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OnBoarding

Last edited by emmapeel

Welcome to Tor!

This is a public onboarding document focused on people who are joining Tor either because they became an employee or a contractor. But it can be useful for core contributors that are volunteers too.

Keep in mind that, for employees, this is a whole onboard process that is done internally with our HR and Finance teams, so, if some things like health care and vacation are missing from this page is because they will be presented to you in private.

When onboarding a new employee or contractor into the Tor Project there is an initial meeting where we go through an onboarding agenda with the team and project manager.

Introducing TPI and TPO:

_tpi_ is The Tor Project, Inc - a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization - if you are hired to work for Tor this organization is who will hire you, pay your salary, set up all your benefits, etc.

_tpo_ is The Tor Project community - which includes everyone who is paid by TPI but also everyone else that makes Tor possible: users, tor relay operators, researchers, code contributors, etc.

The graph below tries to show more or less how 'these layers' of our organization work.

tor_community_graph.jpg

Tor Project's Staff

All these teams have TPI's staff and volunteers from the community:

  • Network Team
  • Applications Team
  • Network Health Team
  • Anti-censorship Team
  • UX Team
  • Community Team
  • Sysadmin Team
  • Communications Team
  • Fundraising Team
  • HR/Administration/Operations Team
  • Finance Team

What happens first: Get yourself set up! :)

  • Home office setup; order business cards if you want to (talk with HR).
  • New hire forms
  • US-based: I9, W4(s), payroll setup, benefits enrollment(s)
  • Non-US: Payroll setup (required forms vary by country)

Setting up your PGP key

  • What is a PGP key?
  • How to create a key and keep it safe
  • Getting your key signed by someone at Tor
  • Uploading your key to the server

Getting your @torproject.org email set up

  • Choosing an alias
  • Getting your email address forwarding set up to work with your email client
  • Email etiquette

There is an Employee Handbook. Ask HR for it.

First week on the job: Get yourself oriented! :)

Quick overview of some internal tools we use

Stuff a developer should do to get themselves set up

  • internal Git
  • ldap + ssh key

Need help with any of the above? You can submit a ticket in Sysadmin Repo.

Privacy 101

What is expected from you?

  • Harvest - timesheets and expenses
  • Reporting (per role/per team expectations)
  • Working remotely! (work and life balance tips)
  • Add yourself to the people's page if you want to be on a public list of who is involved with Tor.

Tor Culture

For a long time, we have had an anonymous account on our bug trackers and other places. This account is 'cypherpunks' and is used by different people on the Internet.

Organization History

We are governed by a set of principles that are written into our social contract. They show who we are and how we work. "This social contract is a promise from our internal community to the rest of the world, affirming our commitment to our beliefs"

  1. We advance human rights by creating and deploying usable anonymity and privacy technologies.
  2. Open and transparent research and tools are key to our success.
  3. Our tools are free to access, use, adapt, and distribute.
  4. We make Tor and related technologies ubiquitous through advocacy and education.
  5. We are honest about the capabilities and limits of Tor and related technologies.
  6. We will never intentionally harm our users.

Tips & Likes and Dislikes

What is the difference between system admin work and services admin work?

Some people at Tor don't like Google Docs but other people (mostly operations) use it for some collaborative work.

Ask before taking photos of people at events or Tor meetings.

Be mindful when asking private questions such as 'Where do you live' or 'When is your birthday'. Not everyone like to share private information :)

Social media engagement equals tracking people - be mindful when asking for people who like Tor to engage with our social media buttons out there.

There is a code of conduct that everybody at Tor (community or project) is expected to follow.

Custom / additional onboarding steps

More questions?

Feel free to ask in irc or directly with the people that on-boarded you.

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