Hi folks,
We're just 1 day away from the deadline for student applications in this year's Summer of Code. What does that mean?
Deadline ========
************************************************************** * * * STUDENT APPLICATION DEADLINE: 19:00 UTC, Friday 21st March * * * **************************************************************
At that point (just over 24 hours from now), students will no longer be able to make new applications in Google's melange web app. *Existing* applications will be editable after that deadline, but may need some mentor/admin intervention to do so. (I'm told there will be a toggle to make an application ediable again.)
So: if you're a student considering applying to work with Linaro this summer, you *must* have an application posted in Melange by the deadline. If you've been holding back and have not applied yet, don't delay!
Equally, if you're a mentor and you've been discussing a possible application with a prospective student, please pass this information along to them as well. Once that deadline has passed, Google will not accept any more applications for 2014.
What happens beyond that point - tweaks, ranking and slots ==========================================================
Mentors and admins should review all the applications posted, working out which of the applications they consider good enough. If there are any questions for the students, or suggestions on how to improve the applications or further things that should be done: this is the last possible stage for this dialogue to happen.
The next deadline is the 6th of April. By this point, the admins and mentors must have worked out which of the student applications are best and marked them accordingly in Melange.
As an organisation, we must then decide how many project slots to request from Google. If we have 5 really good applications for 5 different projects, then clearly we will apply for 5 slots. If we have 4 really good applications but they're only covering 2 different projects (i.e. 2 each), then we should only apply for *2* slots. There's no scope for multiple instances of a single project here. So, here's a hint to the students: if you're applying for a project then try and make your stand out. Either make it the clear *best* proposal for a project, or come up with a distinct project proposal so that it makes sense as a separate slot.
Google will then review all the slot requests from all the organisations and will allocate them as they see fit. That's when we and the other orgs get to decide which student proposals to accept for the summer. Then the fun starts!
Students - how to apply =======================
I was hoping to have our wiki set up for student access by now, but it's not happened yet. We *will* have something in the next few days so it's working for the summer, but don't wait for that now. Student applications should be made through Melange, ideally using our application template from
https://wiki.linaro.org/SummerOfCode2014/StudentApplicationTemplate
as a basis. Don't feel constrained to *only* give us the information that's requested there - please make applications as complete and as creative as possible. Suggested timelines and milestones are good here. Show us evidence that you've researched the topic of your project and you're not just regurgitating what we suggested in the posted project ideas page. Make it clear why you think *you* are the right person to work on your project.
At this stage, make sure that you're responsive to feedback and questions too. Now is the time to impress your potential mentors. Join us on the mailing list or on irc and discuss things.
Mentors - ranking process =========================
I'll be in touch shortly with a plan for this. Watch this space! In the meantime, please provide timely feedback and help to students. Things may be about to get very busy... :-) In the meantime, you should be able to read some more background in the (internal) wiki at
https://wiki.linaro.org/Internal/SummerOfCode2014/Mentors
Finally =======
Good luck to all of you, and let's hope we get some awesome student proposals that will lead to successful projects.
Cheers,