GSoC / OPW mentors are facing 10 intense days selecting our next group of interns.
Some suggestions:
ALWAYS
* Be nice and welcoming, especially in your first messages exchanged. There will be time for wikitech-style blunt straightforwardness. ;)
* Rely as much as possible in public channels to discuss with the candidates. Any proposal is a community project, not your pet project.
BEFORE THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE
* Get a second co-mentor for the proposals you want to see accepted. It's not easy but the success rate is remarkably higher, and the workload for each remarkably lower. Could be a profile complementary to yours: technical vs community, professional vs volunteer, maintainer vs power user, East vs West... The candidate and the project will benefit a lot.
* You are supposed to be very responsive these days. Say 24h max for an answer. Failing to do so will diminish the chances of your candidates / proposals. As said, a second co-mentor always helps.
* Help your candidates, within certain limits. Candidates must have the skills to prepare a proper plan for their own proposals.
* Asses the capacity of the candidate to complete the project. A nice written proposal is important but don't rely on this alone.
* Assess the availability of the candidates. This is like a full time job, with certain margin of flexibility for regular studies (but still).
SELECTING CANDIDATES
After the deadline we will meet to prioritize GSoC and OPW candidates.
* If you have more than one candidate be ready to prioritize them. One mentor can take only one project, unless there is a good justification for taking two (e.g. strong co-mentors in both).
* Read also the rest of proposals and pencil your own ranking with a Wikimedia / MediaWiki wide agenda in mind.
* Be ready to negotiate the place of your candidates in the general ranking. In other words, don't push blindly for "your" proposals.
Needless to say, you must read the official GSoC manual for mentors: http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/
There is more good reading at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_mentors
If you are a good mentor your know that 20 minutes reading docs can save you a lot more time and energies. ;)
Specifically about the 2 mentors per project requirement:
On 04/27/2013 04:58 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
- Get a second co-mentor for the proposals you want to see accepted.
It's not easy but the success rate is remarkably higher, and the workload for each remarkably lower. Could be a profile complementary to yours: technical vs community, professional vs volunteer, maintainer vs power user, East vs West... The candidate and the project will benefit a lot.
Brian comments that, for instance, for
Proofread Page extension needs to be refactored www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Proofread_Page_extension_needs_to_be_refactored
Tpt is the only maintainer and looking at past contributions there is no other significant active contributor.
Sure, this is a problem and in fact a factor to push a GSoC / OPW project in order to increase the community health of an "endangered species". ;) However, the other co-mentor could be e.g. a qualified stakeholder e.g. in this case a Wikisource admin or someone recognized in that community, responsive, able to help with prioritization of requirements, with testing...
GSoC recommends two mentors per project and we have reached to the same conclusion based on our experiences.
See also the lessons learned at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_5
The case for the second co-mentor is not only "what happens when a mentor disappears", which is a extreme case. A second co-mentor is a second voice, a second factor of peer pressure, a second eye to detect problems earlier...
A team of 3 remote people also leads necessarily to better remote communications, better documentation and better openness and capacity to include more voices and more people in a project.
Also, mentors learn as much as interns. Two new co-mentors will have an easier time than a new mentor alone. A rookie co-mentor can learn from one mentor with prior mentoring experience, and then a year later s/he will be ready to be the main co-mentor...
Two people alone can do a lot of progress, but they carry a higher risk of isolation from the rest of the community. And then one day the intern or the mentor starts slacking or vanishing for some reason and all what is left are private emails, IRC/IM conversations and other types of undocumented, lost wisdom.
Hey,
So a quick question. I volunteered to mentor, but it doesn't seem I've been listed as a potential mentor on any projects. Should I be doing something to seek out students or is there just enough mentors at the moment?
Thanks,
*-- * *Tyler Romeo* Stevens Institute of Technology, Class of 2015 Major in Computer Science www.whizkidztech.com | tylerromeo@gmail.com
On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:24 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
Specifically about the 2 mentors per project requirement:
On 04/27/2013 04:58 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
- Get a second co-mentor for the proposals you want to see accepted.
It's not easy but the success rate is remarkably higher, and the workload for each remarkably lower. Could be a profile complementary to yours: technical vs community, professional vs volunteer, maintainer vs power user, East vs West... The candidate and the project will benefit a lot.
Brian comments that, for instance, for
Proofread Page extension needs to be refactored www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**Mentorship_programs/Possible_** projects#Proofread_Page_**extension_needs_to_be_**refactoredhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Proofread_Page_extension_needs_to_be_refactored
Tpt is the only maintainer and looking at past contributions there is no other significant active contributor.
Sure, this is a problem and in fact a factor to push a GSoC / OPW project in order to increase the community health of an "endangered species". ;) However, the other co-mentor could be e.g. a qualified stakeholder e.g. in this case a Wikisource admin or someone recognized in that community, responsive, able to help with prioritization of requirements, with testing...
GSoC recommends two mentors per project and we have reached to the same conclusion based on our experiences.
See also the lessons learned at https://www.mediawiki.org/** wiki/Outreach_Program_for_**Women/Round_5https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_5
The case for the second co-mentor is not only "what happens when a mentor disappears", which is a extreme case. A second co-mentor is a second voice, a second factor of peer pressure, a second eye to detect problems earlier...
A team of 3 remote people also leads necessarily to better remote communications, better documentation and better openness and capacity to include more voices and more people in a project.
Also, mentors learn as much as interns. Two new co-mentors will have an easier time than a new mentor alone. A rookie co-mentor can learn from one mentor with prior mentoring experience, and then a year later s/he will be ready to be the main co-mentor...
Two people alone can do a lot of progress, but they carry a higher risk of isolation from the rest of the community. And then one day the intern or the mentor starts slacking or vanishing for some reason and all what is left are private emails, IRC/IM conversations and other types of undocumented, lost wisdom.
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgilhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
______________________________**_________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikitech-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On 04/28/2013 10:38 AM, Tyler Romeo wrote:
Hey,
So a quick question. I volunteered to mentor, but it doesn't seem I've been listed as a potential mentor on any projects. Should I be doing something to seek out students or is there just enough mentors at the moment?
Mentors must select "Wish to mentor" in the proposals at the GSoC site they feel they could co-mentor.
You are encouraged to wish-to-mentor all the proposals you feel you have the interest and the skills. You can specify in the comments whether this would be your primary project, whether you could co-mentor if project ABC doesn't make it at the end, whether you could co-mentor just as long as there is a primary mentor covering XYZ skills you don't have, etc.
Sounds a bit messy but I'm sure this data will be helpful and everything will be fine. :)
On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
You are encouraged to wish-to-mentor all the proposals you feel you have the interest and the skills. You can specify in the comments whether this would be your primary project, whether you could co-mentor if project ABC doesn't make it at the end, whether you could co-mentor just as long as there is a primary mentor covering XYZ skills you don't have, etc.
Ah, my confusion stemmed from me not seeing the "Wish to mentor" switch on the side. OK, in that case I'll update my dashboard now. Thanks.
*-- * *Tyler Romeo* Stevens Institute of Technology, Class of 2015 Major in Computer Science www.whizkidztech.com | tylerromeo@gmail.com
On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:58 AM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
There is more good reading at https://www.mediawiki.org/** wiki/Mentorship_programs/**Possible_mentorshttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_mentors
I am listed as a mentor at Outreach Program for Women[1] page, but not at Possible mentors page. Who maintains the list? Should I add myself to the list?
Željko -- 1: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/OPW#Browser_Test_Automation
On 04/29/2013 04:55 AM, Željko Filipin wrote:
On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:58 AM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
There is more good reading at https://www.mediawiki.org/** wiki/Mentorship_programs/**Possible_mentorshttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_mentors
I am listed as a mentor at Outreach Program for Women[1] page, but not at Possible mentors page. Who maintains the list? Should I add myself to the list?
Yes, sorry. This is the first time we are doing GSoC and OPW together and we still have glitches like this one. The current '''CONFIRMED''' tag has been added with GSoC mentors in mind, since they need to register to the GSoC site.
OPW-only mentors like you can just add themselves to the list. It's not 100% precise but good enough for this round. We will do better in the next one. :)
More about this:
On 04/27/2013 04:58 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
SELECTING CANDIDATES
After the deadline we will meet to prioritize GSoC and OPW candidates.
The first step is to tell Google before May 6 (quoting):
#amazing proposals The amount of amazing proposals submitted to this organization that have a mentor assigned and the organization would _really_ like to have a slot for.
#desired slots The amount of slots that this organization would like to receive if there was an unlimited amount of slots available.
This is how we can define these numbers:
#amazing proposals:
* Must have at least 2 people wishing-to-mentor in the GSoC site.
* At least one co-mentor must tell explicitly in the private comments of the GSoC that this proposal is his primary bet.
* Double check this Friday with teams acting as umbrella for different proposals e.g. Language, Wikidata, VisualEditor to identify the amazing proposals within their scope.
#desired slots
* All of the above plus those proposals that have done all the homework well and have 1-2 free mentors.
Google doesn't give much time to define these numbers: the deadline for submissions is this Friday May 3, and the numbers must be defined by Monday May 6. I hope to resolve all questions by the end of Friday, but in any case watch your mailboxes during the weekend. I will submit the numbers during Sunday, latest.
We will get the answer from Google on Wednesday 8. Then we will ave more time to allocate projects to slots.
OPW selection will depend on this process, so no moves are needed before May 8.
- If you have more than one candidate be ready to prioritize them. One
mentor can take only one project, unless there is a good justification for taking two (e.g. strong co-mentors in both).
- Read also the rest of proposals and pencil your own ranking with a
Wikimedia / MediaWiki wide agenda in mind.
- Be ready to negotiate the place of your candidates in the general
ranking. In other words, don't push blindly for "your" proposals.
Needless to say, you must read the official GSoC manual for mentors: http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/
There is more good reading at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_mentors
If you are a good mentor your know that 20 minutes reading docs can save you a lot more time and energies. ;)
On 05/03/2013 04:22 PM, Matthew Flaschen wrote:
On 04/27/2013 07:58 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
SELECTING CANDIDATES
After the deadline we will meet to prioritize GSoC and OPW candidates.
When is this meeting?
It seems that we won't need a meeting to discuss candidates. So far the discussions of the proposals in Google Melange are enough.
What we will do is a hangout for mentors next week to discuss anything except candidates: questions about the program and your work, expectations, tips & tricks...
And some questions that came from a student:
- May I know how selection of the most suitable candidate for each
GSoC project will be like?
It is described at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Selection_process but if anybody has more specific questions just ask.
- Would it depend on technical knowledge and research?
It's a combination of many factors. There is a short term question (do we trust this candidate can complete this project) and a mid term question (do we believe this candidate will stick around, contributing after the internship?).
There is no scientific way to predict the answers. Own initiative, social/communication skills or personal context may play a role as important as the declared technical knowledge (which in many cases we can't even evaluate properly because on many cases there is not much code and history to look at - which is relatively expected in these types of internship programs.
- Will there be more than one successful candidate for one specific
project or is it strictly the best (only one) candidate for the specific project?
GSoC / OPW allow this, but we are aiming to have only one candidate per project. The main motivation is to give more chances to more projects. We try to define project ideas that can be accomplished by one person during the internship.
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