Note: This post assumes that you are aware of the Google Highly Open Participation Contest. If not, see that link, or listen to the latest Lullabot podcast about GHOP.

Since our last status report on December 13, 2007:

• An additional 12 students have taken on tasks from the Drupal project, bringing our total to 54 student participants.
• 11 new students have completed one or more tasks, bringing our total to 38, which means about 70% of our students have completed tasks. Of that number, 65% are brand new contributors who came to the Drupal project because of this contest.
• There have been a total of 67 tasks completed so far, which is nearly double since the last report. The leaders in terms of raw task numbers are cwgordon7 (6) and Corsix (7), with Etinin (4) and ezyang (3) coming up behind.
• We have 97 available task slots remaining. The community created and offered to mentor 31 new tasks since the last status report, but we still need people to Propose new tasks and, perhaps more importantly, Review and refine existing task ideas.
• We also need help reviewing tasks promptly and throughly. Please keep your eyes on the list of GHOP issues, specifically those that need review. Note that we have a good mix of types of tasks (documentation, marketing, training, etc.), so non-coders can help as well.

There are fewer than 3 weeks left to propose tasks and fewer than 5 weeks left of the contest. Please help us get through this final stretch, folks!

Read on for a description of the tasks that have been completed since the last status update.

Important upcoming dates:

• Students may claim tasks until January 22, 2008, which means a couple of days before that is the last date that we can create tasks.
• The contest formally ends on February 4, 2008. A few days after that, we'll choose a grand prize winner who will make the scenic trek to Google Campus along with a member of the Drupal community!

Drupal's GHOP Students Rule!

Here's a list of our newly completed tasks in the past 3 weeks.

Coding

• kourge coded up an excellent usability improvement for the modules page which highlighting modules that need updates directly on the modules page.
• linuxlover101 made a whole bunch of progress on a patch to Update API module to 6.x. API module is used to power the http://api.drupal.org/ website. Maybe you've heard of it. ;)
• Etinin upgraded the Comment Upload module to 6.x, which is used on drupal.org to power the drupal.org issue queue.
• Placinta upgraded the modr8 module to Drupal 6, which is used on groups.drupal.org, among hundreds of other sites.
• cwgordon7 ported the Revision Moderation module to Drupal 6.
• cwgordon7 also modified the FAQ module to use theme templates in order to make it easier for themers to customize its look/feel, and added the ability to send mail to a role with workflow NG.
• Speaking of Workflow NG, corsix added an administrative interface to Workflow NG module's state machine, and Views support to User Points module.
• Then for something completely different, corsix also wrote a Firefox extension to check for undesirable strings in user text; for example 'node' rather than 'content' and such.
• PhalanX worked on a patch to display memory usage of modules.
• Bluemarine can now be called "Colourmarine" once the nifty Make bluemarine re-colourable patch by tmadeira is committed. He then went onto writing code to auto-generate project_issue comments to help with those testing Project module and friends.

Quality Assurance

• Smartys created SimpleTest coverage for both Forum module and the module administration page.
• cwgordon7 created SimpleTest coverage for the core Actions module, uncovering a critical Drupal 6 bug in the process! cwgordon7 then went on to write simpletests for the node revision system.

Documentation

• purple555 created a recipe for creating a podcast site.
• danielskeenan wrote a very nice Recipe for how to build a wiki.
• rohandhruva took on the prolific task of turning a list of Druplicon's (irc bot) factoids into a FAQ. Some great info in here!
• JordanCronin created some excellent documentation on Windows and *nix/Mac file permissions, something that routinely confuses our users.
• Mgccl wrote up a nice personal site recipe tutorial.
• vitezslav.smid braved some of the toughest parts of core and helped update PHP documentation blocks in aggregator, comment, and system modules.

User Interface

• ThatPerson created an amazing analysis of the Drupal download process and how it compares to other projects.
• DanW created some annotated screenshots showing how to improve the blocks screen and permissions screen.
• marco.robotangel did a fantastic job of going thorugh through Factory Joe's Drupal 6 review and created issues for each point that did not already have them.

Videos

• kyl191 was at it again, this time with a introduction to Views module screencast.
• danielskeenan also made a splash with the Practical CCK screencast.

Marketing/Outreach

• yoniwiz wrote up a well-researched showcase of African Drupal sites for use in marketing.
• birdmanx35 wrote up some elevator pitches for Drupal, to help sell Drupal to various types of users.

Wow, cool! So how can I help?

We need help mainly on the following major fronts, according to priority:

1. A massive army of task reviewers that are keeping watch over the GHOP issue tracker. When students are waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for someone to look at their tasks, not only is it demoralizing for them, but it also means they're actively blocked from taking on more tasks. Let's not let that happen!
2. A massive army of task idea reviewers that can help refine the ideas in the GHOP task ideas queue. Check the GHOP Task FAQ to get an idea of what we're looking/not looking for.
3. Contributors to hang out in #drupal-ghop and answer students' questions. We're talking coders, writers, designers, themers, marketers, testers, and every other type of contributor -- there's stuff for everyone! :)
4. More task proposals, particularly coding tasks. Does one of your modules need to be ported? Are you the maintainer of a larger-scale module, and have a couple pieces which could be do-able by a student within a week? Write 'em up as task ideas. Check the GHOP Task FAQ to get an idea of what we're looking/not looking for.

Thanks in advance for your support! :)