Are you interested in contributing to Drupal, but don't have the coding skills or experience necessary? Good news, now you have an awesome opportunity to contribute! Drupal is currently in the application process to be a part of the Google Code-In ( http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2013 ) contest for pre-university students ages 13-17. Our current need is building a list of quality tasks for students to work on during the contest. Please realize these don't have to be code related tasks, but should fit into one of the following five categories: Code, Documentation/Training, Outreach/Research, Quality Assurance, User Interface.

The application process started Wednesday October 9th and ends this Friday October 18th. Our goal is to submit an application with at least 25 quality tasks. Please contribue by adding task ideas directly in the wiki ( https://groups.drupal.org/node/348338 ) until midnight UTC-6 Thursday October 17th. After that, we need to see if Drupal is approved for the contest. If approved, we will need help creating, documenting, and mentoring an additional 100-200 tasks. The more tasks we setup the more opportunities we have to contribue to Drupal.

Did you know that organizations accepted into the GCI contest send the top two students on an all expense paid 5 day trip to Google in Mountain View with a parent/guardian ( http://www.google-melange.com/gci/document/show/gci_program/google/gci20... )? I know that I would be very excited as a young computer nerd to even have a chance to participate in such a program. As a community, we have a very good chance to make connections with young students who could end up spending a good amount of time focusing on Drupal after completing the contest. A good way to find quality contributors might be Drupal sending a few young people to California/GoogleHQ...

GCI Summary:

"Code-In can be thought of as the "Summer of Code" for pre-university students. Rather than specific coding projects, students age 13-17 take on smaller tasks in five categories: Code, Documentation/Training, Outreach/Research, Quality Assurance, User Interface."

Details @links that explain everything about the contest:

Official Website @ http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2013

Drupal's group to communicate about Code-In @ https://groups.drupal.org/google-code-in

Drupal's wiki to add code-in tasks pre-application @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/348338

Drupal's issue queue after application @ https://drupal.org/project/issues/gci

Timeline:

Wed Oct 09 - Application Period Starts

Mon Oct 28 - Application Period Ends

Fri Nov 01 - Accepted Organizations Announced

Mon Nov 18 - Contest Begins

Mon Jan 06 - Contest ends

Wed Jan 08 - Deadline for mentor orgs to submit evaluations





How can I help?:



Create Tasks Submit pre-application task ideas @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/348338 At least 25 tasks to apply (5 in each of the 5 categories) Submit more tasks after Drupal is accepted directly to issue queue on d.o @ https://drupal.org/project/issues/gci Need 100+ additional tasks if accepted. Our goal is to focus on Drupal 8 based tasks as there is plenty to work on. Example task: Create a Drupal 8 install walk through video tutorial Example task: Attend a Drupal User Group Meetup How to think of tasks? Tasks from previous years/organizations are listed at legacy code-in websites. http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2012 http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2011 Specific example @ http://www.google-melange.com/gci/org/google/gci2012/kde Previous Drupal Code-In tasks are found on d.o issue queue. https://drupal.org/project/issues/gci

Review Tasks Need at least 25 tasks for application, but will require 100-200 tasks if accepted.

Help is needed to review and verify tasks are properly documented. Tasks will be in the issue queue ready for review/feedback.

Mentor Tasks Feel free to take ownership of tasks by becoming the primary contact. Be apart of the entire process of creating, reviewing, mentoring, commenting, and approving completed tasks. You might end up mentoring the next webchick! Mentoring is not required for creating tasks, simply leave the mentor field blank.

IRC #drupal-gci Hangoout and provide support to potential students/mentors

Do you or anyone you know work at an educational facility with 13-17 year olds? If so, spread the word of GCI!

Feel free to contact me or create nodes in the g.d.o group for additional information.





- Matthew@Lechleider.com

aka Slurpee