goals to me. My guess is that the goal would be something like "create a feel-good atmosphere around and within Debian" or "get more people engaged in the development of Debian". If the latter is what we want, how about also involving some other leverages: * promoting the mentoring principle as the official Debian way of building the community's skill pool. Mentoring is known to be the by far most efficient pedagogy [citation pending] - a perfect match for the best distribution :) * the mentoring principle holds the promise of exponential growth, which is interesting if you can get the coefficient sufficiently far above 0 (one mentor can teach "two", who can teach "two" etc.). Pushing up the coefficient could also be achieved by contributors to the project acting increasingly as advocates for it. This advocacy could be built around narratives such as "Contributing to a project like Debian is something one can be proud of - tell that you do, what you do, why you do it and encourage others to do it." Social engineering can also be quite efficient :) Thanks for a fine initiative, Nicolas -- Nicolas Guilbert "Intelligence: property of a lifeform capable of outliving its planet of origin" -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4185618.VxLhrfubq3@ikulrir
Re: Requesting DDs who want to help greet new contributors
Le Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 12:00:18PM -0400, Asheesh Laroia a écrit : > Hi all Debianites, > > I've been inspired by the "Developer Advisory Team" in another > project [1], and so I want to create a similar team within Debian. > In this email, first I'll summarize what the concept of Developer > Advisory Team is, and second I'll request help. > > The stated goals are: > > * Reach out to new contributors, thank them for their work and get > feedback. > > * Reach out to people who might be ready to apply for upload rights > and help them. > > * Reach out to contributors that went inactive and get feedback from > them and offer help. Hi Asheesh, When I saw a couple of emails about "Developer Advisory Team" on debian-mentors, I had a hard time figuring out what it was about, and since I had no extra time to find an answer, I concluded that Ubuntu do what it wants... The goals that you list above give me the impression that such a team in Debian would better be named "Greeeting", "Reachout", "Encouragement", etc. Team. Not being a native speaker, "Advisory" for me is has strong connotations, that remind me that much of the music that I listened when I was younger had a "Parental Advisory" sticker on it... Now that I am older, "Advisory" means prestigious scientist that give us their point of view from outside, on how to better steer our research institute. With all the respect I have from my experienced colleagues, I think that it would not fit the Debian way. My fear is that after a few years of drifting and rotation of its members, the "Advisory" team, influenced by its own name, might engage in giving less greetings and more "advices"... In summary, I welcome the goal of increasing new contributions to Debian, but recommend to pick a more casual name for your project. Cheers, -- Charles Plessy Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130730220407.ga18...@falafel.plessy.net
