Matt Mackall announced the creation of the Kernel Mentors Project, "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." He goes on to explain that the project's mailing list [archive] allows a place for developers to "submit a description of their project and its current state as well as pointers to the code", adding that in response "mentors will pick for themselves which projects and developers they'd like to work with and offer their assistance."

In a posting to the new mailing list, Matt further explained, "the basic idea is matching new kernel developers up with experienced developers so they can get acquainted with existing best practices." He goes on to list some goals for the project, noting that it's not a replacement for the kernel newbies or kernel janitors projects. Instead, he explains that the idea is to smooth out and better document the development process, help merge code that's basically ready for mainline, and to increase overall participation.