Jason Perlow | 27 January 2023
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Jason Perlow: We had over four hours of video from the LFX Mentorship Showcase, and I didn’t have time to watch it all. Who better to do this than my new artificially intelligent, unpaid intern, ChatGPT? Here’s its summary of the day, with human edits for clarity.
The LFX Mentorship Showcase is a virtual event where 2022 graduates can share their experiences and provide insights into the mentorship programs offered at the Linux Foundation. It was held on January 18th and 19th, 2023.
Shuah Khan, a Linux kernel fellow in charge of the mentorship programs, led the showcase.
The Linux Foundation's mentorship program aims to assist beginners in the field of open source development by providing resources, guidance, and support to help them get started. The program recognizes that beginners often need help identifying what they want to do, how to get started, and where to find resources and help.
In the first video segment, Khan discusses three beginners' struggles when trying to learn something new or change career direction.
- Figuring out what beginners are passionate about and what they enjoy doing in the long or short term.
- Determining how to get started, as code bases can be complex, and communities can be intimidating.
- Finding resources and who to reach out to without appearing rude or being turned away.
LFX Mentorship provides resources for new developers to get started and determine where they want to contribute. These resources include learning paths and interactive webinars through the LF Live Mentorship Series with experts.
Additionally, LF Research published a report on Mentorship in Open Source that provides feedback from graduates from 2019 to 2021. The report helps to improve the mentorship programs and learning resources across the open source community.
Once mentees complete a mentorship program, they can participate in the Mentorship Showcase.
The graduates recall their mentorship experiences
Sanskar Bhushan, one of the graduates, discusses his mentorship experience while working on collaborative cloud native environments. He explains that collaboration is key to success, provides value, and discusses different ways to collaborate and how they work.
Bhushan then discusses the problem of using the emacs text editor, which can be painful due to the many binding keys. LFX Mentorship is also looking into automating some Linux projects using bare metal.
In another segment of the Showcase, several more graduates shared their experiences and what they had learned through the mentorship program.
One mentee shared their experience working on an open source project, optimizing a linear algebra library for high-performance computing. Another mentee discussed their work on a microservices project, focusing on protocols and message handling.
Another mentee, Abdul Rafi, shared his experience in the Linux kernel mentorship program. He explains his challenges, such as understanding Linux kernel internals and debugging remote processes. He also emphasizes skills such as C programming practices and utilizing GDB.
Perhaps most inspiring of all, Abdul also expressed gratitude for his mentor's guidance and support.
More advice from Shuah Khan on making the most of mentorship
With so many open source projects and technologies available, choosing where to start can be challenging, if not outright intimidating.
One way to overcome this challenge is participating in the Linux Kernel Mentorship – the original mentorship offered by the Linux Foundation – which served as the template for LFX Mentorship. This mentorship connects mentees with experienced Linux kernel developers and mentors who can guide them through understanding and contributing to the Linux kernel. Mentees learn about the challenges of the kernel, how it works, and why bug fixing – another mentorship opportunity beginning in the spring of 2023 – is also important.
Mentees also learn about the power of planning and how it can help them achieve their goals. They learn how to form a team of leaders and collaborate with students from different universities across the globe, receive career advice, and are made aware of specific careers that may be more suited to their personality.
The LF continues to improve its programs by surveying graduates and implementing their suggestions, recognizing that access to resources is a barrier for many people, and strives to provide the resources needed for individuals to get started in open source.
Overall, the LFX Mentorship Showcase is an excellent opportunity for beginners to connect with experienced mentors and learn about the open source ecosystem. It provides an opportunity for mentees to learn about different projects and technologies and to develop their skills and knowledge in a supportive and collaborative environment. The program also helps mentees to connect with potential employers and advance their careers in the open source ecosystem.
Conclusion
The LFX Mentorship Showcase provides valuable insights into the mentorship programs offered and the struggles that beginners face when trying to learn something new. The resources provided by LFX, such as learning paths and interactive webinars, can help to overcome these struggles and provide a better understanding of open source projects. Collaboration is the key to success. nd And as the Mentorship Showcase illustrates, these programs provide a lot of value, so if you or your organization are not already involved, join us!
Resources
The Mentorship in Open Source report, written by Linux Foundation Editorial Director Jason Perlow, helps understand why we need mentorship programs, their ongoing challenges, the economic benefits for mentees, and how we can improve them.
