GHOP Contestants Please Read: Task Process Start to Finish

[AmyStephen]

These instructions are designed to help you complete your task successfully.

1. Claim your task on the Joomla!'s Google Highly Open Participation Contest page by adding "I claim this Task" to the task comments.

2. Before beginning your task, wait for one of the Joomla! mentors to respond to your claim with a comment in the Google task (ex. "Task claimed by PatSmith."). We need to double check you have no other open tasks and that no one else has claimed the task.

3. Register on the Joomla! Forums if you do not have an ID, already.

4. Read all of the Stickies in the Google's Highly Open Participation Contest Board. (Stickies are the threads located in the top part of the forum board.)

5. Create a new forum thread in the Google's Highly Open Participation Contest Board using the # and name of your claimed task as the title of your thread (ex. 011 - Create a module listing a random set of articles excluding frontpage articles).

6. Introduce yourself and share the description of your task. If you want specific help, indicate what would be helpful.

7. Members of the community will introduce themselves and provide you with guidance needed to complete the task assigned. The forum interaction is a necessary part of completing your task. Communication is a key aspect of an open source community and the forums are the focal point of that communication in Joomla!. Consider this feedback when working on your task. Ask for clarification, if needed.

8. When you believe you are done with your task, share your work in the Joomla! forums, first, and call for a final review with a forum post in your task thread. Set the message icon for the first post to an Exclamation point.

9. A Joomla! GHOP mentor will indicate the task is under review by posting in your Joomla! forum thread.

10. At this point, the community is still encouraged to provide feedback that you can consider for improving your task. If you want time to add improvements, indicate a final review is not needed yet.

11. After time needed for review, the Joomla! contest judges will either a) accept your task; or, b) indicate what is needed before it can be accepted as complete, by posting in the Joomla! forum thread for your task. If the task is complete, the message icon will be changed to Solved.

12. After your task has been accepted as complete in the Joomla! forums, upload your work to the Google site.

13. When your work has been posted at Google, the Joomla! contest judges will update the status of your task as complete at Google.

14. After your task has been marked complete at Google, you are then eligible to select another task (provided you have not reached the maximum.)

Thanks for your participation and for your patience as we all learn together how to build a successful program!
[me=AmyStephen]Change "I claim this task." to "I claim this Task" as per annerajb's correct advice.  [/me]

[annerajb]

i will like to inform a little discrepancie between this rules and the google contest rules in the google rules they say you must respond with exactly this words “I claim this Task” and you stated it should be "I claim this task." i am just telling you incase there is a automated software that checks for that line in the comments. i was a little confuse when i claimed my task. because of this.
annerajb

[AmyStephen]

Thank you very much, annerajb. I made the change as per your suggestion. That was helpful!

Amy

[annerajb]

also theres not a dot at the end in the contest rules :S sorry if this bothers you.

[AmyStephen]

lol! It doesn't bother me at all. You are very helpful. Keep it coming! I'll make that change.

Amy

[chatur]

Thank you very much for all the helpful instructions... I have started my documentation on the task assigned..

[SharifOerton]

14. After your task has been marked complete at Google, you are then eligible to select another task (provided you have not reached the maximum.)

Hi Amy,

It was my understanding that there is no maximum number of tasks completed - there is only a maximum amount of prize money - http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/ ... s.html#tq5 .

Is my belief erroneous?

Thanks,
Sharif

[AmyStephen]

Sharif -

That is the nicest question, ever! We would never stop you from contributing to Joomla!. 

Yes, you are right, the liimit Google imposes is 15 tasks per contestant for reimbursement, only.

5. Is there a limit to the number of tasks I can complete?

You can complete as many tasks as you would like, but the maximum cash prize is 500 USD (e.g. 15 completed tasks).

Thanks!
Amy

[AmyStephen]

Thank you very much for all the helpful instructions... I have started my documentation on the task assigned..

Chatur -

What task did you claim? We would like you to create a new thread for your task. That way, the community can interact with you and help answer your questions during the task.

Let me know if you have questions!
Amy

[yoniwiz]

I have claimed Issue 70 - Create a tri-fold brochure entitled "Joomla! Core Team" with brief profiles of core team members, http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... %20Summary, and have completed a draft. I made my own post in the GHOP section with a little more information about the task and about me.

-Yoni

[Marieke92]

Just wondering.. what are these extra credits good for?
OK, it's absolutely fun to work with Joomla! and to do something for the community
But do they also mean something?
Does 1 task + extra credit count for two tasks?
And how could you know if you got the extra credit or not?

Merry christmas to you all!

Marieke

[depresz]

Yeah! It's absolutely awesome.
Extra credit? I think that's for your satisfaction (I think so).

[MiCCAS]

Guys,

I want to say a huge thank you. To both Joomla AND Google.

I've always had a keen interest in Joomla, but to have this kind of opportunity is just amazing. To be able to sit down and know that anyone can contribute to such an amazing project, and not be considered childish is just pure perfection.

This has certainly taught me that Joomla isn't just about a free CMS, it's about the amazing community behind it who are there to help you whenever you need it.

So guys, thank you so much!

[trombonechamp]

Guys,

I want to say a huge thank you. To both Joomla AND Google.

I've always had a keen interest in Joomla, but to have this kind of opportunity is just amazing. To be able to sit down and know that anyone can contribute to such an amazing project, and not be considered childish is just pure perfection.

This has certainly taught me that Joomla isn't just about a free CMS, it's about the amazing community behind it who are there to help you whenever you need it.

So guys, thank you so much!

I second this 200%!  I was amazed by the power and flexibility of Joomla! the first time I used it, and that was version 1.0!

I have always loved Free Software, but never thought it was possible for someone my age to contribute to it.  This "contest" (see below) really taught me to go out and find opportunities, instead of waiting for them to come nicely packaged in an RSS feed.  Once this is over, I would love to continue helping Joomla! somehow.  I also want to see if I can write some music for a FOSS project (maybe Wesnoth). 

The one thing that I don't like about this, though, is that it is called a "contest".  I don't know about you, but when I think of the word contest, I think of a bunch of contestants competing against each other.  This is not what open source is about!  We shouldn't be trying to do better than each other, but instead encouraging and helping each other out.  Leave the fighting to Microsoft and Novell!

If you look at the other projects sponsored by GHOP, most of them have fewer than fifty tasks.  Joomla! is overflowing with tasks; most of them are claimed.  This just shows the strength and acceptance of the Joomla! community.

I would like to thank everyone again.  This is an unbelievably worthwhile experience, and I hope Google sponsors this again next year!!! 

[depresz]

For me Joomla! has power without GHOP  Yeah, it rocks
After GHOP I'm going to continue contribution.
This project is like a small baby (you just can't leave)

Woo!

[J. Ramsay]

You said it trombonechamp!

This project is sooo incredible. It really opens your eyes to the immensity of Joomla! and the whole way the community works.

I agree that it is unfortunate that it is called a contest. I think it would be better described as Google offering financial incentives to get young people involve in Open Source. This has felt soo unlike any contest I have ever participated in. When I have read the different topics it is really great the work everyone is doing and also they way they are doing and the positive and helpful feedback people have given.

Thanks to everyone for making this event/contest such a fantastic experience!

Cheers, James