Hey Charles,
I've done GSoC for the Swarm Development Group the last two years.
The first year we got three students, I mentored two of them. Last
year I volunteered to mentor, but we got only two students and my
projects didn't get picked.
We took both approaches, we listed a lot of projects, some projects
were very specific and some were very general, we made a point of
marking some projects as "research" or "design" to indicate a degree
of difficulty.
We've had students of both types, some who worked on projects with
very specific goals and some with more open-ended goals. My opinion
is not to limit either way. I'm of the belief that the more projects
you listed, the better your chances and attracting an interested
student, even if the project isn't necessarily something that can be
finished over the summer.
When going into the program, I think its useful to take the viewpoint
that you are mentoring, not because you expect to get significant work
out of the student, but because you are helping a student to better
understand the development process, open source software, etc.
cheers
Scott
On Feb 28, 2009, at 3:45 AM, Charles Plessy wrote:
Hi all,
I would like to start a discussion about the possiblity to propose
project(s)
for the Google Summer of Code 2009. Last year the project I
proposed, about
data management, was accepted but canceled last minute because the
student got
accepted somewhere else.
http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2008/biodata
My short experience of the summer of code is the following: when a
project is
proposed with a precise draft, it will attract many candidatures,
most of them
of poor quality, where students paraphrase and obviously did not
really
understand. On the other hand, some candidates are good and the fact
that the
project attracted many candidatures is somehow positive for securing
the
funding by Google.
On the other hand, if we just state our main interests, students can
be
creative and propose things we did not think about. Also, there are
less
candidatures, with a higher level, which makes the think more
intellectually
stimulating.
I volunteer for mentoring a project this year provided of course
that Debian
will be accepted, that we get enough projects funded by Google, and
that one
related to our activities is accepted. For the moment, I hesitate
between the
top-down and the bottom-up approach for the defintion of the
project. Any idea ?
Of course, if you have a strong interst in the Summer of Code, do
not hesitate
to candidate as a mentor as well.
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
Debian Med packaging team,
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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