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Outreachy

ABOUT

Outreachy is an intern program for members of groups traditionally underrepresented in technology. Check out their main page for more information about eligibility.

FOR PARTICIPANTS

About Tor

The ability to access the Internet anonymously and free from repressive observation is critical for the protection of basic freedoms, especially for vulnerable and marginalized populations including journalists, activists, political dissidents, and human rights workers.

The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and further their scientific and popular understanding.

The Tor network and Tor Browser are currently used by over four million people every day to protect their privacy, safety, and freedom of expression on the Internet.

2020-2021 Application

The Tor Project is participating in the Outreachy round that runs May 2021 to August 2021.

Contact Information

The coordinator for this Outreachy period is Gaba (gaba AT torproject DOT org, gaba on IRC). Drop her an email or ping her on IRC with any questions you have during the application period.

Projects

Project 1: Help Tor Project support our users

Mentor: gus at torproject.org / IRC: ggus

The Community Team at Tor Project is looking for an intern to help us support our users receive and find the most up to date information on using our products. As part of this internship we’re looking for someone to:

Help us to answer support queries that come in through our frontdesk@ email address, #tor irc channel and other informal support channels such as:

  • Reddit,
  • Stackoverflow,
  • blog comments
  • Google Play Store for Tor Browser for Android reviews and feedback

Keep our documentation updated: When new versions of Tor Browser are released, we need to update the Tor Browser User Manual with any usage details and explanations of new features as well as with updated screenshots.

Fix small layout issues with our Tor Browser Manual and Support websites.

Compile a list of common user issues: Write a monthly report collating any common user issues found throughout all of our support channels.

During May to August, you must:

  1. Read our documentation:

  2. Check and answer common questions from our users (probably some of them you will need to do some research) - we will email this to applicants, get in touch with us.

  3. Read our open issues and submit a pull request to tickets open in our repositories; you will need a Gitlab account, get in touch with us.

  4. Install an IRC client and learn how to use IRC; join our channels: #tor, #tor-project, #tor-south, #tor-project, #tor-www. Some IRC client suggestions: Hexchat, irssi, weechat...

  5. Subscribe to Tor mailing lists: tor-community-team, global-south and tor-project

  6. Join us on the Community Team meeting - every Monday, 1600 UTC, #tor-meeting channel on IRC

PAST INTERNSHIPS WITH Outreachy

December to March 2021 Application

Project 1: Help Tor Project support our users

Mentor: gus at torproject.org / IRC: ggus

The Community Team at Tor Project is looking for an intern to help us support our users receive and find the most up to date information on using our products. As part of this internship we’re looking for someone to:

Help us to answer support queries that come in through our frontdesk@ email address, #tor irc channel and other informal support channels such as:

  • Reddit,
  • Stackoverflow,
  • blog comments
  • Google Play Store for Tor Browser for Android reviews and feedback

Keep our documentation updated: When new versions of Tor Browser are released, we need to update the Tor Browser User Manual with any usage details and explanations of new features as well as with updated screenshots.

Fix small layout issues with our Tor Browser Manual and Support websites.

Compile a list of common user issues: Write a monthly report collating any common user issues found throughout all of our support channels.

During December to March, you must:

  1. Read our documentation:

  2. Check and answer common questions from our users (probably some of them you will need to do some research) - we will email this to applicants, get in touch with us.

  3. Read our open issues and submit a pull request to tickets open in our repositories; you will need a Gitlab account, get in touch with us.

  4. Install an IRC client and learn how to use IRC; join our channels: #tor, #tor-project, #tor-south, #tor-project, #tor-www. Some IRC client suggestions: Hexchat, irssi, weechat...

  5. Subscribe to Tor mailing lists: tor-community-team, global-south and tor-project

  6. Join us on the Community Team meeting - every Monday, 1600 UTC, #tor-meeting channel on IRC

Project 2: Anonymous Ticket Handling

Mentor: ahf at torproject.org / IRC: ahf

Tor Project is looking for an intern to help us implement a way to post anonymous issues into gitlab.

Project's website: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/gitlab-lobby

Issues: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/gitlab-lobby/-/issues?label_name%5B%5D=Outreachy

To start working on the project you should:

  1. request an account in https://gitlab.torproject.org

  2. clone the project's repository and get the app running

  3. look at available issues mark as 'Outreachy'

Summer 2020 Application

The Tor Project is applying to participate in the Outreachy round that runs May to August 2020.

Contact Information

The coordinator for this Outreachy period is Pili Guerra (pili AT torproject DOT org, pili on IRC). Drop her an email or ping her on IRC with any questions you have during the application period.

Projects

Project 1: Help Tor Project support our users

Mentor: gus at torproject.org / IRC: ggus

The Community Team at Tor Project is looking for an intern to help us support our users receive and find the most up to date information on using our products. As part of this internship we’re looking for someone to:

Help us to answer support queries that come in through our frontdesk@ email address, #tor irc channel and other informal support channels such as:

  • Reddit,
  • Stackoverflow,
  • blog comments
  • Google Play Store for Tor Browser for Android reviews and feedback

Keep our documentation updated: When new versions of Tor Browser are released, we need to update the Tor Browser User Manual with any usage details and explanations of new features as well as with updated screenshots.

Fix small layout issues with our Tor Browser Manual and Support websites.

Compile a list of common user issues: Write a monthly report collating any common user issues found throughout all of our support channels.

During March 5 - April 7, you must:

  1. Read our documentation:

  2. Check and answer common questions from our users (probably some of them you will need to do some research) - we will email this to applicants, get in touch with us.

  3. Read our open issues and submit a pull request to tickets open in our repositories; you will need a Gitlab account, get in touch with us.

  4. Install an IRC client and learn how to use IRC; join our channels: #tor, #tor-project, #tor-south, #tor-project, #tor-www. Some IRC client suggestions: Hexchat, irssi, weechat...

  5. Subscribe to Tor mailing lists: tor-community-team, global-south and tor-project

  6. Join us on the Community Team meeting - every Monday, 1600 UTC, #tor-meeting channel on IRC

Project 2: IPv6

In 2020, we are working on improving Tor Relay IPv6 support.

The Internet Protocol, version 6 (IPv6) is a low-level protocol that is used for internet communication. The older Internet Protocol, version 4 (IPv4) is slowly being replaced by IPv6.

More Tor clients are running on IPv6-only or dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) networks. But only 20% of Tor’s available relay bandwidth supports IPv6. We want to improve Tor relay support for IPv6, so that it is easier for relay operators to run IPv6 relays. We want to automate relay IPv6 address discovery, and relay reachability self-checks

Getting started with tor development
  1. Clone tor using git: https://github.com/torproject/tor
  2. Build tor from source
  3. Run the tor unit tests using "make check". Let us know if they fail, and we'll help fix them
  4. Clone chutney using git. Chutney is a tor integration test tool: https://github.com/torproject/chutney
  5. Go to the tor directory, and run the tor integration tests using "make test-network". Let us know if they fail, and we'll help fix them
  6. Make sure you have a GitHub account, so you can submit pull requests to the tor or chutney GitHub repository
Initial Tasks
Main Tasks

===== Stretch Goals =====

2019 Application

The Tor Project is participating in the Outreachy round that runs December to March 2020.

Contact Information

The coordinator for this Outreachy period is Pili Guerra (pili AT torproject DOT org, pili on IRC). Drop her an email or ping her on IRC with any questions you have during the application period.

We have an excellent set of mentors for this period - Stephanie (steph AT torproject DOT org, stephw on IRC), Gus (gus at torproject.org, ggus on IRC).

Projects

Deadline is Nov. 5, 2019 at 4pm UTC to record your contributions and create a final application.

We have two projects in mind. We will decide whether to mentor one or both based on the interests and expertise of the applicants.

Project 1: Help Tor Project support our users

The Community Team at Tor Project is looking for an intern to help us support our users receive and find the most up to date information on using our products. As part of this internship we’re looking for someone to:

Help us to answer support queries that come in through our frontdesk@ email address, #tor irc channel and other informal support channels such as:

  • Reddit,
  • Stackoverflow,
  • blog comments
  • Google Play Store for Tor Browser for Android reviews and feedback

Keep our documentation updated: When new versions of Tor Browser are released, we need to update the Tor Browser User Manual with any usage details and explanations of new features as well as with updated screenshots.

Fix small layout issues with our Tor Browser Manual and Support websites.

Compile a list of common user issues: Write a monthly report collating any common user issues found throughout all of our support channels.

During October 1 - November 5, you must:

  1. Read our documentation:

  2. Check and answer common questions from our users (probably some of them you will need to do some research) - we will email this to applicants, get in touch with us.

  3. Read our open issues and submit a pull request to tickets open in our repositories; you will need a Gitlab account, get in touch with us.

  4. Install an IRC client and learn how to use IRC; join our channels: #tor, #tor-project, #tor-south, #tor-project, #tor-www. Some IRC client suggestions: Hexchat, irssi, weechat...

  5. Subscribe to Tor mailing lists: tor-community-team, global-south and tor-project

  6. Join us on the Community Team meeting - every Monday, 1600 UTC, #tor-meeting channel on IRC

Workflow expected during the internship

  1. Everyday connect to IRC and hang out on #tor-www, #tor, #tor-project, #tor-south and other channels
  2. Connect to Frontdesk service and answer users.
  3. Check blog posts and social media for users comments reporting issues.
  4. Based on users feedback [1, 2 and 3]: open tickets to report bugs to Tor Browser devs, make Pull requests with corrections and new content to our documentation
  5. If you find outdated or incorrect information on Tor Project websites, we expect you to submit a ticket and/or a pull request.
  6. Community Team meeting happens every Monday, 1600 UTC on #tor-meeting. You will need to update our meeting pad with your work.

Newcomer guide

If you're lost, here's a beginner guide to help you.

Step 1

Goal: first steps with Tor Browser and join our communication channels.

  • Install and try Tor Browser. Yep, it's very simple and important to use Tor so you can learn and help others.
  • Subscribe to tor-community-team, global-south and tor-project mailing lists: You can find all the mailing lists here: https://lists.torproject.org
  • Create an IRC account, so you can chat with Tor folks and see what's happening. IRC is a little bit tricky to start, so I suggest you to use an IRC client (for example, Hexchat) and follow the instructions: https://support.torproject.org/get-in-touch/irc-help/
  • Create an account in GitLab(dip.torproject.org): ping Pili or Gus to create an account for you. We will be available on #tor-www channel.

Step 2

Goal: understand the documentation workflow.

Note: The Tor Project is currently working to migrate issues from trac.torproject.org to dip.torproject.org. Some teams are already using dip.torproject.org (Community team, for example).

Step 3

Goal: review and improve our documentation based on user feedback.

  • Read and answer users questions in public forums (Reddit, stackoverflow, blog.tpo).
  • If there's something outdated, incorrect or missing from our documentation resources, open a ticket in dip (support, manual, etc)
  • If you know the answer, submit PRs, like phase 2.

Step 4

We will submit to you some questions from Frontdesk, so you can practice :)

Project 2: Improve Tor's image in the media and our communications resources

Contact Stephanie (steph AT torproject DOT org, stephw on IRC).

https://www.outreachy.org/december-2019-to-march-2020-internship-round/communities/tor-project/#improve-tors-image-in-the-media-and-our-communicat

== 2018 Application ==

Contact Information

The coordinator for this Outreachy period is Tommy Collison (tommyc AT torproject DOT org, t0mmy on IRC). Drop him an email or ping him on IRC with any questions you have during the application period.

We have an excellent mentor for this period — Colin Childs (colin ATtorproject DOT org).

The Projects

We have two projects in mind. We will decide on which one based on the interests and expertise of the applicants.

  • User Advocate

Tor is looking for a user advocate who would work with members of Tor’s development and community teams to help us understand where users struggle to use Tor. A secure web browser only works if it’s usable.

This intern will monitor our bug-reporting channels, IRC rooms, and social channels to get a sense of what new bugs appear in our software, and where users have problems connecting to and using Tor. Each month, we’d like the intern to report on the most common bugs, problems, questions, and other issues that users have.

To get started, we suggest you look around Tor’s bug tracker to see the sorts of problems users are currently reporting. What are some recurring themes or trends? When do bug reports spike? Feel free to respond to one or more of these questions and email your answer to Tor’s Outreachy coordinator, so we can get a sense your work!

  • Documentation Reviewer

For this task, the intern would help the community team update, review, and format sections of the Tor documentation on how to add Tor’s privacy and anonymity protections to other apps. Much of this documentation is written by volunteers and is not regularly maintained. Tor is about to transition to a new support portal, and the intern would help make this content ready to be displayed on the new website.

To get started on this task, check out Tor’s documentation pages. We’d like the intern to focus on updating these pages in particular.

Familiarizing Yourself with Tor