[fab] Google's Summer of Code 2006

[Patrick W. Barnes]

On Sunday 16 April 2006 14:50, seth vidal <skvidal at linux.duke.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-04-16 at 12:00 -0400, Jesse Keating wrote:
> > On Sat, 2006-04-15 at 18:11 -0500, Patrick W. Barnes wrote:
> > > Google has just announced that they will sponsor the event again this
> > > year.
> > > Will we participate again?
> >
> > The question is how are we doing now with the projects we SoC'd last
> > year?  Where are the developers we paid to do work?  How
> > maintainable/sustainable is the code and the projects?  One of the
> > problems I heard expressed from last year was that once the money dried
> > up the developers vanished, leaving what they had done at whatever state
> > it was at.  While this might be acceptable for improvements to existing
> > projects, it wasn't very good for brand new projects.
> >
> > I think we seriously need to look at how to use these folks in the best
> > way possible, and I honestly thing starting a bunch of projects from
> > scratch is a bad use.  Have them work on improving some project with
> > code that can be maintainable after they leave.  Basically approach it
> > with the idea that as soon as the summer is over, the developer will be
> > vanished, and we have to take what they've done and continue it somehow.
>
> I agree.
>
> I can think of a number of enhancements to moinmoin or applications in
> turbo gears (what Elliot has been doing a fair bit of coding in) that
> would be useful for fedora and wouldn't take a herculean effort to
> maintain.
>
> Targeting web apps might be a better way.
>
> Hey, I know - what if we had someone write us a mirror database system
> since it seems like bouncer is just about never going to be in the state
> we need it in. :)
>
> or maybe just see if we can SoC someone into fixing bouncer as we need
> it.
>
> -sv

+1

Some of the projects from last year have been valuable, but the developers 
have largely disappeared.  Some have done a better job of keeping in touch 
than others.  Part of the problem is that these people are college students, 
and so give up working with us when classes are in.  Also, maintaining a 
large from-scratch project is a daunting task for someone who's just getting 
started.  Improvement of existing projects would be a great use of their 
talent, and they'd be more likely to stick around when they aren't completely 
overwhelmed by a new project.  Of course, the exact projects they apply for 
are their decision, but we can encourage them to apply for the enhancement 
projects by focusing on them in the FedoraBounties page.

Another thing that might help is getting more of the community involved in 
mentoring the students and putting the students in better touch with our 
community.  Last year, they were largely disconnected from our community, and 
without the sense of community, very few developers will stick with any 
project.

Some of the students are bound to disappear no matter what we do, but there is 
a potential opportunity to gain some valuable contributors.  If we at least 
get the best contributions possible out of them over the summer, we haven't 
got much to lose.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64 at n-man.com

http://www.n-man.com/

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