Glossary

These are some of the terms most commonly used throughout the Melange website as well as this documentation.

Contest Administrator 

One or more of the Google Open Source Programs Office's employees who manage the Google Code-in contest.

Contest Timeline 

The time frame and important dates of a given contest.  

Dashboard 

Participants who have filled out a profile have a My Dashboard in Melange where they see contest information specifically relevant to them.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

A somewhat archaic but still common means of real-time multi-participant conversation, IRC is Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer. Many Mentoring Organizations use IRC as a place for Students to ask questions. IRC requires client software, much of which is freely available for a variety of platforms. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat for more information.

Melange

Melange is the software application used to run the Google Code-in contest. Melange is used via a web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or any other modern standards-compliant browser. 

Mentor

A member of an accepted Mentoring Organization who has filled out a profile on Melange and has been accepted to participate as a Mentor by the organization's Organization Administrator. 

Mentoring Organization

An open source organization that was accepted into the Google Code-in contest and supervises work done by Students during a contest. A Mentoring Organization is managed by one or more Organization Administrators.

Organization Administrator 

The primary manager of an accepted Mentoring Organization's responsibilities. Please see the Google Code-in FAQ (located on the Google Code-in homepage) for information on the full complement of their responsibilities. 

Organization Application Template

The set of questions to be answered as part of an organization's applying to participate in a contest. Contest Administrators create this template and Organization Administrators complete it in their application.

Profile 

The personally identifying information you fill out that includes your name, address, t-shirt size, gender, etc. Completed on the Google Code-in website. 

Role

This is a user's function on Melange. Any user can be one of 4 roles: Contest Administrator, Organization Administrator, Mentor, or Student. (Organization Administrators can also serve as a Mentor.)

Student

A user who meets the Student participation criteria for the Google Code-in contest and has completed a Melange profile.   

Task List

The page or series of pages where an Organization describes possible tasks for Students to work on during the contest.  

Umbrella Organization 

Some Mentoring Organizations in Google Code-in have small features or participants who do not fit into the larger schema of their work. The organization can become an "Umbrella Organization" and allow multiple projects to function independently during the program while still remaining cohesive.