This post is also an experiment in using AI generated summaries to provide useful, at-a-glance summaries of key Fedora topics. Parts of this content may display inaccurate info, including about people, so double-check with the source material.

Source material: discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/report-from-infra-and-releng-hackfest-at-flock2024/128743

Key Topics 🔗

• Standards for OpenShift app deployments: There’s a need for consistency in deploying applications to OpenShift. The group discussed creating best practices documentation and addressing deployment methods across various applications.

• Infra SIG packages: The workshop reviewed the “infra-sig” package group and identified a need to:

  • Find owners for orphaned packages.

  • Onboard new maintainers using Packit.

  • Remove inactive members from the group.

• Release engineering packages: The group agreed to add a list of release engineering packages to the infra-sig for better management.

• Proxy network: Discussion about potentially migrating the proxy network from httpd to nginx or gunicorn remained inconclusive. Further discussion is needed.

• AWS management with Ansible: The feasibility of managing AWS infrastructure with Ansible is uncertain due to limitations with the main Amazon account.

• Onboarding improvements: The group discussed ways to improve the onboarding process for new contributors, including documentation updates, marketing efforts, and “Hello” days after each release.

• OpenShift apps deployment info: A tutorial on deploying applications to OpenShift was presented and will be incorporated into the documentation.

• Future considerations: The group discussed upcoming challenges like GitLab Forge migration, Bugzilla migration, and a new Matrix server.

• Retiring wiki pages: The group needs to decide where to migrate user-facing documentation from the wiki. Additionally, someone needs to review and archive/migrate/delete existing wiki pages in the “Category:Infrastructure” section.

• Datagrepper access for CommOps: A solution was proposed to provide CommOps with access to community metrics data by setting up a separate database in AWS RDS and populating it with recent Datagrepper dumps.

• ARA in infrastructure: While AWX deployment offers similar reporting features, setting up ARA remains an option if someone has the time and interest.

• AWX deployment: Roadblocks related to the public/private Ansible repository structure were identified. A proof of concept using AWX will be pursued to determine if repository restructuring is necessary.

• Zabbix integration: The group discussed moving forward with Zabbix to replace Nagios. Action items include setting up a bot channel for alerts, adjusting alerts based on comparison with Nagios, and considering an upgrade to the next LTS version.

Action Items 🔗

• Create comments in each application playbook explaining its deployment method.

• Move all apps using deploymentconfig to deployment with OpenShift 4.16.

• Look into deploying Advanced Cluster Security (ACS) for improved visibility into container images.

• Create a “best practices” guide for deploying applications in OpenShift clusters.

• Find individuals interested in helping with orphaned packages and onboarding new maintainers for the infra-sig package group.

• Create a list of release engineering packages for inclusion in the infra-sig.

• Continue discussions on migrating the proxy network and managing AWS infrastructure with Ansible.

• Update onboarding documentation, implement marketing strategies for attracting contributors, and organize “Hello” days for new members.

• Archive/migrate/delete wiki pages in the “Category:Infrastructure” section.

• Work on tickets to set up a separate database for CommOps Datagrepper access.

• Investigate the feasibility of setting up ARA in infrastructure.

• Stand up a proof of concept for AWX deployment and discuss potential repository restructuring.

• Set up a Zabbix bot channel for alerts, adjust alerts based on comparisons with Nagios, and consider upgrading to the next LTS version.

Overall, the workshop was a success, with productive discussions and a clear list of action items to move forward.

Note: The workshop lacked remote participation due to network limitations. The source material encourages readers to express interest in helping with the action items.

Today is May 2nd, 2024. The Outreachy May 2024 round results will be published in a few short hours. This year, the participation in Fedora for Outreachy May 2024 was record-breaking. Fedora will fund three internships this year. During the application and contribution phase, over 150 new contributors appeared in our Mentored Project contribution channels. For the project I am mentoring specifically, 38 applicants recorded contributions and 33 applicants submitted final applications. This is my third time mentoring, but this Outreachy May 2024 round has been a record-breaker for all the projects I have mentored until now.

But breaking records is not what this letter is about.

This day can be either enormously exciting and enormously disappointing. It is a tough day for me. There are so many Outreachy applicants who are continuing to contribute after the final applications were due. I see several applicants from my project who are contributing across the Fedora community, and actually leveling up to even bigger contributions than the application period. It is exciting to see people grow in their confidence and capabilities in an Open Source community like Fedora. Mentoring is a rewarding task for me, and I feel immensely proud of the applicants we have had in the Fedora community this round.

But the truth is difficult. Fedora has funding for three interns, hard and simple. Hard decisions have to be made. If I had unlimited funding, I would have hired so many of our applicants. But funding is not unlimited. Three people will receive great news today, and most people will receive sad news. Throughout this entire experience in the application phase, I wanted to design me and Joseph Gayoso’s project so that even folks who were not selected would have an enriching experience. We wanted to put something real in the hands of our applicants at the end. We also wanted to boost their confidence in showing up in a community and guide them on how to roll up your sleeves and get started. Looking at the portfolios that applicants to our project submitted, I admire how far our applicants came since the day that projects were announced. Most applicants never participated in an open source community before. And for some, you would never have known that either!

So, if you receive the disappointing news today, remember that it does not reflect badly on you. The Outreachy May 2024 round was incredibly competitive. Literally, record-breaking. We have to say no to many people who have proved that they have what it takes to be a capable Fedora Outreachy intern. I hope you can look at all the things you learned and built over these past few months, and use this as a step-up to the next opportunity awaiting you. Maybe it is an Outreachy internship in a future round, or maybe it is something else. If there is anything I have learned, it is that life takes us on the most unexpected journeys sometimes. And whatever is meant to happen, will happen. I believe that there is a reason for everything, but we may not realize what that reason is until much later in the future.

Thank you to all of the Fedora applicants who put in immense effort over the last several months. I understand if you choose to stop contributing to Fedora. I hope that you will not be discouraged from open source generally though, and that you will keep trying. If you do choose to continue contributing to Fedora, I promise we will find a place for you to continue on. Regardless of your choice in contributing, keep shining and be persistent. Don’t give up easily, and remember that what you learned in these past few months can give a leading edge on that next opportunity waiting around the corner for you.

Freedom, Friends, Features, First!

— Justin

During this round, my co-mentor Joseph Gayoso and I experimented with new approaches at handling the tsunami wave. There are two competing forces at play. One, you need to provide engagement to top performers so they remain motivated to continue. Two, you need to provide new opportunities for emerging contributors to distinguish themselves. It is easier to do one of these but hard to do both simultaneously. However, Joseph and I agreed on something important. We agreed that all applicants should end the contribution phase with something practically useful. As mentors, we asked ourselves how to prepare applicants to be successful open source contributors beyond this one month.

In this article, you will get some practical takeaways for mentoring with Outreachy. First, I will share our practical approach for structuring and planning an open source project during the Outreachy contribution phase. Second, I will detail the guiding philosophy Joseph and I follow for how we planned the contribution phase.

About Outreachy 🔗

This article assumes you already know a thing or two about the Outreachy internship program. If not, Outreachy provides internships in open source and open science. Outreachy provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they live. You can read more on the Outreachy website.

What makes Outreachy unique is that the internships are remote and often open without geographic or nationality constraints. Applicants from nearly every continent of the world have participated in Outreachy. Also, Outreachy is distinguished by the contribution phase. For a one-month period, approved Outreachy applicants are encouraged to participate in the project community as a contributor. Applicants spend the month learning about the project, the community, the mentors, and the work involved for the internship. This provides applicants an opportunity to grow their open source identity. It also gives mentors an opportunity to assess applicants on their skills and communication abilities.

However, this contribution phase can be intimidating as a mentor, especially if you are new to mentoring with Outreachy. A wave of people eager to contribute could suddenly appear overnight at your project’s door steps. If you are not prepared, you will have to adapt quickly!

Pre-Requisite Tasks: Raising the Outreachy bar 🔗

My co-mentor and I knew that a wave of applicants was coming. However, we didn’t expect the wave to be as big as it was. After the first week of the contribution phase, we knew we needed a better way to scale ourselves. We were limited in our person-power. The approach we took to addressing the mental overload was defining pre-requisite tasks.

We defined pre-requisite tasks as tasks that any applicant MUST complete in order to be considered eligible for our internship. Without completing these tasks, we explained that final applications would not be accepted by mentors. The defining characteristics of these pre-requisite tasks were that they were personalized, repeatable, and measurable. We came up with five pre-requisite tasks that all applicants were required to complete beyond the initial qualification for Outreachy:

1. Set up your Fedora Account System (FAS) account

2. Set up a personal blog

3. Write a blog post that introduces the Fedora community to your audience

4. Promote your intro blog post on social media

5. Write an onboarding guide for Outreachy 2025 applicants

How were initial contributions personalized? 🔗

Each of these tasks were personalized to each applicant. They each have a unique account profile, with their pictures, time zones, and chat system usernames. The personal blog is a personal space on the Internet for each applicant to start writing new posts. The blog post prompts encouraged applicants to start filling up their blogs with Fedora content. The social media post helped applicants promote themselves as budding open source enthusiasts in their existing web spaces.

This approach had two benefits. First, it provided clear guidance to all newcomers and early-stage applicants on how to get started with contributing to Fedora for the Outreachy internship. This took a burden off of mentors answering the same questions about getting started. It also gave new applicants something to start on right away. Joseph and I were able to put more time into reviewing incoming contributions and brainstorming new tasks.

Portfolio-driven submissions for Outreachy 🔗

Toward the third week, many applicants had completed the pre-requisite tasks and were ready for more advanced tasks. Many had already taken on advanced projects already, beyond the pre-requisite tasks. Although the pre-requisite tasks did reduce the applicant pool, there were still between 20-30 people who completed them all. Again, the approach had to adapt as our ability to keep up with new contributions slowed down.

From here, we encouraged applicants to build personal portfolio pages that described their contributions with Fedora. This encouraged applicants to use the blog they built in the previous tasks, although they are not required to use their blog to host their portfolio. The only requirement we added was that it should be publicly visible on the Internet without a paywall. So, no Google Docs. Most applicants have ended up using their blog for this purpose though.

How did a portfolio help? 🔗

Building a portfolio solved multiple challenges for our Outreachy project at once. First, the portfolios will simplify how the project mentors review final applications after the deadline on April 2nd, 2024. It will be streamlined because we will have a single place we can refer to that describes the applicant’s achievements. It gives us a quick, easily shareable place to review and share with other stakeholders.

Second, it ends up being something useful to the applicant as well. The portfolio page captures a month’s worth of contributions to open source. For many applicants, this is their first time ever interacting with an open source community online. So, it is a big deal to block out a month of time to volunteer on a project in a competitive environment for a paid, remote internship opportunity. Writing a portfolio page gives applicants the confidence to represent their contributions to Fedora, regardless of whether they are selected for the Fedora internship. It becomes a milestone marker for themselves and for their professional careers.

Our philosophy: You win, we win. 🔗

This idea of applicants building something that is useful for themselves underpins the approach that Joseph and I took on structuring our non-engineering Outreachy internship. If I had to summarize the philosophy in one sentence, it might be like this:

Everyone who participants as an Outreachy applicant to Fedora should finish the contribution phase with more than they had at the start of the contribution phase.

myself

Our philosophy can be applied to engineering and non-engineering internships. However, applying the philosophy to our non-engineering project required improvisation as we went. There are examples of design-centered Outreachy internships, but I have not seen a marketing or community manager internship before. This was a challenge because there were not great models to follow. But it also left us room to innovate and try ideas that we have never tried before.

Adopting this philosophy served as helpful guidance on planning what we directed applicants to do during the contribution phase. It allowed us to think through ways that applicants could make real, recognizable contributions to Fedora. It also enables applicants to achieve a few important outcomes:

1. Get real experience in a real project.

2. Build their own brand as open source contributors.

3. Gain confidence at collaborating in a community.

The contribution phase is not yet over. So, we will continue to follow this philosophy and see where it guides us into the end of this phase!

Share your Outreachy mentoring experience! 🔗

Have you experienced or seen a marketing or community manager internship in Outreachy before? Know a project or a person who has done this? Or is this totally new to you? Drop a comment below with your thoughts. Don’t forget to share with someone else if you found this advice useful.