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ScottyLabs / HackerHelp

TartanHacks 2017 mentor request and dispatch system
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TartanHacks HackerHelp

This allows hackers to request a mentor to assist them with their projects, or help with specific problems.

Here are instructions on how you can use this repository:

  1. For Hackers
  2. For Mentors

This is a brand new setup for us, if you need clarifications, or have suggestions for improvement, feel free to contact scott@scottylabs.org.

Hackers

During TartanHacks, you might find yourselves wanting help with a variety of things. Luckily for you, we have a great team of talented mentors to help you with all parts of your project.

TartanHacks mentors want to help in whatever way they can. If you need help with a specific framework, or just a little boost for your brainstorming session, follow the instructions below to fill out a "GitHub Issue," and we will get help to come your way as soon as possible!

  1. Go to the issues tab.

  2. Click on the "New issue" button.

  3. Give a descriptive title to what you would like a mentor to help you with. They can be specific technical problems:

    Cannot load iOS frameworks for Facebook login API OpenCV import difficulties

    for which someone knowledgeable about the technology will be able to assist you. Some of our sponsors are even bringing a few engineers along to assist you with their APIs!

    You can also ask more general project questions:

    Can't decide between mobile and web app ideas Need help planning division of labor

  4. Add your location to the issue description. If we don't know where you are, we can't help!

  5. (optional) Add a more descriptive comment to give a little bit more detail about your problem if it isnt self explanatory. This would be a good place to include what you tried so far, or what you think the mentor could do specifically to help.

  6. (optional) Add relevant labels for specific platforms, languages, etc.

  7. Click "Submit"!

Once you have submitted your issue, mentors will be able to comment on it to clarify things, and assign themselves to the issue to tell you that they are on their way to help!

Mentors

Thanks for mentoring! We're excited to try out this new system this year, we hope it makes your experience better, as well as the hackers'.

Before TartanHacks

Before the event, we need to get a little information from you to get you set up with our mentor GitHub page and Slack channel. For student mentors, who signed up through tartanhacks.com, you may have already received a Slack email, but we still need GitHub usernames.

  1. Email scott@scottylabs.org with the following information:

    name: Your Name
email: example@example.com (please use the same one you signed up with)
github username: c00lname
affiliation: (either CMU or sponsor company)

    If you don't have a GitHub account, it is free to sign up.

  2. You will get a reply, hopefully promptly, to acknowledge that your message was received. This will be followed by emails from GitHub and Slack adding you to the appropriate teams.
  3. You may want to download the Slack app for your phone, which will be easier to use when you are moving around at the event. Slack will be used to coordinate with one another, and make announcements to the entire group of mentors.
  4. Attend one of the pre-TartanHacks mentor meetings. To make sure we are all on the same page for the event, we will be holding a meeting or two beforehand to talk about how mentor assignments will work and to give some tips on how you can best help hackers.

During TartanHacks

At the event, we want to maximize the amount of fun that hackers and mentors have. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that hackers and mentors are paired up well. This is what we are using Github issues for!

  1. Bring a laptop, or hang around the mentor staging area (Peter-Wright-McKenna rooms), where we will have computers with the issues page pulled up.

  2. Watch the issues feed for things that interest you, or that you can help with. Matching with a team that you can really help out makes things much more rewarding!

    Feel free to comment on posts to ask for clarifications about people's questions before you go to help them too!

  3. Once an issue comes up that you are interested in, assign yourself to it. This is why we are adding everyone as collaborators to for this repository. By assigning individuals to issues, we can avoid confusion about who is supposed to be helping each group (a problem we had in the past).
  4. Mark the issue as closed once it is finished, so we know that the team has been helped. Again, this helps us keep organized!

If you have any questions comments or concerns, feel free to contact Scott, Jackie, or Angel (all <first name>@scottylabs.org). Again this is a new system we are trying, so criticism is welcome!