Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-25 Thread Lou Logan
On Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:10:36 +0100, Nicolas George wrote:

> From fca492987eef197aa91a92c2ebe37ac3ff0acc58 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Nicolas George 
> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 21:51:19 +0100
> Subject: [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

> +As for FFmpeg, there is not much to do: choose a proposed project that you 
> want to
> +do, select a qualification task for that project that is not already taken
> +by someone else, announce your chosen qualification task on the ffmpeg-devel
> +mailing list, then start coding..


Nit: s/../.

But I wouldn't waste time on that nit unless other changes are going to
be made.

Looks good. Thanks.
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-25 Thread Ronald S. Bultje
Hi,

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 6:10 AM, Nicolas George  wrote:

> Thanks to everyone for the reviews. Here is an updated version trying to
> take the remarks into account.
>
> Regards,


No further comments from me :)

Thanks,
Ronald
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-25 Thread Nicolas George
Thanks to everyone for the reviews. Here is an updated version trying to
take the remarks into account.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George
>From fca492987eef197aa91a92c2ebe37ac3ff0acc58 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicolas George 
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 21:51:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

Signed-off-by: Nicolas George 
---
 doc/Makefile |   1 +
 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi | 160 +++
 2 files changed, 161 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi

diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 697142f..8b76feb 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ HTMLPAGES   = $(AVPROGS-yes:%=doc/%.html) $(AVPROGS-yes:%=doc/%-all.html) $(COMP
   doc/git-howto.html\
   doc/nut.html  \
   doc/platform.html \
+  doc/sponsored_internships_howto.html  \
 
 TXTPAGES= doc/fate.txt  \
 
diff --git a/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi b/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
new file mode 100644
index 000..227005d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
+@documentencoding UTF-8
+
+@settitle Sponsored Internships HOWTO
+@titlepage
+@center @titlefont{Sponsored Internships HOWTO}
+@end titlepage
+
+@top
+
+@chapter I would like to work on FFmpeg for @url{https://code.google.com/soc/, Google Summer of Code} / @url{http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis/, ESA Summer of Code in Space} / @url{https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/, Outreachy} / [insert here the latest trendy program]. What must I do?
+
+For the organization that sponsors the program, there is probably a lot of
+paperwork; refer to their homepage for information about eligibility,
+timeline, required paperwork, etc. This process is the full responsibility
+of the intern; the limited available FFmpeg mentor time and motivation is
+best spent on providing help specific to coding.
+
+As for FFmpeg, there is not much to do: choose a proposed project that you want to
+do, select a qualification task for that project that is not already taken
+by someone else, announce your chosen qualification task on the ffmpeg-devel
+mailing list, then start coding..
+
+If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them on the
+ffmpeg-devel mailing-list or on the IRC channel.
+
+@chapter What is a qualification task?
+
+A qualification task is a small part of the project, or a small peripheral
+project, that serves to evaluate the candidates before starting the actual
+internship.
+
+There are a few qualification tasks with each proposed project on the
+@url{https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/SponsoringPrograms, FFmpeg wiki}, and
+there is also usually a table with the declared candidate and their
+qualification tasks.
+
+@chapter So, how do I make sure @emph{I} get the internship?
+
+Hopefully, you realize that each Libre Software project has only one or a
+few slots in any sponsored program; and even if we have several slots, we
+can not have several interns working on the same project, or possibly even
+with the same mentor.
+
+So basically, this is a competition.
+
+You have to be better than the other. Or at least to look more interesting
+to work with.
+
+@chapter And how do I do that?
+
+Start simple: how did you reach this page? If you arrived here by yourself,
+congratulations, you win the first point.
+
+You are not expected to know everything, especially not details about how
+FFmpeg works, but when the answer to a question is easily available with a
+web search, you are expected to find it. Potential mentors get tired of
+replying always the same elementary things to candidates.
+
+So the first commandment: first try to find answers by yourself.
+
+Intern candidates should be able to solve problems on their own, but it is
+fine to ask questions when stuck or unsure about the task. When asking
+questions, you are also expected to show how are you trying to solve the
+related issue.
+
+@chapter How do I contact you? And, in fact, who are you?
+
+The people who work on FFmpeg do so mostly on their free time or as a
+complement to their regular job in computing or consulting. To contact us,
+you can use the ffmpeg-devel mailing list or personal mail, depending on the
+contents of the message. Use discretion. You can also try the IRC channel.
+
+Some sponsoring organizations have an internal message system. Use it only
+in last resort. It is usually vastly inferior to the mail user agents we
+enjoy to use, and the notifications may not even reach us, or be classified
+as spam.
+
+@chapter How do I get to work?
+
+First, download FFmpeg. Not a prebuilt binary. Not a source snapshot. A full
+Git clone tree. If you do no

Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-20 Thread Ronald S. Bultje
Hi,

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 7:51 AM, wm4  wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:43:55 +0100
> Stefano Sabatini  wrote:
>
> > On date Friday 2015-03-20 09:57:58 +0100, wm4 encoded:
> > > On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400
> > > "Ronald S. Bultje"  wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George 
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask
> them.
> > > > > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will
> make you
> > > > > +look dump. So read on.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > s/dump/dumb/.
> > > >
> > > > Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students
> to be
> > > > able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions
> to their
> > > > mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's
> goole'able, he
> > > > should feel comfortable saying so).
> > >
> >
> > > +1
> > >
> > > Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience
> > > shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this
> > > language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking
> > > questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC
> > > attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to
> > > ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb
> > > anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it.
> >
> > I don't think this is offensive but smart candidates will figure when
> > and how to ask good questions by themselves, being told explicitly
> > would be annoying for them.
> >
> > Also the focus is not about smart/silly, it is about finding a good
> > tradeoff between mentee and mentor's time effort when asking/replying
> > to a question. In general mentors' time is precious (because they're
> > usually busy and/or are delivering their free time), so the
> > candidate/mentee should do most of the effort, and ask questions only
> > when he/she's put some efforts into trying to solve an issue, and show
> > this effort when putting out the question.
>
> Of course, but telling a candidate that his question may be interpreted
> as dumb is the wrong way to go about it. It sound dismissive and
> unfriendly. Making demands is ok, but premature "punishment" or
> prejudice is not. (Yeah, we know most candidates will probably be bad,
> but there's no reason to repel potentially good ones just out of
> pessimism.)
>
> > So, adding my two cents:
> >
> > "GSoC attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, but
> > it's fine to ask questions if you're stuck or if you are not sure
> > about your task. When asking questions, you are also expected to show
> > how are you trying to solve the related issue."
>
> Sounds ok to me.


+1 to both.

Ronald
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-20 Thread wm4
On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:43:55 +0100
Stefano Sabatini  wrote:

> On date Friday 2015-03-20 09:57:58 +0100, wm4 encoded:
> > On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400
> > "Ronald S. Bultje"  wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George  wrote:
> > > 
> > > > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
> > > > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make 
> > > > you
> > > > +look dump. So read on.
> > > >
> > > 
> > > s/dump/dumb/.
> > > 
> > > Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students to be
> > > able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions to 
> > > their
> > > mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's goole'able, he
> > > should feel comfortable saying so).
> > 
> 
> > +1
> > 
> > Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience
> > shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this
> > language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking
> > questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC
> > attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to
> > ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb
> > anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it.
> 
> I don't think this is offensive but smart candidates will figure when
> and how to ask good questions by themselves, being told explicitly
> would be annoying for them.
> 
> Also the focus is not about smart/silly, it is about finding a good
> tradeoff between mentee and mentor's time effort when asking/replying
> to a question. In general mentors' time is precious (because they're
> usually busy and/or are delivering their free time), so the
> candidate/mentee should do most of the effort, and ask questions only
> when he/she's put some efforts into trying to solve an issue, and show
> this effort when putting out the question.

Of course, but telling a candidate that his question may be interpreted
as dumb is the wrong way to go about it. It sound dismissive and
unfriendly. Making demands is ok, but premature "punishment" or
prejudice is not. (Yeah, we know most candidates will probably be bad,
but there's no reason to repel potentially good ones just out of
pessimism.)

> So, adding my two cents:
> 
> "GSoC attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, but
> it's fine to ask questions if you're stuck or if you are not sure
> about your task. When asking questions, you are also expected to show
> how are you trying to solve the related issue."

Sounds ok to me.
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-20 Thread Stefano Sabatini
On date Friday 2015-03-20 09:57:58 +0100, wm4 encoded:
> On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400
> "Ronald S. Bultje"  wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George  wrote:
> > 
> > > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
> > > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make 
> > > you
> > > +look dump. So read on.
> > >
> > 
> > s/dump/dumb/.
> > 
> > Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students to be
> > able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions to their
> > mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's goole'able, he
> > should feel comfortable saying so).
> 

> +1
> 
> Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience
> shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this
> language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking
> questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC
> attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to
> ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb
> anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it.

I don't think this is offensive but smart candidates will figure when
and how to ask good questions by themselves, being told explicitly
would be annoying for them.

Also the focus is not about smart/silly, it is about finding a good
tradeoff between mentee and mentor's time effort when asking/replying
to a question. In general mentors' time is precious (because they're
usually busy and/or are delivering their free time), so the
candidate/mentee should do most of the effort, and ask questions only
when he/she's put some efforts into trying to solve an issue, and show
this effort when putting out the question.

So, adding my two cents:

"GSoC attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, but
it's fine to ask questions if you're stuck or if you are not sure
about your task. When asking questions, you are also expected to show
how are you trying to solve the related issue."
-- 
FFmpeg = Forgiving Fast Merciful Pitiful Elected Genius
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-20 Thread wm4
On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400
"Ronald S. Bultje"  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George  wrote:
> 
> > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
> > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make you
> > +look dump. So read on.
> >
> 
> s/dump/dumb/.
> 
> Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students to be
> able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions to their
> mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's goole'able, he
> should feel comfortable saying so).

+1

Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience
shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this
language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking
questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC
attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to
ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb
anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it.

> 
> > +At this point, you are ready do look in the code for the way of doing your
> > +actual qualification task.
> >
> 
> s/do/to/.
> 
> Ronald
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Michael Niedermayer
On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 09:53:12PM +0100, Nicolas George wrote:
> Signed-off-by: Nicolas George 
> ---
>  doc/Makefile |   1 +
>  doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi | 148 
> +++
>  2 files changed, 149 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
> 
> 

> Not sure if the best place is there or the wiki, but at either place,

iam not sure either but in general when in doubt i would probably
tend more toward the wiki as it can be edited and maintained by a
larger group of people, iam not sure this is relevant or not here

[...]
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Lou Logan
On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 21:53:12 +0100, Nicolas George wrote:

> +@chapter So yeah, I would like to work on FFmpeg for 
> @url{https://code.google.com/soc/, Google Summer of Code} / 
> @url{http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis/, ESA Summer of Code in Space} / 
> @url{https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/, Outreachy} / [insert here the latest 
> trendy program]. What must I do?

Dump the "So yeah,".

> +For the organization that sposors the program, there is probably a lot of
> +paperwork. But frankly, we do not care; if we liked paperwork, we would be
> +managers, not hackers.

s/sposors/sponsors

However, I don't think this paragraph is very helpful as it is.

Maybe something like this:

"Refer to the homepage of the sponsor organization for information about
eligibility, timeline, required paperwork, etc. This process is the
full responsibility of the intern; the limited available FFmpeg mentor
time is best spent on providing help specific to coding."

> +For us, there is not much to do: choose a proposed project that you want to
> +do, select a qualification task for that project that is not already taken
> +by someone else, announce you are about to start working, and then do so.

"As for FFmpeg: choose a proposed project that you want to do, select a
qualification task for that project that is not already taken by
someone else, announce your chosen qualification task on the
ffmpeg-devel mailing list, then start coding."

> +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.

"...on the ffmpeg-devel mailing list or #ffmpeg-devel IRC channel."

I'm aware you mention contact info below, but I think it's good to
drill this info.

> +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make you
> +look dump. So read on.

I think this do not contribute anything helpful and can be removed.

> +@chapter How do I contact you? And, in fact, who are you?
> +
> +The people who work on FFmpeg do so mostly on their free time or as a
> +complement to their regular job in computing or consulting. To contact us,
> +you can use the devel mailing list or personal mail, depending on the
> +contents of the message. Use discretion. You can also try the IRC channel.

"To @url{https://ffmpeg.org/contact.html, contact us}, you can use the
ffmpeg-devel mailing list or the mentor's personal mail"

s/devel/ffmpeg-devel

> +@chapter How do I get to work?
> +
> +First, download FFmpeg. Not a prebuilt binary. Not a source snapshot. A full
> +Git clone tree. If you do not know what that means, then you have reading to
> +do.

"See @url{https://ffmpeg.org/git-howto.html, Using git to develop
FFmpeg} for more info."

> +You should subscribe to it, because otherwise, your mails will be held for
> +approval instead of arriving in a few seconds.

"approval for up to 48 hours"

Hopefully that may stop at least one user from sending one or more
messages to the queue, then subscribing, then re-sending again
resulting in dupes depending on how vigilant/lazy I am while clearing
the queue.

> +Also, be aware that some mail user agents send mails that are unreadable
> +except by themselves; some have strange ideas about paragraph formatting and
> +apply them to code snippet too. You can have a look at the low-tech mail
> +archive on the FFmpeg site to see how your mails actually look like.

"low-tech @url{https://lists.ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/,
mailing list archive}"

> +@chapter What if, in the end, I am not taken?

s/taken/accepted

The rest of it looks good to me. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Lou
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Michael Niedermayer
On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 09:53:12PM +0100, Nicolas George wrote:
> Signed-off-by: Nicolas George 
> ---
>  doc/Makefile |   1 +
>  doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi | 148 
> +++
>  2 files changed, 149 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
> 
> 
> Not sure if the best place is there or the wiki, but at either place,
> something like that should be useful. Comments?

overall very nice, i like it

[...]
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Ronald S. Bultje
Hi,

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George  wrote:

> +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
> +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make you
> +look dump. So read on.
>

s/dump/dumb/.

Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students to be
able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions to their
mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's goole'able, he
should feel comfortable saying so).


> +At this point, you are ready do look in the code for the way of doing your
> +actual qualification task.
>

s/do/to/.

Ronald
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Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Carl Eugen Hoyos
Nicolas George  nsup.org> writes:

> +At this point, you are ready do look

to look

> +Your qualification task is considered complete 
> +when the corresponding changes have been included 
> +in the official source repository.

Maybe "most qualification tasks" or "a typical 
qualification task": An alternative could be a 
poc for the actual project that is not supposed 
to be committed (but shows the the project is 
possible and possible for the student).

> +For that, the patch (or several patches) must be 
> +submitted to the devel mailing-list for review, 
> +not only by your mentor but by any developer
> +interested in that area of the code. For 
> +first-time proposals, it will probably take 
> +several round-trips of reworking the patch and 
> +re-sending it, so start proposing something early 
> +and try to do frequent updates.

... it will always take several round-trips...

I like it very much, thank you, Carl Eugen

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[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] doc: add a few note for sponsorship candidates.

2015-03-19 Thread Nicolas George
Signed-off-by: Nicolas George 
---
 doc/Makefile |   1 +
 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi | 148 +++
 2 files changed, 149 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi


Not sure if the best place is there or the wiki, but at either place,
something like that should be useful. Comments?


diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 697142f..8b76feb 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ HTMLPAGES   = $(AVPROGS-yes:%=doc/%.html) 
$(AVPROGS-yes:%=doc/%-all.html) $(COMP
   doc/git-howto.html\
   doc/nut.html  \
   doc/platform.html \
+  doc/sponsored_internships_howto.html  \
 
 TXTPAGES= doc/fate.txt  \
 
diff --git a/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi 
b/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
new file mode 100644
index 000..eada355
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/sponsored_internships_howto.texi
@@ -0,0 +1,148 @@
+\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
+@documentencoding UTF-8
+
+@settitle Sponsored Internships HOWTO
+@titlepage
+@center @titlefont{Sponsored Internships HOWTO}
+@end titlepage
+
+@top
+
+@chapter So yeah, I would like to work on FFmpeg for 
@url{https://code.google.com/soc/, Google Summer of Code} / 
@url{http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis/, ESA Summer of Code in Space} / 
@url{https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/, Outreachy} / [insert here the latest 
trendy program]. What must I do?
+
+For the organization that sposors the program, there is probably a lot of
+paperwork. But frankly, we do not care; if we liked paperwork, we would be
+managers, not hackers.
+
+For us, there is not much to do: choose a proposed project that you want to
+do, select a qualification task for that project that is not already taken
+by someone else, announce you are about to start working, and then do so.
+
+If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them.
+Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will make you
+look dump. So read on.
+
+@chapter What is a qualification task?
+
+A qualification task is a small part of the project, or a small peripheral
+project, that serves to evaluate the candidates before starting the actual
+internship.
+
+There are a few qualification tasks with each proposed project on the
+@url{https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/SponsoringPrograms, FFmpeg wiki}, and
+there is also usually a table with the declared candidate and their
+qualification tasks.
+
+@chapter So, how do I make sure @emph{I} get the internship?
+
+Hopefully, you realize that each Libre Software project has only one or a
+few slots in any sponsored program; and even if we have several slots, we
+can not have several interns working on the same project, or possibly even
+with the same mentor.
+
+So basically, this is a competition.
+
+You have to be better than the other. Or at least to look more interesting
+to work with.
+
+@chapter And how do I do that?
+
+Start simple: how did you reach this page? If you arrived here by yourself,
+congratulations, you win the first point.
+
+You are not expected to know everything, especially not details about how
+FFmpeg works, but when the answser to a question is easily available with a
+web search, you are expected to find it. Potential mentors get tired of
+replying always the same elementary things to candidates.
+
+So the first commandment: first try to find answers by yourself.
+
+@chapter How do I contact you? And, in fact, who are you?
+
+The people who work on FFmpeg do so mostly on their free time or as a
+complement to their regular job in computing or consulting. To contact us,
+you can use the devel mailing list or personal mail, depending on the
+contents of the message. Use discretion. You can also try the IRC channel.
+
+Some sponsoring organizations have an internal message system. Use it only
+in last resort. It is usually vastly inferior to the mail user agents we
+enjoy to use, and the notifications may not even reach us, or be classified
+as spam.
+
+@chapter How do I get to work?
+
+First, download FFmpeg. Not a prebuilt binary. Not a source snapshot. A full
+Git clone tree. If you do not know what that means, then you have reading to
+do.
+
+Then, build FFmpeg, and try to run it from the build tree, without
+installing it.
+
+Note: neither downloading nor building require privileges. If you had to
+@command{su} or @command{sudo} for anything other than installing missing
+external libraries or tools, then you did something wrong and it will make
+your life harder later.
+
+Then, try to make a trivial change, like rewording an error message or
+changing the default value of an option. Test that it works as expected.
+
+At this point, you are ready do look in the code for the way of doing your