Becoming a Sponsor

Becoming an OpenSolaris Sponsor for the O/N Consolidation

 There are three tiers of OpenSolaris O/N sponsors:

1. CRT advocates
2. middle-tier sponsors
3. interns

 For details about what all sponsors need to do, see the:

• Sponsor Tasks page
• RTI nits page

 The three tiers:

• The advocates are the most senior. For information about how they are selected, see the page on becoming an advocate.
• The non-advocate, "middle-tier" sponsors are in the middle: some experience [1] is required, and some in this tier may be "in training" to become advocates, though many are just helping out as needed. See the complete list of engineers in these top two tiers.
• Interns are engineers who have not yet met the experience requirement for the middle tier. Engineers in this group must have made at least one successful integration to the current O/N development gate within the six months preceding their work on an external contribution.
   An intern works with a more experienced mentor and handles the internal mechanics of integrating the contribution: build, test, integrate. The request owner, the mentor, is someone in one of the other two tiers.

 How to become a middle-tier sponsor:

• Determine whether your experience falls in the ballpark [1].
• Read the details at the locations cited above.
• Send email to sponsor-signup@opensolaris.org saying that you have read the information and are willing to perform the tasks.

 How to become an intern:

• Be sure you meet the criteria noted above.
• If you know someone on the list of advocates and sponsors, contact that person and ask if s/he is willing to be your sponsor mentor. If so, send email to request-sponsor@opensolaris.org saying which request you are picking up and noting the sponsor mentor with whom you will be working.
• If you don't know someone on the list of advocates and sponsors well enough to contact directly, send email to request-sponsor@opensolaris.org and explain which request you want to sponsor as an intern and ask for a mentor sponsor. If no one responds, send email to sponsor-signup@opensolaris.org and people on that list will pair you with someone.

 [1] How much experience is enough? As with most things in life, it depends.  Our ballpark metric is 10 successful integrations to an O/N gate, with the most recent being within the six months preceding sponsor work. Note that integrations done in the role of sponsoring an external contribution count towards this goal. But not all integrations are equal, and judgement is key, so exactly how much is enough will vary, and will be left to the judgement of the CRT chair in conjunction with other CRT advocates.