[Framework-Team] Summer of Code - Mentors wanted

Matthew Wilkes matthew at matthewwilkes.co.uk
Tue Mar 10 14:57:40 UTC 2009


Hi all,

It's time for summer of code again, and we need mentors!  Don't worry,  
it's
not as scary as you might think.  Basically, you'd be put in contact  
with a
student who wants to work on Plone over the summer on something  
related to
your skill set, and you'd help guide them.  You don't write any of  
their code,
you don't write tests or apply patches, you just give feedback on what  
they've
done and help them integrate into the community.

We'll try and pair students with two mentors to reduce the workload  
and give
them more valuable feedback, so don't feel like you'd be soley  
responsible.

"But Matt, I don't have time to do this, I have things I need to write!"
	Well, obviously we're all very busy, but this is a chance to bring more
	people into the community.  We can rarely focus months full-time to a
	single Plone feature, these students can, and will.  They just need  
your
	help to do so.
	
	It's invaluable to these people to have somebody that has been in the
	community for a while talk to people about what they're doing, point  
them
	in the direction of people they should be talking to, and get  
feedback on
	what they've written.
	
"Well, I don't know enough about Plone!"
     You likely know more than these students.  In particular, if  
you've got
     commit rights to the Plone repository, not just collective, you  
know how
     our development practises work and you're not afraid to talk to the
     community.  That's most of what's needed.

"My job takes up all my time!"
     Talk to your employer!  If you are assigned to a student I'd be  
happy to
     put a company logo next to your name in announcements if your  
employer
     donates some time to you helping your student.

     There aren't many emails to keep on top of, you can set office  
hours where
     your student can drop into IRC to talk to you, and schedule patch
     reviewing around your own schedule.  Give me an email off list  
and we can
     talk about how best to manage it.

"What's in it for me?"
     A tshirt from Google, praise on our announcements, the good  
feeling of
     helping someone become part of our community, links to people  
doing the
     same in other OSS communities, and maybe a trip to Google in  
Mountain
     View (if we do well we get a certain number of places allocated).

"I'm convinced, sign me up!"
     Damn right.  Send me an email or grab me on IRC (MatthewWilkes)


Matt




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