Mentoring framework?

[Mason Loring Bliss]

I just wrote about some bugs that nettle me in my "bug bounties" post, sent
just prior to my writing this. I'd like to throw out another idea as well.

In the post I listed a number of things that I'd encountered that bother
me, and in each case I've put some time into trying to either correct or
work around the bugs. Between work and family my time is way more limited
than I'd like, but I'd like to contribute, and something that occurs to me
is the notion of formal mentoring. At work one of my roles involves
mentoring junior engineers. We'll either tackle things they're working on,
wherein I show them how I'd approach the issues they're trying to untangle
and maybe highlight tools and techniques that might be new to them, or I'll
share what I'm doing and narrate my actions and ideas as I work through
puzzles that have landed on my plate. Either way, the end result is that
they end up with more tools and techniques at their disposal, making them
feel more powerful and competent.

This would be a bit heavyweight for a volunteer project, but for FreeBSD, I
can envision folks volunteering as mentors and corresponding via email
about particular projects or bug hunts, or occasionally via IRC or
somesuch. The underlying idea is that a hands-on donation of time from the
folks in the mentoring role would be enough to energize folks like me to
the point where bugs get fixed and the mentees start building up momentum
on their own.

As an example, for the bug I noted where a platform won't reliably boot the
kernel, or for the bug that came up on the list a week or two ago where
Vultr VMs hang on reboot, a mentor might help identify data collection
tools and techniques and some idea of how to determine if a line of inquiry
is producing usable results, after which the mentee could dig in with some
notion of the short-term goal for the current stage of the investigation.

I'd love thoughts and opinions.

[[e-mail] [e-mail]]

I'd like to contribute, and something that occurs to me is the notion of
formal mentoring.

Here are my observations: email is a pretty slow way of doing this kind of
thing. Yes, us old-timers are quite used to it, but it kind of lacks a
"collaborative" feel.

A lot of time this kind of work gets done on various IRC channels. They at
least (usually) give quicker feedback.

But koobs@ has been putting a lot of effort into getting Discord to be a first-
class interactivity space for FreeBSD. So, let me suggest trying out one of
the channels there, as see if it's more like what you are looking for.

(disclaimer: I am not saying "this will solve all our problems". I'm saying that
right now it has momentum and seems worth supporting.)

mcl

[Li-Wen Hsu]

Post by ***@portsmon.org ***@portsmon.org

I'd like to contribute, and something that occurs to me is the notion of
formal mentoring.

Here are my observations: email is a pretty slow way of doing this kind of
thing. Yes, us old-timers are quite used to it, but it kind of lacks a
"collaborative" feel.
A lot of time this kind of work gets done on various IRC channels. They at
least (usually) give quicker feedback.
class interactivity space for FreeBSD. So, let me suggest trying out one of
the channels there, as see if it's more like what you are looking for.
(disclaimer: I am not saying "this will solve all our problems". I'm saying that
right now it has momentum and seems worth supporting.)

Yes there is no silver bullet, and IRC and discord are great tools for
fast respon time.

But please remember, they are not very good to keep things permanent,
to let knowledge accumulated.

So, my suggestion is, trying to use mailing list as possible, because
the archived mails can also help others, not just two or few people,
it can maximize the impact of the people who answer the questions.

I like to use IRC, but sometimes I found that the "right people" are
not always available, and it is more difficult when it comes to time
zone issues. If it happens to find the right person, and get the issue
resolved. It is awesome and it will be good to have those experiences
be kept. For that purpose, the document is still the best thing, I
think in the open source world, things are more in an asynchronized
way, and documents can solve the issue that the mentor and mentee
can't be in the same time and space. And I believe that's also a good
way to make contributions.

In short, the "mentoring program" begins when you send a mail to a
mailing list, you just need to describe your issues more clear, and be
a bit patient to wait for others to reply. And once the issue has been
resolved, sort it and put it to the official documents, we have
docs.freebsd.org, wiki.freebsd.org, and man pages, all for different
(and may overlap) purposes.

Best,
Li-Wen

[Chris]

Post by Li-Wen Hsu

Post by ***@portsmon.org ***@portsmon.org

I'd like to contribute, and something that occurs to me is the notion of
formal mentoring.

Here are my observations: email is a pretty slow way of doing this kind of
thing. Yes, us old-timers are quite used to it, but it kind of lacks a
"collaborative" feel.
A lot of time this kind of work gets done on various IRC channels. They at
least (usually) give quicker feedback.
class interactivity space for FreeBSD. So, let me suggest trying out one of
the channels there, as see if it's more like what you are looking for.
(disclaimer: I am not saying "this will solve all our problems". I'm saying that
right now it has momentum and seems worth supporting.)

Yes there is no silver bullet, and IRC and discord are great tools for
fast respon time.
But please remember, they are not very good to keep things permanent,
to let knowledge accumulated.
So, my suggestion is, trying to use mailing list as possible, because
the archived mails can also help others, not just two or few people,
it can maximize the impact of the people who answer the questions.
I like to use IRC, but sometimes I found that the "right people" are
not always available, and it is more difficult when it comes to time
zone issues. If it happens to find the right person, and get the issue
resolved. It is awesome and it will be good to have those experiences
be kept. For that purpose, the document is still the best thing, I
think in the open source world, things are more in an asynchronized
way, and documents can solve the issue that the mentor and mentee
can't be in the same time and space. And I believe that's also a good
way to make contributions.
In short, the "mentoring program" begins when you send a mail to a
mailing list, you just need to describe your issues more clear, and be
a bit patient to wait for others to reply. And once the issue has been
resolved, sort it and put it to the official documents, we have
docs.freebsd.org, wiki.freebsd.org, and man pages, all for different
(and may overlap) purposes.

+100%
I would have to agree that mailing list(s) are probably the best approach
1) Those with any real tenure are already on them because "hey, that's
they way we did everything back then"
2) base/ports/bugs already have lists

So maybe add some flag to bugzilla? Add an additional (bounty) list?

--Chris

Post by Li-Wen Hsu
Best,
Li-Wen
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