Google Code-In 2011: Tasks wanted!

[Andre Klapper <ak-47 gmx net>]

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Google Code-In starts again.
GNOME took part in it last year already.


=== What is Google Code-in (GCI)? ===

You might call it the "small sister" of Google Summer of Code.
It is a contest for 13-17 year old highschool students. 
Tasks take 3-5 days and have a mentor assigned.

Tasks can be in several categories:
* Code: Tasks related to writing or refactoring code
* Documentation: Tasks related to creating/editing documents
* Outreach: Tasks related to community management and outreach/marketing
* Quality Assurance: Tasks related to testing and ensuring code is of high quality
* Research: Tasks related to studying a problem and recommending solutions
* Training: Tasks related to helping others learn more
* Translation: Tasks related to localization
* User Interface: Tasks related to user experience research or user interface design and interaction

For more info check out
http://www.google-melange.com/gci/document/show/gci_program/google/gci2011/about


=== How to participate ===

GNOME needs 5 tasks in each of the 8 categories (=40 tasks in total)
until October 31st in order to participate in GCI.
That's in a few days already, so hurry up if you have an idea!
That would be the first batch of tasks. 
A second batch would be published on December 16th.

Tasks need a clear description, one or more defined mentors, an expected
timeframe to solve them, and difficulty (easy, medium, hard).

More info for mentors is available here:
http://code.google.com/p/google-code-in/wiki/GCIAdminMentorInformation

No ideas? Check out for example KDE's list:
http://community.kde.org/GoogleCodeIn/2011/Ideas

You could even add generic tasks: Add three GCI tasks "Fix a bug of your
choice for the product $foo in GNOME Bugzilla" (one easy, one medium and
one hard), let the student pick a bug, and then tell her/him whether to
claim the easy, medium or hard task for it.


=== Criticism from last year ===

...as it helps to avoid wrong expectations:
GCI is not GSoC. There is not enough time to create an "emotional
binding" to the project that the student works on.
I'd rather call it "drive-by contributions".

Patches might need several iterations and you will need to be both
patient and reactive (as students cannot claim a new task until their
patch has been reviewed and marked as completed by mentors).
It might be helpful to mention in task descriptions your availability,
e.g. that you also have free weekends or don't plan to review
submissions on christmas holidays.


But all in all it is a good way to help young people to get a first idea
of FOSS and contributing to it, and to create some future contributors.

Are you in?

If so, go to https://live.gnome.org/GoogleCodeIn and add some ideas to
https://live.gnome.org/GoogleCodeIn/Tasks !


Enjoy!,
andre
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