[Bsod-mentors] Ideas and comments.

[Tim Wakeham]

Yep i basically agree with all that.

Anyone want to volunteer for writing some bad text that we expect to be
edited by people without past experience?

Tim

On 5/18/06, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I would advise to not overshoot too much in over-organizing the
> project. There's no reason to scare away people, nor do I think we get
> 100s of submissions in. :)
> My experience with the Google project is that the complexity of
> rules/methods is not working well. This year they've organized it "much
> better", causing in a load of confused traffic on the mentor list.
>
> Mixed in below some comments.
>
> > Ok topics we need some thought and discussion about -
> >
> > a) Proposals - structure of proposals, what we expect to be contained
> > in the proposal, level of detail, how to present them (wiki, bsod
> > board on b.org, email to list, etc etc.)
> >
> > I've discussed things a little with spiderworm and come up with some
> > ideas for sections that should be present in the proposals. The
> > structure we came up with is as follows -
> >
> > -Intro/Synopsis - General introduction to the proposal in a paragraph,
> > or two.
> > -Justification - How is it to benefit the user base?
> > -Scope/Detailed breakdown - Tell us exactly what will be detailed in
> > the docs produced
> > -Deliverables - Tell us what you plan to give as end result, in terms
> > of quantity, type, etc
> > -Outline/Timeline - (unsure if this is necessary) speaks for itself
> > -History/Biography - tell us what experience you have, what have
> > contributed in the past, prove you can do what you say.
>
> This is a bit too much I think. It's not a lifetime job people are
> applying for! What about this:
>
> - Intro/Synposis: one paragraph summarizing the proposal
> - Scope/Breakdown: what topic(s) will be covered, and how will it be
> structured.
> - Deliverables: what the result will be, in terms of quantity, type, etc
> - Biography: past experience, links to existing work, etc
>
> > We also came up with the notion of having a small writing challenge,
> > maybe asking for a couple of small writing tasks, maybe say 200 words
> > each, a technical example, maybe something creative or research based,
> > and an editing task where we give them a bad text and ask them to edit
> > it accordingly.
>
> You could do this, but just based on personal contact with people who
> sent in a great proposal but didn't show any past experience. Don't
> oblige everyone to this.
>
> > b) Qualifying for the project - what should we ask for in regards to
> > past experience if any? what should we ask to be demonstrated? should
> > we ask for image proof that the person is competent with the area of
> > Blender they want to document?
>
> You can mention that the submission should have sufficient information
> for the mentor team to decide if it's eligible. This can be past
> experience, or samples of work, etc.
>
> > Obviously if we set a writing task as part of entry conditions then
> > that would demonstrate the writing ability of the candidate, though
> > this has an inherent problem, language. We would need to find a way
> > of providing a fair test there, and since their text will be
> > translated anyway, it seems we should really be testing the
> > translator.
>
> Translations is a difficult topic yes... I don't like to complexify
> this whole grants system by also giving money to the translators. What
> about this offer; a translator can do a free pick from the Blender
> e-shop?
>
> > I don't like the idea of requesting past experience documenting since
> > it limits people who could provide a great contribution, that said, I
> > think we need to be especially critical of their ability in the
> > designated area, and in their writing ability if they don't have
> > experience already.
>
> I agree. You could use the description as I provided before. You guys
> need *some* evidence!
>
> > c) Theme - As we mentioned in the original b.org post, we'd like to
> > involve a theme for the overall scheme of the project. That way we
> > get a unified end result. The choices that we have got so far, are-
> >
> > i) Blender Basics Bootcamp - a detailed introduction to the major
> > areas of Blender, maybe leading into some more advanced topics, for
> > example docs on lighting could include radiosity for example.
> >
> > ii) Blender Since 2.3 Manual - detailed guides to the major feature
> > releases since 2.3, things like new animation, fluids, softbodies,
> > compositor etc etc
> >
> > What are the general thoughts about these themes, and has anyone got
> > any ideas for other themes?
>
> I'm fine with any. You guys decide. :)
>
> > d) Mentor role - should there be a 1:1 ratio participant to mentors?
> > do we need to provide each participant with a particular mentor, I
> > think that as much as possible we shold try to organise a meeting
> > between the participant and the person responsible for the project,
> > and of course, non-English participants will have to have a buddy for
> > translating etc.
>
> Limit the mentor role to an absolute mininum. In Google the target is
> different (get students into new projects, so they need guidance). We
> can just assume that any documenter should know Blender well enough to
> be able to write about it.
>
> The mentors can limit work to answering to questions, and try to be
> clear about expectations you have for a succesful completion. The
> people on this list can be 'mentor', no need to find more I guess.
>
> > e) Format - I think the best option is for directly working onto the
> > wiki here, to allow us to see what is going on and to involve
> > individual mentors if we decide to take that path.
>
> Good!
>
> > Anyway that is all i've got for now, lets get some comments happening
> > and set the ball rolling.
>
> Thanks for the good work mate!
>
> -Ton-
>
> >
> > -Tim
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Bsod-mentors at blender.org
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> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
> http://www.blender.org
>
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