Project Incubation Mentor

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

A few weeks ago we designated Daniel Brookshier as mentor for each of
the projects in incubation.  At the time we were pretty vague about
what a mentor is and I would like to reassess that and Daniel's role.

I think Daniel was primarily offering to support project leads as they
migrate to OSGeo infrastructure, and to answer questions on an as needed
basis.

However, my idea of a mentor is quite a bit more indepth.  Paul Spencer and
I have written up a document reflecting our idea of what a project mentor
should be.

   http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Incubation_Mentor_Guidelines

In my view, the mentor not only provides a support and advice role, but
is also the "pointy end of the stick" of the Incubator as far as assessing
the project health and readiness to graduate from the incubator.  My thinking
is that we need to do a fairly in depth assessment but it is impractical for
each member of the committee to dig into a project deeply.  So I think there
ought to be one person (the "mentor") that should be designated to do this
in depth.  They would then advise the incubator on their assessment of
progress.

This wouldn't preclude other committee members from digging in if they have
concerns or an interest.  But I think it is important that there be at least
one person who is clearly responsible and who should expect to spend quite a
bit of time on the project.

It is my hope that this coming monday we can discuss, ammend and approve
the mentorship guidelines document and appoint incubation mentors for each
project.  Daniel will of course continue to provide support on the CollabNet
platform to the project leads, and answer others questions as the arise.

As I see it, (excepting DanielB and Rich who have specialized roles) the
members of the incubator that are not directly responsible for a project are
Sean Gilles, Paul Spencer and Chris Holmes.  I would like to suggest that
they, if they are willing, each be assigned one or two project mentorships.
Depending on the time they can commit it is likely we will need other
existing project leads willing to serve as mentors for other projects as
well.  I hope that everyone will consider if they would have the time to
mentor a project.

I am keen to move the incubation process into high gear, and so I hope
we will have good attendance at the coming meeting to finalize the
mentorship issue as well as address other items of business.  If anyone
cannot attend I would ask that they email this list before the meeting
indicating their thoughts on each of the agenda items.

   http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/IncCom_Meeting4

In my dreams we might be assessing a first project for completion of
incubation within 2-3 weeks.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org