On 04/04/12 06:01, Gregory Varnum wrote: The title "Green SMW" should not lead to wrong expectations. The goal of this project is to address a number of long-standing performance issues in various components. The tasks are based on concrete problem reports we got from various SMW users. Is this what you mean with the "why"? The goal is to take a more general perspective in "Green SMW" and to not optimize for one use-case only, but to address known architectural weaknesses that are causing these issues. I am not sure I know what you are referring to. I don't see Flickr-related projects that are similar to this project. We should of course be careful with overlaps, but I cannot see any issue there right now. Or maybe you meant something else? Markus

On 04/05/2012 02:49 PM, Gregory Varnum wrote: To be specific: the conflicts I know about do not include Semantic MediaWiki. They are: Flickr upload: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Drecodeam/GSoC_2012_Application and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Davidpardz/GSoC_2012_application and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Johnnorro/GSoC_2012_application and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Trinhtomsk/GSoC_2012_application . Drecodeam's application is the one that has a mentor championing it (Ryan Kaldari). Watchlist: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Bagariavivek/GSoC_Application and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Blackjack48/GSOC_proposal_for_watchlist… (also the evidently abandoned proposal https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Deepanshu/GSoC_Application ) Editor rewards/ "Who's been awesome": https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Shubh09/gsoc and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Erangamapa/mygsoc Historically, sometimes we receive multiple proposals for very similar tasks for Google Summer of Code, but we only accept one. Factors going into our decision will include: which proposal is better, which student has participated more in the Wikimedia community, which student has better technical skills, and which student has better communication skills. Therefore, every applicant should watch out for other students who are making very similar proposals, and Gregory and I have aimed to specifically alert students who are facing conflicts. Those students should either choose to strive to make their applications regarding that topic the best it can be, or one of them should choose a different topic. We will find out how many slots Google allots us by April 20th. On balance I like the competition. The scarcity of slots does spur better proposals and better preparation, and it's better that students learn the importance of preparation and community engagement (possibly by being rejected) as early in life as possible. :) -- Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation

On 05/04/12 19:49, Gregory Varnum wrote: ... Yes, and I think you are actually right with your observation (in a way). Sumana has pointed out that there are no topic conflicts for SMW-applications so far, but there are resource conflicts on other levels: we will have to limit the number of projects to ensure that there are enough dedicated mentors for each project. So even different projects can be mutually exclusive. This is still a bit sad, but I would rather do this than have insufficient guidance for the students. Markus