Re: Guix Outreachy project looking for co-mentor

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello!
>
> Gábor Boskovits <boskovits@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> we are looking for co-mentors to the 2018 December round of the Outreachy
>> project.
>>
>> We have one project proposal approved:
>> Create user video documentation for GNU Guix.
>
> Nice!
>
> I encourage people on this list to volunteer to co-mentor this project:
> increasing our bus factor¹ is important (really!) and so is bringing
> people from diverse backgrounds to the project, and this is a nice
> project that can make a big difference for Guix.

I agree.  This video documentation project is very different from other
GSoC or Outreachy projects of the past in that they don’t really require
programming skills.  This makes it easier for mentors as well.

If you are a contributor to Guix and you are familiar with how to use
Guix and what sets it apart from related systems you might be able to
co-mentor this project.  If you aren’t sure feel free to get in touch
with Gábor and me (even off-list).

> Among the other ideas that were thrown on IRC was that of a GNOME
> Software backend.  If people have an interest in this, we can still dig
> a bit and formalize it.  Thoughts?

For that project I think it would be advisable to get in touch with the
maintainers of GNOME Software to better understand what would need to be
done on their side.  I’d feel uncomfortable starting a project for
Outreachy unilaterally without having a liaison on the GNOME side.

For internships we need to make sure that we control enough of the
variables that could lead to failure.  I think this may not be possible
if the work happens on a foreign code base with a developer community
that we aren’t yet part of.

This is doable, but it requires more than the usual preparation by a
potential mentor.

--
Ricardo