Re: [Caml-list] Google summer of code

[Yotam Barnoy <yotambarnoy@gmail.com>]

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I actually don't think it's very hard to apply (in general). The
requirements page is here (
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2014/help_page?ModPagespeed=noscript#1._How_does_a_mentoring_organization).
It's certainly much easier than applying for a grant.

Having participated as a mentor in another organization, and having seen
the application process every year, I can say that the main part is coming
up with a webpage full of ideas for projects. I think that already exists
partially on the ocamllabs wiki. I'd really like to see that wiki be
centralized and available from the ocaml.org site. The key thing is to
figure out which projects are doable by people in one summer. The next step
is that people need to volunteer for mentorship. Even 2 people are enough
for a start, but 3-4 are better. Finally, one person takes on the process
of filling out the application and submitting it.

One of the things that concern google, as can be seen in the webpage, is
that there's enough effort from the mentors to
a. weed out the poor candidates and
b. be in touch with/demand enough from the candidates to make sure that
they're actually working and not just slacking off for the summer. In my
old organization, the participants had to post blog updates every week or
so about their progress.

Other than that, there's not much to it.

-Yotam



On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 4:04 AM, Adrien Nader <adrien@notk.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Jan 14, 2014, Yotam Barnoy wrote:
> > Dear List
> >
> > Are there plans to apply for GSOC mentorship this year? Searching online
> > yielded only a rejected application from 2011. Applications for mentor
> > organizations are due February 14th.
>
> Then, if nothing has been started yet, it's probably already too late.
> GSoC is fairly constraining and time-consuming. Nowadays, projects which
> manage to do it have actually gotten experienced at it and this makes it
> more difficult for new participants: they don't only have to do things
> well, they have to do things better than projects which have been doing
> it for 10 years.
>
> There's also a feeling that Google doesn't care about what happens in
> OCaml-land (that's mostly speculation).
>
> I believe it might be worth trying again. Many things have changed and
> the projects that could be worked on now might appeal more to the GSoC
> organizers. That would be for 2015 in my opinion though.
>
> Regards,
> Adrien Nader
>
>
>

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