Yowza.... these are really good comments. Where have you guys been?
To answer just one of the questions, my own criterion for voting up a committer is that they a) will work with other contributors positively b) won't break things too often (breaking the build sometimes is probably a good sign) c) will make significant contributions without leading the project into a situation of supporting code with just one person. There are lots of kinds of contributions that I value. Note the future tense here. Past tense contributions are nice, but I value the future tense more highly. On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:18 AM, Suneel Marthi <suneel_mar...@yahoo.com>wrote: > I have been occasionally contributing patches for JIRA tickets when time > permits, always wanted to make a major contribution to Mahout but was not > sure as to what the vision of the project and what was expected by way of > contributions. > > I would be more than willing to make a major contribution. > > > ________________________________ > From: Saikat Kanjilal <sxk1...@hotmail.com> > To: dev@mahout.apache.org > Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 11:38 PM > Subject: RE: Call to action – Mahout needs your help > > > Hey Daniel,I am in the same boat as you, I have decided to try my hand at > documentation first, I went into JIRA and will try to help date some curent > wiki descriptions of one of the algorithms. I figure this is a good first > step as any to get familiar with some of the algorithms before devoting > more time to create a large code patch. I agree for a newcomer its a bit > daunting to figure out which parts of the code/docs need the most attention. > Regards > > > From: mpe...@apache.org > > Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:13:18 -0700 > > Subject: Re: Call to action – Mahout needs your help > > To: dev@mahout.apache.org > > > > Something that the Mahout PMC might want to do is share the (rough) > > criteria for becoming a Mahout committer. In many projects, this is quite > > vague and leaves a lot of leeway up to the PMC, which is desirable for a > > variety of reasons. However the reason I mention it is that up until now, > > others I've spoken to within the Hadoop community have felt that large > new > > algorithm contributions are basically what will earn someone > committership > > on Mahout. Based on this thread, consensus seems to be forming that that > is > > *not* what is desired. So what's your rough ideal committer at this point > > in the life of Mahout if they are not contributing new algorithms? I > guess > > it's things like code reviews, correctness fixes, perf improvements, and > > refactorings / enhancements? > > > > Regarding attribution, I saw it mentioned elsewhere in this thread and I > > noticed it myself so I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. While it seems > like > > a small thing, I wonder whether instituting the Hadoopish "Contributed by > > so-and-so" in commit messages to assign credit for patches by > > non-committers would be help make contributors feel more appreciated for > > their work. Especially if you want to encourage people to contribute lots > > of small patches on their way to committership. Alternatively, putting > > "(Joe Newbie via Jim Veteran)" into every commit also acknowledges the > > committer/reviewer, which is not an easy job and can help people feel > > appreciated for that work as well. > > > > Finally, if there are places where the current committers know Mahout > needs > > work, or has holes, have those been articulated in any specific way? If > not > > I think that would be awesome. I know that in general, several of the > docs > > are out of date on the wiki. I suppose that's one. I wonder what else > tops > > the to-do list. Is there something other than just the open JIRA list < > > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20MAHOUT%20AND%20status%20%3D%20Open%20ORDER%20BY%20priority%20DESC > > >? > > > > Hope this helps. > > > > Regards, > > Mike > > > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 7:12 PM, Daniel Longest <dlong...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > I've been a lurker on this list for a few months and trying to figure > > > out a way to contribute. I'm very interested in ML but am not a > > > professional in it. I am a fulltime .NET developer by trade, but have > > > used Java academically (undergrad and grad school). I would love the > > > opportunity to contribute in a testing or optimization capacity if > > > someone could help point me in the right direction. > > > > > > Regards, > > > Daniel > > > > > > > > > > > > > > As a side note on GSoC: At least at German universities the general > > > concept of > > > > GSoC isn't particularly well known which makes me think that reaching > > > out to > > > > students could be helpful. I'm aware of two PhD. students on this > list > > > who > > > > probably know students with good coding skills - it might be worth > the > > > effort > > > > reaching out to those directly for testing and optimisation tasks. > > > > > > > >
