Outreachy internship FAQ

JupyterHub
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Outreachy questions - answered

The following is a list of questions and answers from the October Hubs team meeting grouped by main topics.

If you have a question, please search it first in this list. It might have been already answered :sunny:

Topics

1. How to contribute

  1. How do I make contributions specifically to Improve Accessibility in JupyterHub?

  2. For the microtask on making web page evaluations using wave, are we going to be allowed to implement the changes in the code base?

    • Not at first, at least, because the HTML is often not in our own repos, which makes it both hard to find and hard for those maintainers to deal with lots of potential patches

  3. Can you make multiple contributions to one micro task?

    • Start with one, leaving room for others to contribute. Then we can follow up as we go

  4. For this contribution period, how many hours can we use to do contribution per day? and is it compulsory to contribute everyday?

    • We encourage you to take time off whenever you feel like needing it
    • It is NOT required to contribute everyday

  5. If I had initially chosen the accessibility project as the project to which I wanted to contribute, should I only work on the accessibility issues? Or can I also work on the other issues and then decide during the internship which project I want to work on?

    • The decision of which intern will work on which project it is made at the beginning of the internship and will not be changed later
    • We encourage working on the mircrotasks associated with the project you want to contribute because these were designed to evaluate the specific, relevant skills
    • If you worked on microtasks specific to a project, but you realize you would like another one more, then yes, you can work on the microtasks associated with this new project.

  6. For interns working on documentation do we need to download any specific tool or just edit directly on the github pages and is the spreadsheet on issue tracker assignment that contains several documentation pages the actual task?

    • Documentation can be edited directly via GitHub’s edit page view without installing additional tools. If you wish to see how changes look, you can use the preview feature after having created a Pull Request. To do that, press the “details” link next to “docs/readthedocs.org:…”.

  7. Apart from the micro task, are we allowed as outreachy applicants to make contributions to other existing issues

    • Yes, especially the ones with the tag “good first issue”
    • It is always ok to begin work on an issue if you feel confident you have all the information required to complete it. The risk of working on issues not explicitly labelled for Outreachy is that they may not contain everything you need to know to complete them.

  8. Is there a timeline to merge contributions?

    • We are doing our best to review all of them in a timely manner.

  9. Do only merged PRs serve as contributions?

    • No, all PRs count as contributions even if they are not merged

  10. Are we to work on only files with no outstanding PRs?

    • It is the preferable, yes. This is because otherwise, you will run into merge conflicts and those can be harder to figure out
    • The issue assignment spreadsheet should help with organizing, but it is not a perfect system

  11. In the case where we have moved our name to the DONE column before our pull request is merged. Is there a way out? Should I move back to the work in progress column?

    • Don’t worry, you can move it back, yes.

  12. And how can I access the first microtask on the diataxis framework?

  13. Those of us working on accessibility, are we supposed to make pull request as well, if yes how do we do that?

    • No PRs are needed as part of the contribution period for the Accessibility project

  14. When can those working on accessibility record their contribution in the done column on the spread sheet?

    • When they have posted the comment in the issue with their report

Recording contributions

  1. What counts as a contribution? For example, does my PR have to be merged for it to be counted as a contribution?

    • No, opening a PR (or issue) counts as a contribution

  2. How do we record the micro task on Outreachy? Since it isn’t a PR that gets merged or an issue that gets accepted, the Outreachy record form requests for a merge or accepted date.

    • Use the link directly to your comment
    • For the second phase, there will be an Issue to link to
    • This is how to copy the link to a GitHub comment and add it as a contribution on the Outreachy site.

  3. Does being active on the forum also contribute to selection

    • Yes, though it should be in addition to the specific microtask(s) for the project

  4. How do we work our way around to deciding the timelines during internship with the mentors because I can see a question related to it on final application

    • Don’t worry too much, do your best to provide a realistic timeline based around what else you know you’ll be working on during the internship. The mentors will work out a more concrete timeline with the successful intern.

  5. How do we go about the final application, what do we need to include into the application?

    • Information about this should be on the Outreachy website

  6. If there is no need for those working on accessibility to make PRs can we then record our contributions as merged?

    • If “merged” is a mandatory field in the application, then you can mark them as merged, if not, provide the same date as the “date contributed” field.

Intern selection criteria

  1. How will be the interns be chosen? Will it be per project, for example: the accessibility one or the documentation one. Or will it be per contribution, as in contributing in multiple projects at once?

    • There will be one intern per project and interns will work on that specific project throughout the entire intership period

  2. Please can you tell us what other criteria of selection as outreachy interns that we don’t know?

    • We don’t have a plan right now, but the selection will happen following a combination of Outreachy criteria Applicant Guide | Outreachy Documentation and the skills demonstrated while completing the microtasks

  3. How many contributions is sufficient for one to be considered for the main internship role.

    • We value quality over quantity
    • It is sufficient to work on the mircrotasks associated with the project

  4. I read two interns are required. Is it per project or in total?

    • It is one intern per project
    • There are currently 3 projects and 2 intern spots, but we can ask Outreachy for funding for a third intern if there are strong candidates for all three projects.

Technical

  1. Still trying to find my way around JupyterHub
    • JupyterHub is a pretty complex project and it is totally understandable and expected to not know everything from the beginning. We are here to help.
  2. Is knowledge of python required for installing JupyterHub?
    • A little bit - you need to know how to install a Python package, but not write any Python code
  3. If one has no knowledge in python will he/she be taught the basics if selected for the actual internship, and are we free to continue on the jupyter project after this contribution phase if not selected?
    • No. The docs and accessibility projects have no need for Python coding, and the testing project requires applicants to have some familiarity with Python.

Misc.

  1. If i make several contributions, and it has not been merged yet, what should i do after recording my contribution, is there a time-line for each contribution to be merged?
    • no formal timeline
    • try reviewing other PRs
    • checkout other Outreachy projects
  2. Is it “master” or “main”? I am working on the documentation. How to check?
    • It depends on the repository
    • The place where to check whether main/master is the default branch of a repository
4 Likes
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Please feel free to add your own questions to this thread if they have not been answered above!

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Thanks @sgibson91 for this summary.

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I think the answer to the 12th Question has to be " Improve a page of JupyterHub documentation #41 " or “Categorise a subset of JupyterHub’s web pages into the Diataxis framework #37”

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Yes, the initial link in the answer was wrong. I have edited the answer just now. Thanks a lot for spotting and reporting it @Poorvaja_Rayas!

1 Like
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Thank you so much for this clarifications @sgibson91

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Thank you for this! You even answered my question haha

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Thank you for this summary, it really did make me feel a bit more calm @sgibson91

1 Like
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Hello @sgibson91 please I sent you a mail. Please can you reply it when you are free to?

Thanks