FAQs

Welcome to our internship FAQ page, our guide for success!

Proposals

Application Format

Your application must follow our application template.

• Q: What will most help my odds of acceptance?

  • A: There are a number of things you can do to help your odds

    1. A quality proposal - a well thought out proposal that shows you understand what you want to do and have reasonable expectations about what can be accomplished in the time you will have available.
    2. Show evidence of past experience or achievements related to the proposal.
    3. Make a useful patch for the code base - this shows that you can successfully read, edit, and compile our code.
    4. Discuss your application with us and get some feedback. You can chat with us on slack and post a link to your proposal.

• Q: What acceptance criteria are used?

  • A: These are the most important considerations

    1. Contributors must abide by our code of conduct guidelines at all times. This can be found in the CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file in each repository.

    2. We want you to be successful in creating transformative projects. Your pull requests must be able to prove your abilities to do so.

       • We do not count the number of pull requests in our evaluations, only the quality.
       • Pull requests with these characteristics indicate struggles in mastering the code base:
         • excessive numbers of commits;
         • ignoring reviewer guidance;
         • abandonment; and
         • premature closures.

    3. Think of all the stakeholders. End users, administrators, and the DevOps teams that will use the application. If any of these groups don’t find it useful and usable, then it won’t be installed, evaluated and implemented. Many technically excellent proposals have been surpassed by ones that consider making all the stakeholders happy. We highly value proposals that consider:

       • Practicability,
       • Performance,
       • Ease of long term support. (eg. Packages that are actively managed and backed by a corporation versus ones created by a single person; proven versus leading edge approaches.)
       • Usability,
       • Perceived stakeholder value,
       • Intuitive UI/UX. (This is often underappreciated)

       Our ideas list gives an outline of what we'd like to see implemented, but do not limit your proposal to this bare minimum. Copying feature functionality from other sources without improving upon them is insufficient, our code must always be better. Expand on the possibilities to meet our innovation requirements. We greatly value innovative features and approaches.

       If one of the stakeholders is a non-profit organization such as your local temple, mosque, church, community center, or sports club remember that they often don’t have staff comfortable with IT, and frequently don’t have ample reliable financial resources. In these cases, make your solutions intuitive, simple and cost effective.

    4. Positive mentor interactions.

• Q: How do you maintain evaluation impartiality?

  • A: We review proposals using our Conflict of Interest policy.

• Q: Will contributions in repositories external to my proposal be considered?

  • A: Yes, if they demonstrate your ability to be successful on the project. We prioritize prior work related to your proposal and its code stack.

• Q: How should I approach writing a draft proposal?

  • A: Get a mentor’s input at the early outline stage.

• Q: Do you provide sample proposals?

  • A: No.

• Q: Do you accept proposals that create breaking changes to the code base?

  • A: No.

• Q: Can we introduce third party solutions with project ideas?

  • A: Yes, but only if the cost is borne 100% by the end user or end user organization. Our organization cannot be expected to cover the cost of all potential users around the globe. The setup and configuration must always be simple and intuitive.

Contributing

• Q: I want to get involved before submitting my application. Can you guide me?

  • A: Getting involved early and showing presence is a good idea and increases your chances for acceptance.

    1. On the other hand, contributors have to show that they can take steps by themselves, without much "handholding". Mentors will try to help contributors make it successfully through the project; their job is not to give guidance on every step of the way. Of course, the usual communication channels are available to contributors for when they need help on specific topics. Together with our developer introduction guides, contributors should be able to get started.

       So take some initiative yourself. Show that you are capable of working on your own (to a good degree), that you can figure simple things out yourself and that you know when and where to ask questions.

    2. Research the GitHub issue trackers for all the projects

    3. Introduce yourself on our #general slack channel. You can join our Slack Channel using the link on the Palisadoes Foundation GitHub Home Page.

    4. You can subscribe to our mailing list.

• Q: What tutorials can I use to prepare for my first contributions?

  • A: We have a lot of videos on our YouTube channel. Our "Getting Started - Developers" playlist will help you understand our processes better.

• Q: Sometimes work in one repository requires changes in another. What should I do?

  • A: Create corresponding issues in the other repository for you or another contributor to address. Ask to be assigned if required. Familiarity with related repositories could be useful if you are selected.

• Q: Is there a deadline for submitting PRs during the application period?

  • A: No.

info

It's very important that you watch all the short videos in our "Getting Started - Developers" playlist. They explain our community values, coding principles and ways to avoid the most common mistakes.

Our Code Base

• Q: Is there some place that tells me the process of using the project's code?

  • A: Visit our project pages for complete documentation.

• Q: Where can I learn more about a project's code base?

  • A: There is quite a bit of good documentation here.

• Q: The code base is huge! Where do I start?

  • A: Have a look at the directory structure. Each code file documents its purpose each class, function and method is similarly documented.

• Q: I want to get involved before submitting my application. Can you guide me?

  • A: Getting involved early and showing presence is a good idea and increases your chances for acceptance. On the other hand, contributors have to show that they can take steps by themselves, without much "handholding". Mentors will try to help contributors make it successfully through the project; their job is not to give guidance on every step of the way. Of course, the usual communication channels are available to contributors for when they need help on specific topics. Together with the developer introduction guides, contributors should be able to get started.

    So take some initiative yourself. Show that you are capable of working on your own (to a good degree), that you can figure simple things out yourself and that you know when and where to ask questions.

Mentor Contact

• Q: What is the best way to contact internship mentors?

  • A: There are many options:

    1. Get in contact with them via our slack channel or GitHub

    2. Send an email to:

       

    Please be patient, and do not spam their social media accounts or other avenues.

• Q: Should I call the mentors and organizers by “Sir” or “Ma’am”?

  • A: No, our first names are fine. We don’t mind, but don’t expect it.

• Q: How can I feedback on my internship proposal?

  • A: Send an email to this address with a link to your proposal in Google Docs:

    

• Q: How should I interact with mentors about my proposal idea?

  • A: Do thorough research and contact the assigned mentors for guidance on its suitability. Mentors do not need constant updates, it’s best to arrange scheduled updates or meetings. Ask the mentor for the best approach.

Submit early if you want feedback

Don't expect any feedback on the last week before the deadline, as this is when most applications come in.

Other

• Q: Are there any common mistakes that we should as applicants avoid?
  • A: Submit your application on time. Get early mentor feedback on your proposal. When you are stuck, ask our community for assistance after attempting a solution.