Yeah!
I was part of the "mixed luck" from last year, and honestly, I get warm feelings when reading the friendly http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2009/Application_template ;)
I don't know if anyone here is willing to be a mentor this year, but please go ahead, and try to help a student. The experience is unique for students, as it really motivates them to get involved -- if not in mediawiki -- in an OSS project.
I don't know how to put it "nicely", but the key for GSoC to succeed, on the mentor/senior devs side, is just to be *very* available. Easy thing to say, I know, but that would be nice to keep this in mind if we plan to host students this year. It's not about having "xx minutes available a day for my student", it's more of being able to set up in advance regular IRC meetings so that his (her?) questions can be answered in real-time: being stuck on your code when it seems like you won't get your questions answered in a long time particularly sucks; especially when it seems to you that answers are really simple.
And it's not only about mentors, but also about having some "awareness" from devs that students are going to hang around on IRC, asking for directions, and also sometimes asking (very) naive questions: let's try not to bite them! =)
So yes, let's move, let's get involved into GSoC again! This is really a great project, and I'm really looking forward to seeing new faces around, bringing in new ideas, as naive as they may sound =)
2009/3/11 Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org:
I’ve just put in Wikimedia’s org application for Google Summer of Code 2009… Hopefully we’ll get in. :)
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2009 ^ Add and update cool project ideas as a starting point for student applicants!
We’ve had mixed luck in previous years with GSoC, but I think we’ve got enough internal bandwidth this year that we can make sure there’s enough effort put into interacting with the student candidates ahead of time to pick the coolest and most go-get-em self-starter awesome projects and then support them through the project term.
I’ve also tossed up a student application template if you want to get started early. :)
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2009/Application_template
-- brion
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