Google's "Summer of Code" is on again. If you're not familiar
with
GSoC, see:
http://code.google.com/soc/
We had a brief discussion on IRC, and we have enough potential mentors
to make it worth applying again.
Org applications are open Feb 3rd-14th. Accepted orgs are announced on
Feb 24th, and students can apply between March 10th and 21st, but the
keen ones have already started to talk to orgs.
The full timeline is here:
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/events/google/gsoc2014
I'm happy to submit the org application again.
The main priorities right now are:
* Refreshing the list of project ideas - this list is one of the key
things they look at when reviewing org applications:
http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/GSoCProjectIdeas
I've done a bit of cleaning up, but mostly just updating it to
reflect things that have been implemented now (both in GSoC and
outside it). We need to have this list in great shape by Feb 14th
(so just over 3 weeks time as I write this). You can still add or
improve ideas after then too.
Ideas do *NOT* have to be for work on Xapian itself - projects
related to Xapian in other software are within scope. A wider range
of project ideas will give us a broader appeal to students.
* Identifying potential mentors. Ideally every idea on the list
should have at least one suitable potential mentor attached.
If you're interested in acting as a mentor for one of the ideas
there, or have an idea for a project with a scope suitable for a
student to complete in about 12 weeks, please update that page.
* Talking to the students who've started to appear.
If you are a student eligible for GSoC and interested in working on
Xapian, please feel free to get in touch. You don't have to choose
from the ideas on the list - you're welcome to propose your own
project ideas.
If you want to discuss being a mentor or a student, or a project idea,
you can do so on the mailing list or on #xapian on freenode (if you
aren't already an IRC user, see http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/GSoC_IRC for
links to a web IRC client).
There's also a general GSoC IRC channel - #gsoc on freenode.
Cheers,
Olly
On 23 Jan 2014, at 10:50, Olly Betts <olly at survex.com> wrote:> * Refreshing the list of project ideas - this list is one of the key > things they look at when reviewing org applications: > > http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/GSoCProjectIdeasI'm available as a mentor again this year, and I'm particularly interested in ways we can integrate Xapian with other projects. I'll try to add a couple of specific things that would be worth looking at (possibly including improvements to existing integrations such as Rails & Django-Haystack), but if there's anyone out there itching to add Xapian-powered search (or Xapian-powered something else, for that matter) to their favourite tool, framework, CMS or whatever, then let's talk and get a concrete idea up on our projects list (if you aren't eligible as a GSoC student then you probably are as a mentor, and I'm more than happy to work with potential mentors from outside Xapian to get this kind of thing in shape). J -- James Aylett, occasional trouble-maker xapian.org
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:50:44AM +0000, Olly Betts wrote:> I'm happy to submit the org application again.Now submitted.> The main priorities right now are: > > [...] > > * Identifying potential mentors. Ideally every idea on the list > should have at least one suitable potential mentor attached. > > If you're interested in acting as a mentor for one of the ideas > there, or have an idea for a project with a scope suitable for a > student to complete in about 12 weeks, please update that page.A new question on this year's application form is how many mentors we have, so if you've been meaning to step forward, doing it in the next 24-36 hours would mean I can update that count to include you. Cheers, Olly
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 05:55:53PM +0000, James Aylett wrote:> I'm available as a mentor again this year, and I'm particularly > interested in ways we can integrate Xapian with other projects.Sounds good.> I'll try to add a couple of specific things that would be worth > looking at (possibly including improvements to existing integrations > such as Rails & Django-Haystack), but if there's anyone out there > itching to add Xapian-powered search (or Xapian-powered something > else, for that matter) to their favourite tool, framework, CMS or > whatever, then let's talk and get a concrete idea up on our projects > list (if you aren't eligible as a GSoC student then you probably are > as a mentor, and I'm more than happy to work with potential mentors > from outside Xapian to get this kind of thing in shape).I've added a generic "integrate Xapian with an application or framework" project to the ideas list for now, so students will know this is an option. If there are specific examples people are keen to mentor, please add those too. Cheers, Olly
I'm pleased to announce we were accepted again this year.
Student applications are open between March 10th and 21st, but they've
been talking to us for a while now, and the volume of enquires has
unsurprisingly spiked today. Please help answer questions if you're
able to.
If you're a potential mentor with an idea for a project, it would be
good to get it up soon - the later you add it, the fewer students will
consider it.
To reiterate, ideas do *NOT* have to be for work on Xapian itself -
if you're interested in adding (or improving) Xapian integration for
some other open source software, that'd be great.
And if you're interested in mentoring, please add yourself to any
project ideas that interest you. If you want to know more about what's
involved in GSoC mentoring, one of the mentors from previous years can
give you a better idea.
Cheers,
Olly