experience

[NeilM...@gmail.com]

I have been coding for about 2 years, and a lot of the GSoC projects
seem to be somewhat over my head. Can anyone give me an idea about
what the experience levels are for most of the students in the GSoC?
Do I need to have any experience developing open source applications?
Thanks.

[Patrick W. Barnes]

In short, no experience is required. It usually helps to have some
development experience behind you, but learning and gaining experience is
really the central point of this program. When you have come up with an idea
and are preparing your proposal, make sure you don't overstate your
abilities. Make it clear that it is truly a learning experience for you and
set expectations accordingly. If you work hard on your project and meet the
goals you set, you'll likely surpass many of your more experienced peers.
You are able to continue working on your project even after the program ends,
and the mentoring organizations will invariably hope you will do just that.

When coming up with an idea, you can develop an idea that you cannot complete
100% during the program. Set solid goals for the status of your project at
each point of the summer, make it clear where your project will be when the
program ends, and, if possible, commit to continue your project after the
program until it is complete. Don't make any promises you can't keep. The
mentoring organizations that participated in previous years have heard plenty
of empty promises, and they are becoming skilled at recognizing a student who
is serious about his project versus one who is just trying to take advantage
of the program. If you set realistic goals and do your absolute best, you'll
find yourself not only accepted, but welcomed into the organization's
community. If you become an active member of the mentoring organization's
community and become a long-term or permanent contributor, you'll find that
the rewards extend far beyond a summer's pay.

--
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
The Fedora Project
nma...@fedoraproject.org

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PatrickBarnes

Have I been helpful? Rate my assistance!
http://rate.affero.net/nman64/
--

[NeilM...@gmail.com]

On Feb 18, 5:14 pm, "Patrick W. Barnes" <nma...@fedoraproject.org>
wrote:

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Well thank you very much for the response. I certainly look forward to
working on a great project this summer if I am accepted, but it seems
to be very competitive. So I will cross my fingers and see how it
goes. Thanks again.

[Social_GEEk]

I am in a similar situation NeilMonday, thanks for raising the
question. When I first heard about this program in 2005, I was very
keen to work on it, but gave up, thinking that maybe you need some
opensource development experience beforehand. Anyway, reading this
post has given me a bit of hope as I do have about 3-4 years of coding
experience in C/C++ , Java and perl working in projects of sort in
either University or Internships.

Lets see how it goes!

[LH]

On Feb 18, 5:14 pm, "Patrick W. Barnes" <nma...@fedoraproject.org>
wrote:

> In short, no experience is required. It usually helps to have some
> development experience behind you, but learning and gaining experience is
> really the central point of this program. When you have come up with an idea
> and are preparing your proposal, make sure you don't overstate your
> abilities. Make it clear that it is truly a learning experience for you and
> set expectations accordingly. If you work hard on your project and meet the
> goals you set, you'll likely surpass many of your more experienced peers.
> You are able to continue working on your project even after the program ends,
> and the mentoring organizations will invariably hope you will do just that.

Thanks for the great advice, Patrick! Just to add to this comment,
many organizations specify on their Ideas list whether a specific idea
is better suited for a more advanced developer, or more of a
beginner. Check for those projects who offer ideas that you feel you
would be a good match for, or create one of your own and submit it as
an application. We have repeatedly received feedback from our
mentoring organizations that the topics that students suggest that are
not on the Ideas list are some of the best applications they receive.

>
> When coming up with an idea, you can develop an idea that you cannot complete
> 100% during the program. Set solid goals for the status of your project at
> each point of the summer, make it clear where your project will be when the
> program ends, and, if possible, commit to continue your project after the
> program until it is complete. Don't make any promises you can't keep. The
> mentoring organizations that participated in previous years have heard plenty
> of empty promises, and they are becoming skilled at recognizing a student who
> is serious about his project versus one who is just trying to take advantage
> of the program. If you set realistic goals and do your absolute best, you'll
> find yourself not only accepted, but welcomed into the organization's
> community. If you become an active member of the mentoring organization's
> community and become a long-term or permanent contributor, you'll find that
> the rewards extend far beyond a summer's pay.

> --
> Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
> The Fedora Project
> nma...@fedoraproject.org
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PatrickBarnes
>
> Have I been helpful? Rate my assistance!http://rate.affero.net/nman64/

Yes - great advice! Thanks again Patrick!

Cheers,
LH
(Yes, I am from Google.)

[unstopableman]

Thanks for your response,and it is very useful ,especially to the
freshman like me.I know how to set a appropriate goal now and what I
should do then.

On 2月19日, 上午6时14分, "Patrick W. Barnes" <nma...@fedoraproject.org>
wrote:

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[Wang Liang]

I am totally agreed with you.
Thanks for your advice for our fresh men.

On 2月19日, 上午6时14分, "Patrick W. Barnes" <nma...@fedoraproject.org>
wrote:

[Maital]

Hello,

> Set solid goals for the status of your project at each point of the summer,

> make it clear where your project will be when the program ends…

Reading the discussions on this group, I feel that many students are
in my position: they wish to develop features for software they are
not familiar with. My question regards the technical details part of
the application: how can we be specific about the implementation
method, deliverables or project schedule without solid knowledge on
the software core? After experimenting for a few days with the project
I’d like to contribute to (GenMapp-Cytoscape), I feel that all I can
describe in my application is my enthusiasm and confidence in my
abilities, but no technical details. Would that be enough?

Thanks,
Maital.

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