Hello all the Google Summer of Code students,
I have been looking over the proposals and there are a couple of things
that many seem to be lacking. I have put this email together to help you
fix these and help make your proposals better.
Tip 1 - Include IRC Nickname
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Include your IRC nick as the first thing in the detailed description.
In the last month there have been over 50 new people turn up, keeping
you all straight is hard for us. Specially when your IRC nick, email
address and real name have no resemblance.
Tip 2 - Project First, Resume Second
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We are most interested in your proposal for the project. If your
proposal looks good we may then look at your resume / personal
description.
Hence, include the project information first and your personal stuff
second.
Tip 3 - Include assertive **Functional Milestones**
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One of the best ways to show that you are a serious students is to
include proper assertive milestones. These should be a single sentences
which say something like
* The AI *will* issue move orders.
* The client *will* be able to display planets in a 3d fashion.
* The ruleset *will* allow tpclient-pywx to see planets.
* The metaserver *will* display a starmap generated from
starmapper.
The keyword here is ____will____, it is assertive.
These milestones should have dates associated with them. We understand
that you are new to the project and that these dates will change as the
project progresses. You *will not* fail just because a milestone had to
be moved a week or dropped all together.
The milestones should be testable and specific. Here are some examples
which are **not** acceptable.
* The AI framework will be finish.
* The star map will work.
* The ruleset will be balanced.
Negative milestones are hard to test, avoid them if possible. For
example "The AI will not issue wrong orders" is almost impossible to
prove and not all that useful. More often negative statements are goals
not milestones.
These milestones *will* be hard to figure out, being able to talk about
specifics shows that you are well researched and know your stuff. Have
confidence in your own abilities!
Keep your milestones small, they should be doable in less then a weeks
full time work. The smaller (and more specific) they are, the harder it
will be to
Talk to the mentors about your milestones, they have huge amount of
knowledge about what is realistic and can really help you refine the
details.
Tip 4 - We are not mind readers
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Anything which is not linked to from your proposal effectively does not
exist. I'm afraid we can not (yet) read your mind.
I personally have a crap memory, it is unlikely that I will remember
that IRC conversation we had about XYZ. Other mentors may not have seen
that conversation either.
If you have thought about a certain way to do something tell us, even if
you decided that it was not feasible. If you had an important IRC
conversation which resulted in changing the way you think, link too the
logs. If a web page was influential tell us about it!
Tip 5 - Submit now!
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Do not leave it to the last minute as you won't have time to update the
proposal based on feedback. There is still plenty of time for mentors to
give feedback and you to update your proposal.
Last year all accepted student for Thousand Parsec went through at least
three updates to their applications.
Tip 6 - Make your application public
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Having a public application means not only can mentors give you feedback
but other students and the general community can too!
Using a wiki is a good idea because it lets us look at the history of
how your proposal has evolved. It also means you can have formatting
making it easier to read.
Tip 7 - Splitting applications which are too big
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Google limits the text you can submit for your detailed description to
XXX characters. This can be quite limited if you have some detailed
information or pseudo code.
It is recommended that you produce two versions of your application.
A "cut back" version which fits into the character limit. This should be
all the very important bits of your application. **You must include your
functional milestones in this section**. There should be enough meat in
this section to convince us to look at your further URL.
The URL in the document should link to your full proposal. Feel free to
add things like pseudo code, ruleset design information or anything else
which you feel is relevant.
This linked proposal you should also include your complete Google
application. The text which is being duplicated should be clearly marked
in a different colour but still readable. Assume that clicking the link
replace the Google application with the page and we can no longer
remember the original proposal.
________Remember quality is better then quantity!__________
Tip 7 - I'm not the only mentor
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Thousand Parsec has 9 mentors, all their opinions counts. Listen to
their feedback too!
I hope this helps you all improve your applications.
Tim 'Mithro' Ansell
Thousand Parsec Project Founder, Admin and Mentor
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