Le lundi 13 juin 2011 00:52:18, andre999 a écrit : > Samuel Verschelde a écrit : > > Hello to everyone, > > > > I'm sure there's someone among you who wants to help Mageia but hasn't > > found yet the good way to do it. Today is your lucky day, because > > there's a job that's available and can be really useful and interesting: > > coordinating the packagers mentoring program. > > > > You know that one key point of success for Mageia is in the ability to > > welcome new packagers. The better we will be at it, the better the > > distro will be. The packagers mentoring program has been created for > > that reason and several packagers have been or are being mentored. But > > we have some difficulty knowing who is being mentored by who and who > > hasn't found a mentor. And we need also to find more mentors and more > > apprentices. > > > > 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/ > > Very interesting, especially many of the comments. > > > 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 > > That is an excellent idea, a mentoring program coordinator. > I've had some thoughts along those lines for some time. > I'd be glad to contribute, especially via email and editing the wiki, where > I could almost always respond the same day. > But my time zone availability (generally after 22h utc) puts me at a > disadvantage for irc communications and meetings. > (But as part of a coordinating team, that should work well.) > > Maintaining the mentor/apprentice database, as Kharec suggested, is to me a > key part of the role. Information such as mentors available, and their > strengths/focus, usual time zones available, communication modes > preferred, languages spoken, and current apprentices, Would-be apprentices > should have similar information listed. > Not much different from the information currently in variously wiki pages, > but maintained by the coordinator in one location. > > <aside> > One thing that occurred to me is that there is no imperative that mentoring > process happens only in English. If an apprentice is more comfortable in > another language, and they find a mentor speaking that language, why not ? > Sure, it is useful to have basic English knowledge, but it is evident > that many (if not most) contributors speak English as a second language. > </aside> > > Experience packaging, either as a mentor or apprentice is highly > recommended in my view, at least for the key person. (My experience is as > a apprentice with Shikamaru -- an excellent mentor, btw -- and my time > zone availability is probably why I haven't officially completed the > process.) Also some programming experience could be useful. (I imagine > that most candidates would have that.) > > But also mentoring can apply to other things than packaging. So maybe we > should give a broader scope to the mentoring coordinator job ? > Including bugteam, QA, as well as packaging. > That would make it more useful, as well as more interesting. > (I would be very interested in contributing to something like that.) > > So what does everyone think ?
Thanks for the input, but there's one point that's still unclear to me : do you candidate for the job ? :p (the timezone question can be a problem, but not necessarily a blocking one) Samuel
