On 4/15/06, Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com wrote:
Mozilla's experience last year wasn't so good[1]; some of their projects didn't complete, and most of them haven't been touched since the end of the summer. Mono however had a much more positive experience[2], with most of their projects completing and being further developed and adopted after the end.
So I think it will be important to try to engage the folks working on our projects if we want to keep them. :)
The students I mentored were successes, and I think (hope!) it was a great experience for them. Two trends I've seen from looking at the successes and failures of projects, and how it may apply to your selection criteria:
1) If the contribution is an external piece (like an extension as Evan P. sensibly suggested) it may mean the student will develop in isolation. Since part of the SoC is to bring non-free-software types into this world, if the student doesn't have regular discussion with other developers or doesn't have regular exposure of their code they can falter. Additionally, as the Mozilla note mentioned, contributions that aren't part of the mainline will likely bitrot. (I don't have a solution to this; just a cautionary note.)
2) Since writing PHP has a low barrier to entry, I expect you'll get a lot of proposals that sound good but turn out to be poorly written. I urge you to consider "what else has this student done that makes us believe they'll do a good job?" in your selection criteria -- e.g., encourage them to include source code or point at other projects they've done.
I hope it turns out well for you!