Who can be a mentor?

Any PMC member can mentor in their project implicitly. Additional people can mentor with lazy consensus from the PMC. This should be done by contacting a project to make sure there are no objections to a non-PMC member representing the project as a mentor and can be done at the same time as a project proposal is being made. This is our own internal guideline; individual PMCs can make their own rules about mentors within that project. Generally speaking, mentoring here follows the same qualifications required to mentor in Google Summer of Code or similar community projects.

What do mentors need to do?

What projects are eligible?

Note here that "project" is distinct from "PMC/project management committee".

As all Apache code is Apache licensed, this part of qualification for project proposals for internships is already qualified. The other qualification is that the project proposal must be beneficial to free and open source software in general. This means that project proposals to integrate with proprietary software or services will not be accepted by Outreachy.

How do I submit a project?

Project proposals should generally start by recording the project idea on the respective PMC development mailing list or issue tracker. This provides a mechanism for the PMC to lazily approve the project proposal before submitting the full details to the Apache call for participation form. Click the "Submit a Project Proposal" button to submit a project.

Project proposals consist of a few technical details around the project and community, an overview of the project to complete for the internship, and other details for applicants. Note that project details can be refined over time, and project timelines are encouraged to be relatively flexible.

When defining starter tasks and project tasks in your issue tracker, make sure to add a tag or label outreachy to make it easier to find.

How can I help an existing project or mentor?

Sign up as a co-mentor by finding the project on the Apache community page and follow the registration steps. You should communicate your intent to co-mentor with the relevant PMC.

What kinds of projects should I submit?

Projects should allow time for interns to propose contributions to the community and modify those contributions to integrate community feedback along with initial ramp-up time getting acquainted with tools and processes needed to contribute. These proposals should consist of tasks that have fairly agreed-upon ideas on how they should be completed to make them tractable for mentors. Mentors should avoid proposing tasks that are still under active debate or design by the community or have too many moving parts. Timelines should start with simpler tasks that progress to more complex ones, though this can be further customized throughout the internship. It's recommended that tasks within a project proposal connect together with some sort of theme; this is generally easier to describe in a proposal and provides a better experience for new contributors.

I submitted a project, now what?

After the Outreachy application period begins, applicants will begin finding projects to apply for and contribute starter tasks to. During this period, answer questions to applicants and be responsive. If applicants contact you privately, you may encourage them to speak in your public channels, but do not force them to speak publicly. You can also encourage applicants to apply to concurrent Apache Google Summer of Code projects, though do note that GSoC has numerous differences with Outreachy and this FAQ doesn't apply to our GSoC program.

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