[Mageia-dev] "Job offer" : mentoring program coordinator

Mon Jun 13 17:18:45 CEST 2011

Le 13/06/2011 15:19, Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
+> Le dimanche 12 juin 2011 18:55:58, Cazzaniga Sandro a écrit :
+>> Le 12/06/2011 15:27, 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/
+>>>
+>>> 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
+>>
+>> I offer my candidacy. I was mentored by shikamaru and i'm a mandriva
+>> packager since 2009 and a mageia packager since the start.
+>> My english level is pretty good and i'm pretty sociable.
+>>
+> 
+> Hi,
+> 
+> As explained on IRC yesterday, your candidacy is interesting, but you have 
+> already so many other engagements that I would prefer someone with more 
+> availability :) So keep on the good work where you're already committed :)
+> 
+> Best regards
+> 
+> Samuel Verschelde
+!no problem, thanks!
+
+-- 
+Sandro Cazzaniga - https://lederniercoupdarchet.wordpress.com
+IRC: Kharec (irc.freenode.net)
+Software/Hardware geek
+Conceptor
+Magnum's Coordinator/editor (http://wiki.mandriva.com/fr/Magnum)
+Mageia and Mandriva contributor
+