The Kernel Mentors Project was created by Matt Mackall as "an informal project to get experienced developers to mentor new developers and coach them on the best ways to get their code ready for submission."
The mailing list page for it can be found at http://selenic.com/mailman/listinfo/kernel-mentors.
The basic idea is matching new kernel developers up with experienced developers so they can get acquainted with existing best practices.
What this project hopes to accomplish:
- smooth out the development process a bit
- get various open code that ought to be in mainline merged
- generally increase participation from various camps (vendors, embedded, etc)
- perhaps we can even deal with some language barrier issues
- document the process along the way
What it's not intended to do:
replace KernelNewbies, KernelJanitors, etc.
- teach people to code
- dictate process to anyone
Various things that I think need some thinking about:
- how to advertise this to the wider community, especially in the niches we usually don't reach
- how to track which projects are looking for mentors
- how to encourage people to volunteer as mentors