I'd like to make a few comments about issues that have arisen during the
evaluation process for GSoC. I'm going to give my opinion on each,
please treat this as lazy consensus - do speak up if you wish to
disagree or add more items:
Not enough visibility of the process
====================================
There will always be someone who doesn't read the stuff we send out.
Where this is the case I don't think we should worry ourselves.
Sending to PMCs (including the incubator PMC) is sufficient to reach
people. We don't want to send out to committers@ as the project as a
whole needs to be behind taking on a GSoC student.
Reaching PPMCs is more problematic, I think we should continue to rely
on incubator mentors taking the message to their projects if they feel
it is appropriate.
PROPOSAL
--------
Make it explicit that incubator mentors should pass the message on to
PPMCs if appropriate.
Marking experience mentors up
=============================
I really don't like the idea up to 2 points for having been a successful
mentor before, firstly it is error prone (e.g. both Bertrand and Luciano
have been mentors *and* admins, yet the admin this year was unaware of
that). Secondly, just because someone has mentored a student in the past
doesn't mean they will be better than another mentor. Finally, mentoring
a failing student is, in many ways, more educational than mentoring a
successful one.
We already have "Does the mentor show an understanding of how to mentor
a student? (0-4 points)" - I'm more interested in whether the mentor
knows what is expected. However, applying this score is difficult.
PROPOSAL
--------
Remove "Has the mentor had a successful student in the past (0-2
points)" from the admin rankings
Add some docs to the ranking process about what admins are looking for
with respect to "oes the mentor show an understanding of how to mentor a
student? (0-4 points)" (Noirins mail with the subject Admin coordination
to alexei.fedotov on code-awards wouild be a good starting point)
Original Ideas are good
=======================
Past experience has shown that if a student proposes their own idea and
it is accepted the student is going to be strong.
PROPOSAL
--------
Add the following to the mentor ranking:
Is the project definition and idea originally the mentee's, the
mentor's or a collaborative effort? (0-2 points, 2 if mentee's idea, 1
if collaborative, 0 if mentor's)
