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Bug 300736

Summary:	Eclipse volunteer page
Product:	Community	Reporter:	Kim Moir <kim.moir>
Component:	Website	Assignee:	phoenix.ui <phoenix.ui-inbox>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P3	CC:	denis.roy, nathan, wayne.beaton
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Windows XP
Whiteboard:

Description Kim Moir

2010-01-25 16:09:04 EST

There have been many discussions in the past about how it's difficult for people to get involved at Eclipse.  I was reading a blog today about community building and it suggested having a volunteer jobs page.

http://www.feverbee.com/2010/01/volunteer-jobs.html

I just looked at the main eclipse.org page and I couldn't see anything like "how I can help".  There is a newcomers page
http://eclipse.org/home/newcomers.php
but it doesn't really say how people can get help.

I think that this page could be something pretty lightweight.  Perhaps it could be generated automatically by submitting bug links in twitter with a common hashtag. 

Ideas for volunteer jobs include
1)Ian's request for a new Eclipse Logo
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=300271
2)PDE team needs help testing M5 this week
http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/pde-dev/msg01655.html
3)Splash screen contests
4) bugs with helpwanted tags etc.

If we used twitter, people could be updated regarding new volunteer opportunities as they become available. I'm sure most projects have small tasks where volunteers would be able to make contributions and increase the number of people involved in the community.

Comment 1 Nathan Gervais

2010-01-25 16:27:21 EST

I'm thinking this could be something that fits in well with Bug 280730

Comment 2 Wayne Beaton

2010-01-26 12:42:10 EST

Keeping this page fresh will be a challenge. Driving it from data (i.e. Bugzilla) is critical to it's success.

Could we argue that this really is a dupe of Bug 280730? I wonder if "volunteer" is more general than "contribute". Do we think that maybe "volunteer to help" makes more sense to an uninitiated outsider than "contribute"? Or are they really two different things?

Comment 3 Nathan Gervais

2010-01-26 13:14:04 EST

(In reply to comment #2)
> Keeping this page fresh will be a challenge. Driving it from data (i.e.
> Bugzilla) is critical to it's success.
> 
> Could we argue that this really is a dupe of Bug 280730? I wonder if
> "volunteer" is more general than "contribute". Do we think that maybe
> "volunteer to help" makes more sense to an uninitiated outsider than
> "contribute"? Or are they really two different things?

There definitely two different things.   Contribute also covers Friends of Eclipse / Donations.  You don't really volunteer your money to help us :D

Also the keeping it fresh aspect could be its downfall.

Comment 4 Kim Moir

2010-01-26 13:25:24 EST

If the page was generated from bugzilla helpwanted tags once a week via cronjob it could be kept fresh. Conversely, if it was a twitter user that people could follow, you could be notified of the new volunteer jobs as they became available.

Comment 5 Eclipse Genie

2014-05-11 18:20:54 EDT

This bug hasn't had any activity in quite some time. Maybe the problem got resolved, was a duplicate of something else, or became less pressing for some reason - or maybe it's still relevant but just hasn't been looked at yet.

If you have further information on the current state of the bug, please add it. The information can be, for example, that the problem still occurs, that you still want the feature, that more information is needed, or that the bug is (for whatever reason) no longer relevant.

--
The automated Eclipse Genie.

Comment 6 Denis Roy

2015-01-23 15:54:05 EST

I think our Contribute page addresses this in the best way we can.  We do have links to the helpwanted bugs.

https://www.eclipse.org/contribute/

Comment 7 Wayne Beaton

2015-01-23 15:54:38 EST

(In reply to Wayne Beaton from comment #2)
> Keeping this page fresh will be a challenge. Driving it from data (i.e.
> Bugzilla) is critical to it's success.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer that I was pretty tired when I wrote this comment and that I'm still kicking myself over the obvious and permanent grammar error.