Greetings Over the past few weeks a proposal has been raised for the creation of a Wesnoth GSOC-like art scholarship. I've spoken to several developers including Dave, Jetryl and Ivanovic on this topic, and this email is really an compilation of those discussions.
I believe the reason behind the proposal is fairly simple; If wesnoth desires continued growth in the future, it is essential that we embrace a holistic approach to our development. While enhancing GUI, stats server or mp security are important issues, so is art development. I doubt anybody can deny the exceptional contribution made by Kitty, Lord Bob and Jetryl to the game over the past year. This proposal intends to build on that by developing our young talent base. At the same time it is a philanthropic endevour, where we are offering a student the opportunity to enhance their art skills over the summer. Wesnoth financial situation is well suited for such a proposal. With the completion of this year's GSOC in September we will have an operating reserve of between $5,000 and $7,000 dollars. Based on this and some discussions, I believe there are two acceptable options; a single $2,500 scholarship or two at $1,500 each. This would leave at minimum $2,000 for other contingencies. The mechanics of the scholarship would closely resemble how we manage the GSOC process. We would retain the mentoring process the summer of code uses, with Jetryl as the lead person. However the nature of art as a medium in our project compared to coding requires some adjustments to the payment and oversight scheme. GSOC projects typically are end loaded; though there is constant interaction between the mentor and student, the project is typically finished at the end. As such the money is disbursed at the beginning and end of the project. For an art project, we would expect a number of pieces to be completed over the project length. Therefore a progressive payment scheme seems more appropriate, where money is allocated when the student reaches certain milestones. This transfers some of the onus from the student to the mentor, as the latter would need to identify the development path of the student. I submit that a prospective student would identify some areas where he or she would like to improve, to which the mentor would design a program around. As an illustrative example, if this program was run from June 1st to September 1st, having four milestones (one every three weeks consisting of a piece of art or two) might seem reasonable. Upon each assignment's completion funds would be disbursed. Again I'm not suggesting how it should be, just to illustrate how it might be organized. While this system may seem to be somewhat onerous compared to GSOC, there are several good reasons for it. First is the fact that we are running this for the first time and don't have an adequate understanding of how this may turn out. By using a progressive scheme we can ensure the money is being used effectively throughout. I would rather this be run somewhat stringently the first time and then relax our procedures for subsequent attempts, if we decide to repeat it in the future. The second reason is the unique area for art. Unlike other gsoc programs which are widely critiqued by all the developers, we only have one individual in this area. Since Jetryl is the only art developer involved in day to day management of wesnoth, it would be difficult for our community to effectively assess the scholarship's outcome. Having clear milestones enables us to maintain an adequate level of oversight that is consistent with the GSOC program. Obviously comments are welcome, but I would suggest that we move quickly on this proposal if it is approved. Noy. _______________________________________________ Wesnoth-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
