[Scummvm-devel] On blogging and communications

Eugene Sandulenko sev at scummvm.org
Sun May 23 10:41:45 CEST 2010


Hi students,

Since the GSoC is about to start for real for you, I would like to give
couple of explanations and reminders on communications.

On blogging.

It is expected that you will blog at least once a week. Consider it is
as your work log, that is, no need to write comprehensive nicely worded
essays with all kinds of UML diagrams and other academic stuff. What we
need from you is signs of life and your progress casted to the world.

Do whatever you want, and please do not make it take too much of your
which you would better spend on planning, discussions with your mentor
and coding.

Things which are good to blog about: requirements clarifications which
you get about your task, design details, descriptions on how you stuck
or get unblocked, progress on your timeline, any random things.

Please remember, that your blog is posted on our official planet
(http://planet.scummvm.org), thus things which are PROHIBITED to blog
about:
  o Insults. Any profanity is strictly prohibited.
  o Real life blogging. I.e. that you're going shopping, eating,
    whatever. The good exception from this rule is when it interferes
    with your plans, i.e. when you're going to a trip and will have to
    pause your work.
  o Twit-like posts. It is a blog after all. Things like "Got up and
    started coding <end of message>" are not that good. However, feel
    free to tweet on tweeter if you like :)

On communications.

It is expected that you will regularly talk with a mentor. Regularly
I mean at least every other day. Disappearing for a week is not a good
thing for you (more on this below).

We serve as body of mentors, and while your primary mentor knows all
about your task, feel free to talk to any mentor, or any team member
(those are marked as OPs on IRC). We are experienced with GSoC and are
friendly guys in general. We like our students a lot and give you all
support :)

Our primary communication channel for students is IRC #scummvm @
freenode.net. You have to be logged in during your work. All of you
should get +v (voice), so you will be recognizable. If you still have
not get +v, talk to _sev, _sev|work, fingolfin (though Max is not that
frequent on IRC) and we will arrange that (you have also to have your
nick registered with nickserv). Remember, that our channel gets logged,
so be nice there.

This year we introduced Skype as another communication medium. Please
add me to your lists (skypeid: eugene.sandulenko). It is expected that
you will be logged into Skype when you work on the project. Also
consider buying a headset, you should get first payment from Google
soon, so that should not be a problem.

We have mailing list, scummvm-devel. This has to be used for
discussions on API changes, design decisions which touch big codebase,
etc. Do not hesitate to e-mail there. Many of our developers do not use
IRC, but all of them are subscribed to this list, so it is a nice way
to reach whole team in one turn.

Things which are expected from you.

  o Blog at least once a week (each 7 days)
  o Talk to a mentor at least once each 2 days (any mentor qualify),
    e-mails qualify
  o Be logged on IRC when you work on the project
  o Be signed in on Skype when you work on the project
  o Warn about absence which affect any of the above _beforehand_
  o Adjust your timeline on the way, so your mentor knows
  o Watch scummvm-devel e-mailing list
  o Code
  o Commit regularly, preferably on a daily basis

Remember, failing to above requirements, say, forgetting to blog about
your progress, will lead to premature termination of your involvement in
the program.

Let me wish you all success with the project this year, and hope that
you will like us and join us on a permanent basis.

 
Eugene Sandulenko
ScummVM Team co-leader
http://www.scummvm.org




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