Re: Google Summer of Code - some ideas

[Bastien <bzg@gnu.org>]

Hi Aurélien,

Aurélien Aptel <aurelien.aptel+emacs@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, Apr 21, 2013 at 6:46 PM, Aurélien Aptel
> <aurelien.aptel+emacs@gmail.com> wrote:
>> So, If an emacs hacker is interested in mentoring any of these
>> projects please manifest yourself :) !
>
> I should mention some things :
> - being a mentor does not take too much time (GSoC FAQ says 5 hours a
> week is a reasonable estimate).

Well, depends.

I was a not-so-good mentor last year because I had two students to
take care of (including you), and I think it does take time to be a
good one.

There is always this temptation to say "Well, you're a grown up,
just make progress and report blockages.  But I don't think it is
very effective -- I least I think we lost of lot of your precious
time and energy last year but relying to much on this.

> - a project can have multiple mentors (less work for each !)

... if they are well organized enough :)

> - I'll be asking most of my questions to the mailling list or the
> irc channel

That's very good.  When we switched to this way of working last
year I think it was more effective.

> As far as I know, anyone sufficiently involved in Emacs can mentor.
> You basically have to review my progress, give some advice when I'm
> stuck and check up on me if I don't give any news in a long time.

Let me insist on this: this is soft-mentoring and can work, but I
think "deep" mentoring would much more worth--both for you and for
the project.

> If you're still interested head to the GSoC webpage where you can
> register (you need a google account I think)
>
> http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2013

Another thing: one point about GSoC is to "recruit" new contributors
for the project.  I was happy with your contributions, but slightly
disappointed that you did not involve more into Org's community after
it was done: finishing the redmine sync, promoting your library, etc.

It's fine, because obviously there is no obligation here, and maybe
I was a bit naive about this -- I had this picture that finally we'll
work as a close team with all those new GSoC students (3 just for Org!)

Anyway, again, each mentor will have his expectation and I was faulty
of not having time enough for you.  And I'm sure you'll contribute
with great code and ideas, so I'd be happy to see you step onboard
again.

-- 
 Bastien