Hi all,
>From my understanding, GSoC is not a job, it is a student program that pays a stipend to every student who passes. That means a performance-based payment for completing a project, much like a freelance photographer receives some payment when they hand over a completed wedding album. Nobody checks how much time such freelancers spend on the project, it is the completeness of the product that matters. There have been different statements about this from different mentors and Google themselves each year. Across all organizations, some mentors state all students must work 40 hours per week, some even fix the times when students must start and stop, although not every mentor makes rules like this. This changes the dynamic from a project-based relationship to a time-based relationship, but without giving a guaranteed time-based payment like any other job. Some mentors and students may have concerns about that. Some students have existing jobs or find it attractive to take a job with employment benefits like paid medical leave, knowing they will definitely be paid for those hours and save some money to support them in the next semester even if they don't pass GSoC for any reason or if they get sick or have an accident in the summer. Some students may have other time commitments, like participating in a sporting team or supporting children. Outside the scope of GSoC, Debian welcomes everybody, whatever other commitments they have in life. For GSoC itself, I'm not convinced that every student needs to spend 40 hours/week to pass but I'm also very doubtful that a student can make a successful project if working 40 hours/week in another job. What is a fair way to make this clear for mentors and students? How many hours per work is it reasonable for a student to spend on another activity during the summer? For example, if a student has other commitments under 10 hours per work, is that acceptable? How about 15 or 20 hours? At what level should other commitments be permitted and when should they be deemed excessive? Regards, Daniel
