My Experience in LFX Mentorship Program with OpenDaylight

Hello readers, this is Manish Kumar Barnwal, pursuing a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science & Business Systems at Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. I recently graduated from LFX Mentorship Program with OpenDaylight. Here in this blog, you can expect how it's started, the application process, my journey and experiences with the community.

Application Process

It started this summer; being an open-source enthusiast, I looked for a mentorship program or Summer of code. One of the community members told me about the LFX Mentorship Programme. I was just excited about this program, as we had an opportunity to work under the umbrella of The Linux Foundation and experienced mentor. Then I started browsing all the available projects on the list and shortlisted a few of them according to my tech stacks. After shortlisting, we need to create our profile on the portal, which is crucial. And judging criteria, I can say. Once you complete your form fill up, you need to apply for your shortlisted organisation. Then will ask you to do specific tasks which depend on the organisation to organisation. They may ask you for a resume, cover letter, college ID Card, etc. You receive an email like this.

Note: You can apply for a maximum of 3 Organisations at a time.

And then if the organisation shortlist your candidature, they might take your interview as I had also faced an interview for my organisation which was good, my mentor was beneficial with the whole onboarding process, there I was also given an option to choose part-time (24-weeks) or full-time (12 weeks) work. And then, one lucky day, I had received an email from Linux Foundation Engineering Team that I am accepted for the mentorship program.

Program Timelines

It usually happens three times a year, so you can plan and apply accordingly,

• Spring Term: March 1st - May 31st
• Summer Term: June 1st - August 31st
• Fall Term: September 1st - Nov 30th

For more information, you can check the LFX Mentorship documentation.

After selection

My journey started on the 1st of June, and I was clueless literally how should I start and all. Then my mentor Casey Cain scheduled a meeting on the next day. He was very helpful; he showed me how to get started, gave me some minor tasks, and asked me to get familiar & comfortable with the platform. We used Slack for communication.

My task is to The OpenDaylight Project no longer uses the MediaWiki platform for its Developer wiki. However, there is still a large amount of content like Project Details, Project Proposals, Release Plans, Release Notes, Release Reviews, etc., that live on the archived page that is still relevant to the community. So my role was to collaborate with all the projects and their leads within the OpenDaylight community to determine what content needs to be migrated to the new platform that is Confluence and Jira.

To complete my tasks, I had to learn and use Confluence, Jira, Gerrit, GitHub, and mailing lists. These are corporate tools used by big organisations; it was a great experience to use them.

About OpenDaylight

OpenDaylight (ODL) is a modular open platform for customising and automating networks of any size and scale. The OpenDaylight Project arose out of the SDN movement, with a clear focus on network programmability. It was designed from the outset as a foundation for commercial solutions that address various use cases in existing network environments.

OpenDaylight is the most widely deployed open source SDN controller platform, and in just 8 years, OpenDaylight boasts 13 releases, 1000+ authors/submitters, 100K+ commits, and powers networks of 1B+ global subscribers.

My key takeaways:

• I learned to use Confluence, worked with pre-defined templates.
• Used Jira to migrate Release plans and integrated with confluence, i.e., Developer wiki.
• Build custom filters and Kanban Board on Jira for Release Milestones.
• Learned to use a mailing list which is something new to me.
• After working with lots of Project Proposals, I got to understand how a should exactly look.
• Learned about Release Plans, Release Notes, Release Reviews, how it is made once coding gets over.
• I got to learn how these Opensource organisations like Linux Foundation work and build these projects which are impacting billions of lives.

Also, every week I used to join Technical Steering Committee (TSC) Meeting where I showcase my work and ask for feedback. Then improve it according to feedbacks.

Graduation & Conclusion

Wowww!! Finally, after 12 weeks, the time really flies. I didn’t want this program to end. But every good thing comes to an end. I successfully graduated from the program, thanks to my mentor Casey Cain and his guidance, because without him, this wouldn’t have been possible. He's a wonderful and very kind person. His journey was also inspiring; on the last day of my internship, I had an opportunity to talk with him about his journey, which was adventurous and inspiring. I wish I could meet him in person sometime. :)

I had a fantastic time with the OpenDaylight community, with the fantastic members supporting and helping me throughout the journey. I look forward to contributing more to this project and being more active in the community. This is a lifetime opportunity, as once you get selected, you will not be eligible to apply again. So I recommend every open-source enthusiast to give it a try.

My LFX Mentee Profile: https://mentorship.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/mentee/919814e1-c480-42d1-8004-193f0ff176a4

Thanks for reading till here. Let me know if you still have some questions or doubts about this program or, in general, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.