Google Code-in/Admins/Email templates

Email templates used by organization administrators before or throughout the contest.

Email to previous year's mentors before the contest starts

Example email from September 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

[Wikimedia GCI Mentors] Google Code-in 2018: Will you mentor again?

[Email addresses in BCC, for privacy reasons]

Hi GCI 2017 mentors!

You receive this message because you were a Wikimedia mentor in last year's Google Code-in 2017.

Please ignore this email if you are already aware of GCI 2018 or if you have already signed up as a mentor for GCI 2018.

GCI 2018 will start soon. We are looking for mentors and tasks. Maybe you've already seen https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2018-September/090799.html

Will you join again and mentor tasks to help new contributors?

If your project uses Wikimedia Phabricator: Please do already start tagging tasks you'd mentor, by adding the #google-code-in-2018 tag. We need a good number of tasks already next week when Google decides which organizations to accept! And add yourself as a mentor on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/2018

Also: Please spread the word and ask people. We need lots of tasks!

We also still need more org admins, otherwise this cannot take place. If you have a good general overview of Wikimedia and if enjoy boring work, please check https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Admins

Thanks in advance!

Email to recent Summer of Code and Outreachy mentors before the contest starts

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Example email from September 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

Google Code-in 2018: Will you mentor for Wikimedia?

[Email addresses in BCC, for privacy reasons]

Hi,

You receive this message because you have recently been an Outreachy or Summer of Code mentor for Wikimedia.

Please ignore this email if you are already aware of GCI 2018 or if you have already signed up as a mentor for GCI 2018.

GCI 2018 will start soon. It is an annual contest for 13-17 year old students. We are looking for mentors and tasks. Maybe you've already seen https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2018-September/090799.html

Does the code that you mentored welcome some more work? Are there some small tasks that you would mentor, to help new contributors join our Wikimedia community? If so, please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/2018

If you have any questions, please ask on the Talk page.

Also: Please spread the word! We need lots of tasks and mentors!

Thanks in advance!

Email to recent Summer of Code and Outreachy students before the contest starts

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Example email from September 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

Google Code-in 2018: Will you mentor for Wikimedia?

[Email addresses in BCC, for privacy reasons]

Hi,

You receive this message because you have participated in Outreachy or Summer of Code for Wikimedia in the last nine months.

Please ignore this email if you are already aware of GCI 2018 or if you have already signed up as a mentor for GCI 2018.

Do you enjoy giving something back and helping new contributors get started?

Does the code that you worked on need some more work? Are there some small tasks that you would mentor, to help new contributors join our Wikimedia community? If so, please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/2018

If you have any questions, please ask on the Talk page.

Also: Please spread the word! We need lots of tasks and mentors!

Thanks in advance!

Email to last year's top GCI students before the contest starts

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Example email from September 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

Google Code-in 2018: Will you mentor for Wikimedia (or take part again)?

[Email addresses in BCC, for privacy reasons]

Hi,

Please ignore this email if you are already aware of GCI 2018.

You receive this message because you participated in Google Code-in 2017 with Wikimedia. We do not know how old you are - maybe you cannot take part anymore this time as a student, but you could become a mentor? :) As every year, Wikimedia is looking for mentors and tasks. GCI 2018 will start soon. Maybe you've already seen https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2018-September/090799.html

Do you enjoy the idea of mentoring some smaller tasks in areas that you feel comfortable in, and to give something back? :) If so, please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/2018 and add yourself as a mentor!

You can already tag tasks in Wikimedia Phabricator that you can imagine to mentor, by adding the #google-code-in-2018 tag. We need a good number of tasks already next week when Google decides which organizations to accept.

If you have any questions, please ask on the Talk page.

Thanks a lot in advance for considering, and again thanks for your great work in GCI 2017!

First email to mentors right before the contest starts

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Example email from November 2019, sent to google-code-in-mentors and google-code-in-admins

Important Google Code-in Wikimedia Mentor info (~5min read)

Hi fellow Wikimedia Google Code-in (GCI) mentors!

Welcome to our (non-public) Mentors list. Org admins will send info for Wikimedia mentors here, and you're also welcome to discuss here. :) Org admins this year are Derick, Étienne, Florian, Gopa, Martin, and I.

This email includes important info. Please take the time to read it.

And if you have not yet, please also do read https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Mentors !

In one week, GCI 2019 will start for students. It will run for seven weeks. Once again a big big Thank You for mentoring for Wikimedia!

INFO SESSION FOR FIRST TIME MENTORS:

If you have never mentored before and have questions or want to talk: We plan to have two optional "Google Hangout" sessions:

Monday December 02, 13:30 UTC: <URL>
Monday December 02, 18:00 UTC: <URL>

(If there is also interest in an IRC session, please express it!)

Of course you can also contact the Wikimedia org admins via email at <google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org> for comments / questions. Please let us know, we're here to help!

WORKFLOW (CREATING & REVIEWING YOUR TASKS):

Feel free to directly create your tasks on the GCI site, at any time. We always must have ≥50 open unique tasks over these seven weeks. An org admin has to take another look at a task before publishing it. Org admins might not publish all your tasks immediately (as we don't want you to stress out having to review all your tasks within the same 24-36h hours, and we want to keep a good variety of tasks available).

Regarding good task descriptions, please imagine absolute newcomers, someone who has no knowledge at all. We know this is hard! Most of us are probably used to already having an account on mediawiki.org or Phabricator, for example, but the students might not. If you expect students to already have some knowledge, clearly say so - help students to understand and judge if they have the skills to work on your task, to avoid disappointment on both sides. You will likely deal with both absolute newcomers who might need a lot of help and overestimate their skills (it is okay to recommend trying an easier task first!) and also stellar skilled students who might overfulfill your expectations.

For tasks with several instances, note that a student can only claim exactly one instance of such a task. If you want a student to be able to work on another instance, we can create separate copies of the task (e.g. suffix number in title) instead of increasing its instance count.

After a student has claimed a task and has clicked "Submit for review", within 36 hours, you MUST either click "Approve task" or "More work needed" (plus you can also give more time to the student). Please note: The GCI site does not know about your patch review in Github or Gerrit. So please make sure to also update the task on the GCI site, so we don't get angry emails from Google! :)

Org admins will try to make sure mentors have "enough" tasks published. We hope to keep a good overview, but feel free to ping us at any time.

YOUR AVAILABILITY:

If some students are pushy and ping you for reviews because they understand GCI as a competition, feel free to remind them that patience is a virtue, that we are after quality and not quantity, and that we are humans having other jobs, real-life, or even have to sleep.

Mentors do have 24h of time to review and reply to questions until Google will send a reminder email, and a maximum of 36h in total.

If you plan to be off for a weekend or take holidays, please either do tell us via email at <google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org> so we can unpublish your tasks, or we can also add additional co-mentors to a task if you have somebody in mind.

When you create a task and know beforehand that you won't be available, simply put a "[DONT PUBLISH BEFORE 20191231]" prefix or such into the task summary.

Any registered mentor can add themselves as a co-mentor to existing tasks. If you do that, please be aware that you MUST understand the code base sufficiently enough to review the work of the student - if in doubt, please let the "primary" mentor(s) decide instead.

MISC:

As we'll need to choose "winners" at the end, please take notes on any remarkable work or aspects that help us decide. We'll ask again. :)

Google has also published some "Mentor Responsibilities" at https://developers.google.com/open-source/gci/help/responsibilities . It's linked from https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Mentors

Feel free to also review Google's Mentor Email Archive for any tips from Google which they have sent over the last month: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wYomItBtyia3KFD6w7IRejGmuid-RnYtoYN_FdYO_98/edit?usp=sharing

YOUR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS:

If there are any issues with students (such as plagiarism) please do let the org admins know.

If you run into technical issues or bugs on the GCI website, please contact Google via email at <gci-support@google.com>.

And if you like mentoring students in Google Code-in, please tell others in our community - we can create more tasks (which we will need!) and invite more mentors at any time in the next seven weeks.

Again, thank you a lot for joining these crazy seven weeks!

On behalf of the org admins, andre

Contacting mentors without any tasks

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Got any Wikimedia tasks for Google Code-in? Or something we can help with?

[Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

Hi,

again thanks for being a Wikimedia mentor for Google Code-in!

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Mentors

You receive this email as there seem to be no tasks yet with you as a mentor on the GCI site.

If you're still busy with other things, that's fine: You can create tasks at any time during the contest (and we will need many more). The last day for students to claim a task will be January 21st.

But if you already have a task in mind, please go ahead and create it on the GCI site (or tag it with #GCI-2019 and state that you'll mentor it, so we can help import)!

Do you need ideas for tasks to mentor?

We have a few tasks under "Missing mentors" on the GCI-2019 workboard at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/google-code-in-2019/
We have about 330 open #good_first_task's in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/awrjOE8vQnZL/#R (some of them might need clearer instructions for newcomers though)
Maybe a task about fixing/adding unit tests, improving code coverage?

You are also welcome to add yourself as a co-mentor to existing tasks (note that you must understand the task sufficiently enough to review the student's work. If in doubt, please don't add yourself and let the "primary" mentor(s) decide instead).

If we can help or if anything is unclear, please do let us know at <google-code-in-admins lists.wikimedia.org>!

Thanks a lot for your help and mentoring!

andre

Email to mentors two weeks before the contest ends

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Example email from November 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

[Wikimedia GCI Mentors] 2½ more weeks and 3 requests

Hi Wikimedia GCI mentors!

I hope you're doing fine, enjoy GCI, and have great students! :)

Some deadlines to be aware of:

Mon, Dec10 17:00UTC - Students can claim their final task. (Expect increased student activity in these last days!)
Wed, Dec12 17:00UTC - Students to submit their work. In the next 24h, mentors must approve or reject. You can't 'request more work'.
Thu, Dec27 17:00UTC - Wikimedia must have chosen its Grand Prize Winners and finalists
Mon, Jan07 17:00UTC - All winners get announced by Google

And three requests to all mentors:

1) DO SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT STUDENTS! We need your help to choose our Grand Prize Winners and finalists from our 20 students who resolved the most tasks. Please do already share your feedback about remarkable students in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T206928 ! That's a non-public task. I hope I've added all mentors to have access to that task. If you cannot access it, please ping me!

2) If you have [more] task ideas not on the site yet: Now is the time!

3) Feel free to think about or already share what Wikimedia can do better, in public task https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T205328 What's good? What to improve? Share ideas and impressions! And as every year I also wonder how to keep more students more involved in our projects after GCI has ended. Adding comments in their last GCI tasks pointing to the list of tasks offered by your project? Any thoughts? They are welcome in that Phab task! For 2017, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Lessons_learned#2017

Thank you for your help!

Email to mentors after contest has ended

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Example email from January 2020. [to org mentors; org admins in "BCC"]

GCI 2019: Your feedback; Save/copy any work; Thanks!

GCI 2019 has come to an end. Thanks so much for having mentored and been available for the last seven weeks!

GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK ON REMARKABLE STUDENTS:

We need your help: Within the next seven days, org admins must choose 2 winners, 2 runners up, and 2 more finalists from our 20 students who resolved the most tasks. Please do share your feedback about remarkable students in the non-public task https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T242205 . Please email <google-code-in-admins > if you cannot access that task!

GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK WHAT TO IMPROVE:

What was good (socially & technically)? What to improve? Which tasks should we have offered but were missing? Which tasks did not get picked up and do you have a theory why? Where did students struggle? Share your ideas and impressions: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Lessons_learned#2019

SAVE ANY WORK THAT IS ONLY ON THE GCI WEBSITE:

If you have students' work only attached in a task instance on the GCI website, you must copy that work over or it will get lost! Last year, Google started deleting data in March.

WHAT ELSE?

Google will likely ask us soon to choose one mentor to invite to a weekend in California with the Grand Prize winners. No exact dates known yet. Last time that weekend was in June. Just warning you. :)

SOME WIKIMEDIA NUMBERS FOR THE CURIOUS:

To be posted at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Code-in/Statistics

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: A BIG THANK YOU!

GCI only works because you volunteer to mentor, find and provide tasks, provide a helping hand. As every year, it has been great. I hope you had the same fun and that you received good and helpful contributions!

Email to most active students after contest has ended about Wikimedia Hackathons

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Example email from December 2018. [Students in "BCC" for privacy]

[GCI] Heads up: Wikimedia Hackathon, Prague (Czech Rep), 17-19 May 2019

[Email recipients in BCC for privacy]

Hi,

you receive this email because you were among Wikimedia's most active contributors in Google Code-in 2018 (thanks again!).

Wikimedia will have a Hackathon in Prague (Czech Rep) on May 17–19: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2019

Such events are a great opportunity to meet many people in person with who you have worked online. If this sounds interesting, please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2019/Register_and_Attend for more information. Also note that the deadline for scholarship applications will be soon.

Email to mentors after winners have been announced

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Example email from February 2018. [Mentors in "BCC" for privacy; org admins in "To"]

[Wikimedia GCI Mentors] Feedback to Google; Save students' work; Grand Prize winners trip

Hi Wikimedia GCI mentors!

Our winners have been announced: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2018/01/google-code-in-2017-winners.html Grand Prize winners: Albert Wolszon and Nikita Volobuiev. Finalists: David Siedtmann, Rafid Aslam, and Yifei He.

PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO GOOGLE:

Google asks us to "Please take a few minutes to fill out our post-GCI feedback survey: (Add URL here) We read all of the comments. It's a very important tool as we strive to continuously improve and grow the contest. Your feedback is instrumental to that process. Thank you in advance for any feedback, ideas, or comments."

SAVE WORK THAT IS ON THE GCI WEBSITE:

If you have students' work only attached in a task instance on the GCI website, please do get the work out soon. On March 15th when Google will start deleting data of the GCI 2017 program.

ONE MENTOR TO VISIT GOOGLE FOR A WEEKEND:

After February 10th Google will also ask us to define and send one mentor (it should be a mentor the students interacted with) to the Google headquarters for a weekend with the Grand Prize winners. No exact dates known yet. Same procedure as in the last years, and same unclear steps how to decide who to attend. :P I've created https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T186600 to not forget.