I will not be taking the lead this year, so if you want to help guide the kids, this is a great opportunity to help LibreHealth.
We can go one of two routes:
We can operate under Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), the upshot is that we don’t have to manage things ourselves and alleviates a lot of responsibility(It is an immense amount of work). The upshot is that DIAL is run by @downey along with a wonderful team, and I trust them wholeheartedly, they also have a lot of experience doing this. We get people doing the administrative work for us, all we have to worry about is ensuring there are adequate tasks available. There still needs to be a point person responsible for LibreHealth task curation.
Or we apply ourselves. Google tends to try to get newer orgs in, so by working under DIAL, we are also making room for newer organizations that would have otherwise not been selected due to space.
The TL;DR:
Organization applications open on Thursday, October 10 at 1700 UTC
Accepted organizations are announced on Monday, October 28 at 1700 UTC
The contest begins for students on Monday, December 2 at 1800 UTC and ends on Thursday, January 23, 2020, at 1800 UTC.
Note: This runs during the holidays, expect a lot of activity as students will have off from school and be on vacation at that time.
What is needed from the community as far as mentors go is:
AT LEAST 2 org admins that are NOT hands-off – you need to be willing to switch off with each other so none of you don’t burn out. This is too much for one admin to do.
A good handful of mentors from various time zones
The only way this can happen is if we have at least 2 active Organization Admins and enough mentors for 24/7 coverage.
Please be aware GCI will start about a month later than last year (back to the timeline we have been using for most of the first 8 years of the contest) - the contest starts for students Monday, December 2nd.
The only major change for GCI 2019 is the Finalists selections at the end of the contest. When orgs select their 6 Finalists we will ask you to further rank the 6 Finalists into 3 groups:
Select 2 as Grand Prize Winners (receive grand prize trip, GCI backpack, GCI jacket, tshirt and certificate)
Select 2 as Runners-up (receive GCI backpack, GCI jacket, tshirt and certificate)
Select 2 as Finalists (receive GCI jacket, tshirt and certificate)
This is an important change from last year that is worth reiterating: No tasks asking for personal information about students will be allowed (this includes tasks asking for students to introduce themselves with info like what country they are from, or photos of the students, etc.).
Please register your interest in the following poll
One note: To be a mentor, you must also be a active LibreHealth contributor already by the time the program begins.
Yes, I will be Org Admin (this is a lot of work – you are also a mentor in this context)
I was talking about contributions to the organisation for GCI 2019. As mentioned above to be a mentor for GCI 2019, I should contribute to the organisation. That’s why I asked. It was not for outreachy.
Most of our mentors have contributed either through GSoC, GCI or Outreachy projects. Once they’ve completed the project satisfactorily, they can usually be accepted as a mentor.
The issue is that the first steps in planning is task writing for the kids and that requires knowledge of how LibreHealth operates and what the needs of our member projects are, as well as the organization as a whole. This is why we have the requirement that you be an established member.
Right now, the program cannot go forward as there is currently nobody leading it. To both lead it and mentor, you have to have been contributing for I’d say at least a few months prior to the program being announced and have made non-trivial contributions during that time. We have mentors currently, but nobody to lead it for LibreHealth. These contribution can bes documentation by the way, but again needs to be more than just typo fixes.
Hello @r0bbyI have made Contributions to Librehealth EHR in the past, as well as Completed GSOC2019(With another organization) Hopefully am eligible for mentorship this year.
@muarachmann you are taking up the org admin role right?
Heyo! I would be down to mentor this year for LibreHealth. I can help the beginners and answer questions they have about GCI in the IRC throughout the competition.
This is not an easy post for me to make, but we will not be participating in Google Code-in 2019. This will be the first year in the 10 years the program has run that I personally will have no involvement. This is emotionally hard for me to accept, but we as an organization do not have what we need to be successful.
I want to explain why we’re not doing it this year. We did not arrive at this decision lightly, but we do not have enough mentors, and we have no backup organization admin aside from @muarachmann, which is not enough at all. This program is immensely stressful and taxing. I know from experience that it takes AT LEAST two to three organization admins, and around a dozen mentors so that people can take breaks.
I know from experience that burn-out is a thing and it happens with Google Code-in. I always remember the awesome kids, and the stress fades into the background, but nonetheless, unless we have enough support, it is wise to sit-out. We will evaluate Google Code-in 2020 when the time comes. While @muarachmann volunteered to be an organization admin, I would still need to be on-hand to help and advise, and I do not have the energy to do it. Additionally, there is the factor of inexperience, and Google Code-in is a program where you have to be on-hand and very much active – and that is taxing. This is not me saying that I have any doubts they could do it, but I am going based on experience. This is a 7-week contest and students expect responses IMMEDIATELY. I am not willing to take that risk and put their mental health at risk.
Google Code-in requires a lot of work behind the scenes to even get off the ground. Tasks have to be written in a way that a 13-14-year-old can understand and, this also requires managing both the students and mentors.
Hey Robby. Thanks for this message. I think it’s probably a good call. Just about every org seems to take a year off from GCI from time to time, so it’s not surprising. We can’t all be 100% energy 100% of the time. And obviously things like Outreachy are going on too, so there will be plenty of interesting things happening through the year end.
