[OLPC-GSoC] Number of SoC projects requested by OLPC

Sat Apr 19 08:25:49 EDT 2008

A warning:

I know we're all anxious to know how many slots OLPC will get. But just note
the following message from Google Summer of Code
Discuss<http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-discuss?hl=en>:

"Mentors: To tell anyone they are accepted until they have been marked
as ssuch on the webapp, before the appointed day, is one of the sure
ways to make your organization -not- be invited back in subsequent
years and to see your allocations reduced to 0."

I assume that also goes for any other promise they can't keep, like "we are
guaranteed to get at least 8 slots this year." It's understandable, since
Google will end up taking some of the blame for any broken promises.

So, we can ask for vaguely-worded encouragement or bad news, but until
Monday, we should not even ask for anything definite.

Shameless <http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Bityi/GSoC>ly y'rs,
Jameson <http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-discuss?hl=en>

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Bobby Powers <bobbypowers at gmail.com> wrote:

> thanks SJ, that sounds great.  I know for myself<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OpenSim>that I'd like to work on this over the summer to some extent and into next
> year if I get in or not, and having some tie to OLPC and a little green XO
> over the summer (for 2 conferences in the System Dynamics field, one
> exclusively for K-12 educators) would go a long way towards getting more
> funding and accelerating my efforts in the fall and beyond.  I'm sure others
> have similar feelings!
>
> yours,
> Bobby Powers
>
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 10:32 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > We've been requesting 30 since they asked for an organization update
> > last week, and at least /part/ of the interface (the part that mentors see)
> > was updated with this information... I wrote to Leslie earlier today to find
> > out what was up with the overall allocation.
> >
> > If we commit to having two mentors available for each application, which
> > leaves a healthy buffer of mentor-time, we could give detailed attention to
> > more than 15.  I pointed out that we have a few experts in their respective
> > projects/fields from outside of OLPC offering to mentor student work, which
> > is also a plus.
> >
> > Meanwhile, I'm seeing if we can get XOs and automatic developer-program
> > enrollment for the best applications that we don't have the slots to accept
> > -- there are 40 projects that are truly interesting and should not be
> > dropped, and have at least one talented mentor offering to support them.
> >
> > SJ
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 3:46 PM, Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero <
> > dirakx at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all
> > >
> > > On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 1:44 PM, Jameson Chema Quinn <
> > > jquinn at cs.oberlin.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On 4/14/08, Patrick Dubroy <pdubroy at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > How many SoC slots have been requested by OLPC? In the SoC web
> > > > > app,
> > > > > the "likely to be accepted" line seems to be around 30
> > > > > applications.
> > > > > However, a friend  who is signed up to mentor for another
> > > > > organization
> > > > > said that Leslie Hawthorn sent a message to one of the SoC lists
> > > > > saying that OLPC has only asked for 4 slots. Is this true? If so,
> > > > > that
> > > > > seems awfully low.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am just another student. However, until SJ replies, I can fill in
> > > > the version of the rumor that I heard: Google has some magic AI which
> > > > watches the traffic through the GSoC interface and guesses how many slots
> > > > each organization is going to get. That AI is what came up with the number
> > > > 4, which OLPC agrees is too low. It seems probable that when a human at
> > > > Google reviews the situation, they will agree that the number is low.
> > > >
> > >
> > > yep it seems that the  AI script is giving the 4 number atm , anyway
> > > there are more or less 60 more slots remaining to be given by google...so we
> > > will see.
> > >
> > >
> > > > Of course, "something more than 4" is still a pretty wide range, and
> > > > all of us students are dying to know about how many slots OLPC expects. Just
> > > > going through the wiki category<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:GSoC_proposals>,
> > > > I can count at least 10 applications besides my own<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Bityi/GSoC>that appear to me to be very well-thought-out and useful to OLPC; and I know
> > > > that there are 3 or 4 that are not on the wiki that SJ has mentioned in
> > > > lists of interesting projects. Based on that, I'd say it would be a real
> > > > pity if there were fewer than 8, and probably 13 would plenty, so if I were
> > > > voting the number should be somewhere in there. (speaking as a teacher, the
> > > > standouts are ANN, Coding Tutor, Customizing Moodle, DrGeo, Elements, Garden
> > > > Activity, and Water Wonders; there are others which might be great but the
> > > > wiki pages are not clear enough for me to tell, and several others which are
> > > > not oriented towards the classroom or have duplicate applications where I do
> > > > not comment).
> > > >
> > > > I would love to hear something more definite from SJ on the numbers.
> > > >
> > > > Jameson
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Gsoc mailing list
> > > > Gsoc at lists.laptop.org
> > > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/gsoc
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero
> > > One Laptop Per Child
> > > rafael at laptop.org
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Gsoc mailing list
> > > Gsoc at lists.laptop.org
> > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/gsoc
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
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