[OLPC-GSoC] GSoC Mentoring

[Nirav Patel]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think you'd make a great backup mentor, easily. We'll see, when the
> projects come out, if there's a project that it would be OK for you to
> mentor. I suspect that in order for you to be a full mentor, you'd need two
> things. First, you'd need a good Socratic attitude; to be good at asking the
> right questions to get people to solve their own problems. And second, a bit
> of extra time to devote, as you play catch-up yourself on some issues. One
> important part of a mentor's job is to help make visible progress on silly
> frustrating issues - "my jhbuild is broken and I don't know why" - and
> socratic questions only go so far in that direction. The right questions can
> be "visible progress" for a day or two, but if you can't even code because
> nothing works, you need real help.
>
> I'm including the gsoc list on this message, I hope you don't mind.
>
> Let me (us) know what you think.
>
> Jameson

This is an accurate assessment of my status and what being a mentor
requires.  Between "process consulting" with various non-profits and
some tutoring/TAing during school, I believe I am capable of the first
half.  For the second, it depends largely on the specific project, but
it is certainly best that I not primary mentor any projects I couldn't
provide useful guidance on.  At the current time, that would include
most of the projects on the ideas page.

Nirav