It can be intimidating initially if you are mentoring an open source group for the first time. Be it teaching a large number of mentees from across the globe, or answering their questions, or scheduling meetings considering the different time zones of mentees– the method of training is different than classroom training. So, always maintain the culture when you are teaching in an environment, as Bill S. Preston Esq says—“Stick to the Open Source Culture : Be excellent to each other.”
Open source development is truly global. All cultures, all languages, all time zones, and all continents--yes, even Antarctica.
- It is asynchronous in nature. Most collaboration is done via email, forum posts, mailing lists, and pull requests.
- Cooperation and consensus building is the greatest challenge.
- Because other people can’t see your face or hear your voice, emotions are lost and intent muddled.