Mentoring Program

[Phil Bull]

Hi Charles,

On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 11:55 -0500, Charles Davis wrote:
[...]
> I like Dougie's idea of making a series of tutorials. (this isn't just
> because Dougie is my mentor, it's because I have done a little bit of
> almost all facets of the doc team since i joined as a student.) There is
> a valid need for a tutorial or standard walkthrough to get folks up to a
> base level of proficiency. Bzr is a pain in the neck and I have had
> troubles with it myself. I know that if we had a standard walkthrough
> with examples for BZR it would help folks that are interested in working
> on the development branch of the official docs.

What do you think would have been more helpful for you: A task-based
reference-type guide (info on how to perform specific tasks) or a
step-by-step walkthrough-type guide (building up from basic to advanced
concepts in some sort of logical order)? Perhaps both, or neither?

> The thought of pointing people in specific directions before they join
> the list is probably a good idea because it saves effort in the long
> run. Not everyone is going to be interested in working in all areas.
> Many will start out doing one thing and end up on another project. So
> maybe implementing a set of tutorials then moving along with the
> mentoring for those that complete the tutorials and continue to show
> interest will help. I don't think that it is in the interest of the team
> to load up our mentors with a bunch of ghost students. Let us prove we
> are interested and will contribute then go from there.

That seems reasonable. I was a bit worried about scaring people off by
putting them through a contributionless "classroom" stage first, but
using it as an opportunity to demonstrate interest is a good point. It
would also reduce the mentor's workload considerably, as long as we got
the material in the tutorials right.

Thanks,

Phil

-- 
Phil Bull
http://www.launchpad.net/people/philbull