Attendees:
- penyaskito
- webflo
- derhasi
- drozas
- slashrsm
Notes:
- Mentoring a GSoC project is a huge effort. Having reliable co-mentors helps a lot!
- If there is immediate benefit from the project it is easier to find co-mentors (among co-workers, ...). Drupal 8 projects are also very good since it is an investment for the future. Most problematic (in terms of motivation and time) are D7 projects that mentors can't use for their day-to-day projects.
- Would be nice to improve communication with/among (co)mentors. There was not much interaction between mentors of different projects this year. Improving communication would help to standardize our requirements (student blogs, weekly check-ins, ...) and help new mentors get up to speed faster.
- We need more communication during mentor assigning process (some people apparently got projects that were not their first choice).
- People use different PM tools (d.o. issues, github, ...). Github PR workflow seems to work quite good. Maybe we should write down some PM guidelines and encourage mentors to use that standard approach we define.
- Usually there is lack of documentation for projects that were created as part of GSoC. We could add docs to project requirements. We could also use GCI for that.
- We should connect with Core mentoring team and see if there are any points where we can work together. GCI task creation + mentoring seems like something where we could cooperate.
Comments
Joint session of all students and mentors
Just a suggestion. I noticed this in some of the other organizations which'll help improve communication across projects. Maybe we can have a joint video session (hangout-on-air or skype group chat) or on IRC where each of the student (and/or mentors) provide updates regarding their projects. This way all the students/mentors will be aware of the updates in other projects. This session can be organized biweekly in addition to the regular student-mentor scrums.
I would love such a biweekly
I would love such a biweekly meeting. Just take into account the different timezones so I'd make two bi-weekly meetings which can be freely chosen to join and watch the presentations and updates.
This will also be very beneficial for the student as he needs to practice more on the presentation side of things.
Maybe a first step to connect
Maybe a first step to connect to core mentors would be sharing some stories about how we work?
Cathy Theys
Handbook pages
@YesCT, maybe we can have some sort of handbook pages for the same.
we have some children pages
we have some children pages under
https://www.drupal.org/core-mentoring
of interest for this might be mostly...
https://www.drupal.org/constructive-feedback
(maybe https://www.drupal.org/core-mentoring/mentor-resources)
(maybe not ... https://www.drupal.org/core-mentoring/novice-tasks)
... I need to make an actual page there about some of the real "hows" of mentoring.
maybe that is one of the pages left to move over from drupalmentoring.org
Cathy Theys
I'll try to describe how GCI
I'll try to describe how GCI (Google Code-In) works since it is about to begin.
GCI is a program for high-school students. Every organization proposes a bunch of simple tasks (should take an experienced contributor an hour or two). Tasks are then picked by students, when completed sent into mentor review. Mentors either approve them or require any additional fixes.
Typical types of tasks last year were:
- documentation improvements
- issue summary updates
- simple coding tasks (re-rolls, small and straightforward changes, ...)
- screencasts
- reviews of simple patches
- UI/UX analysis and proposals for improvements
- ...
Usual tasks for GCI mentors are:
- proposing new tasks
- helping students understand scope of a task
- answer any additional questions
- review completed tasks
- approve tasks when completed
Janez Urevc - software engineer @ Examiner.com - @slashrsm - janezurevc.name