[OLPC-GSoC] SoC activity development

[Wade Brainerd]

I agree that given the way GSoC pays students for meeting predefined goals,
the issues you raise could cause problems.  It's my first GSoC experience so
I'm not aware to what extent they actually happen.

With the right number of students, involved mentors, and the fact that the
students' stipends are actually separate (what division?), I'm not sure it's
as impossible as you say.  I've had similar experiences working with interns
at my company that worked out well - teaching several people the same topic
at once is usually more efficient than teaching them all separately.

And given the level of overlapping interest in activity development on the
Ideas talk page and the mailing list, I think there needs to be some kind of
a plan to coordinate the work, so this was my offering.

Best,

Wade

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 3:12 PM, Austin Appel <scorche15 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wade Brainerd wrote:
> > What about treating several of the proposed activities as a one large
> > project?  We would create a SoC "activity team" of 4-8 students and
> > 2-3 mentors, and then have these students develop several of the
> > activity ideas over the summer.
>
> Google Summer of Code simply does not work like that.  This is for many
> good reasons such as:
>
> Students being reliant on another student's work does not end well if
> something happens to the other student.
> Issues always arise about Xxxxx Xxxxx not doing "their fair share" or
> one superstar student doing almost everything.
> Delays while waiting for collaborators.
> Dividing up money fairly.
>
> This really isn't an option at all, as it is against Google's whole
> vision of GSoC and how it should work.
>
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