On Tuesday 11 November 2008 10:26, Emmet Hikory wrote: > Charliej wrote: > > On Mon, 2008-11-10 at 22:39 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote: > >> I will confess that I don't pay as much attention to the Mentors program > >> as I probably should. I had no idea we were allowing people who weren't > >> MOTU to act formally as mentors. > > > > It is my understanding that UUC's are only allowed to mentor in the > > junior program. The senior program is strictly for MOTU as these are > > MOTU hopefuls > > > >> This is a stunningly bad idea and should stop. I just finished trying > >> to help a novice mentee who was trying to upgrade his system to Jaunty > >> because his mentor told him too. > > > > IMHO (this is only my opinion and may not be the opinion of the MOTU > > Mentoring Reception Team) I disagree! > > As much as I agree with Scott that in this case the provided advice > was flat-out wrong, and that the value of having those who have not > received technical review being recommended as mentors for development > is at best highly questionable, I wonder if establishing some set of > criteria by which mentors are judged (whether it be they being MOTU or > something else) is perhaps solving the wrong issue. > > The Mentoring Program page (1) states that a mentor in the Junior > Mentoring Program will "guide the new contributor (mentee) to find > his/her way into the community, present the different teams and guide > him/her through: [stunningly large list of technical tasks elided]". If > we are granting those without technical review the opportunity to act as > a Mentor, would it not be better to focus on the social aspects > (introduction to community, IRC best practices, team organisations, > common useful resources, etc.), and then concentrate the technical > training collaboratively in the #ubuntu-motu channel? > > By having each mentor individually lead each mentee through this > vast list of activities, we're surely creating a lot of duplicated > training activity, which would probably be better concentrated in one > place. This has the advantages that many people can learn from each > explanation, those more junior can feel comfortable giving advice > knowing those more senior will provide additional detail if required, > and each new person gains greater familiarity with each of the > participating developers, increasing the strength of the team. > > Further, with such regular discussions of technical tips & tricks, > those MOTU who may have forgotten some detail will have it refreshed, > and those providing training can build practice to better participate in > MOTU School sessions. > > To me, the important part of the mentoring process is that any > mentee has someone to turn to as a last resort when other resources are > insufficient, and someone who can provide advice as to possible avenues > for them to investigate. By structuring the program to encourage more > communication using existing channels, and encouraging mentors to > provide good links to useful shared documentation, we accomplish these > goals, while also improving our shared knowledge, building stronger > relationships, and sorting out much of the documentation that is > suffering from bitrot. > > Ideally, except with dealing with social issues, or helping find > something to do, or other relatively personal matters, most mentors > should be directing their mentees to high-quality shared documentation > explaining the concepts in question, and encouraging them to use typical > communications fora to explore any questions or concerns that may be > raised. In such an environment, I don't see any issue with trusting any > Ubuntu Member to provide useful guidance, as there is some reasonable > assurance that the provided advice matches current best practices and > that further discussion forms part of the shared culture that makes us > so effective.
I think this is an excellent proposal. It gives UUC a role appropriate to what they are vetted for and works to bring people to our community, not separate people from it. Scott K -- Ubuntu-motu mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-motu
