July 9th PDX11 Mentor Network Hackathon results

[Bryan Jacobson]

PDX11 Mentor Network
July 9th Hackathon: “Sprint 1 – The initial basic version” At Puppet
Labs

Summary of Results
- Something like 40 people contributed throughout the day.
- Defined a “bare minimum” Mentor Network website.
- Implemented and demo’d the bare minimum website by the end of the
day!
- Captured 30 requirements for future development.
- Developed a web-ready “PDX11 Mentor Network Mission Statement” (text
below).
- Developed a wireframe user interface for a great Mentor Network
website: See it at: http://flic.kr/p/a3VviH .
- Captured 33 “I want to learn”, or “I can help people learn”
statements from participants.

Next Steps
- July 19th 5:30 pm at Urban Airship: PDX11 Mentor Network General
Meeting http://calagator.org/events/1250460690.
- We’ll plan the next hackathon in about a month.
- Developers and contributors: Be sure to join the Google group “PDX11
Mentor Development” http://groups.google.com/group/pdx11-mentor-development?hl=en
It will be used to plan the next hackathon.
- People interested in Mentoring and learning from Mentors can join
the Pilot program at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3956973&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Tremendous Thanks to:
- All the hackers! Especially Reid Beels (ePDX/Citizenry maintainer),
Igal Koshevoy, Jacob Helwig, Christie Koehler, Mark Tabler and all the
others I should mention.
- All the other contributors! Especially Alex Linksker (facilitated
development of the web-ready mission statement), Sheetal Dube (user
experience skills working on the wireframe), Tamsen Galloway (PDX11
Mentor Network chair), and Skip Newberry (Portland Mayor’s office).
- Puppet Labs for hosting the hackathon. Especially Jose Palafox our
event coordinator.
- Portland Development Commission for providing food, and especially
our PDC manager Chris Harder.


*** Details ***

- Vision & Requirements: Started with a discussion on the overall
vision for the Mentor Network website and requirements.
* I captured about 30 requirements.
* A lot of discussion on “structured data” – specific skills and
topics to match people looking for Mentors to the right Mentor.
* Importance of leveraging what LinkedIn and other resources have
done to categorize skills.
* I will capture these in a requirements file, check the file into
the Citizenry (ePDX) source code, and post it to the PDX11 mailing
list and PDX Mentor Development google group.

- Sprint 1: Defined the “Bare Minimum Mentoring Website” goal for
today’s hackathon:
* Add to Citizenry (the source base for ePDX.org).
* Opt-in as a Mentee (Learner)
* What you want to learn (plain text)
* View list of Mentees
* Opt-in as a Mentor
* What you can help people learn (plain text)
* List Mentors

- Hacking:
* Something like 20 developers hacked throughout most of the day.
* Several improvements were made to the Citizenry (ePDX.org) source
base to make it easier for other developers to contribute.
* Near the end of the day Mark Tabler demo’d for me the “bare
minimum” Mentor network website functionality we’d define for Sprint
1.
* Reid Beels expects to put this into production on ePDX within a
few days, along with linking people’s ePDX profile to their LinkedIn
and Twitter accounts.


- Mentor Pilot Program: I captured 33 “I want to learn”, “I can help
people learn” statements from participants. I will record these
(without names and emails) along with the requirements, as examples.
I will send Pilot program invites to the email addresses.

- Mission Statement: Many people worked on the text of a short
description of the PDX11 Mentoring program. The website will use this
to indicate what people are “opting into”. It will link to more
information. The result:
Welcome! The PDX11 Mentoring Network connects people to peers and
seasoned experts in the Portland area software community. By enabling
access to relevant local resources, we are building a networked and
sustainable software industry here in Portland.
How? One-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, or less formal “meet and
greet” events.
Be a mentor, find a mentor, or be both!
How does this work? Visual tour.
* I will work with Reid to use this “Mission Statement” on the
website.

Best regards,
-- Bryan Jacobson