R GSoC 2013 Status Update and Next Steps

[Brian G. Peterson]

I thought it would be helpful for everyone in the R GSoC community if I
outlined next steps and timelines.

The student application process is now closed for GSoC 2013, and we move
on to scoring and slot allocation.

R received 35 applications this year, and I think it is fair to say that
they are of higher quality overall than the top 35 applications from
last year. I commend the students and mentors on the effort put forth
so far. R received *16* slots last year, and we don't know how many
slots we will receive this year from Google.

Google is now firmly in control of the key project milestones. Google's
melange system enforces all deadlines, and there are no exceptions for
students or mentors or organizations if the dog eats your homework.

Nest steps and activities below.

****************************************************************
FOR STUDENTS:
Between now and May 22, the final date of proposal review and scoring,
keep an eye on your application for public comments from R mentors
seeing clarification or more information. This may be an opportunity
for you to add more detail either in a public comment on your
application or in public comments. I encourage you to be as prompt and
thorough as possible in these responses, as the application process
isn't really over until R's decisions are sent to Google.

****************************************************************
FOR MENTORS:
It is time to comment and vote!

Please make *public* comments if you want the student to respond.
Comments are private by default. Make privte comments if you want to
share your analysis of the application with the other R mentors, or
comment on your vote.

Please Comment and vote on all project applications that you feel
qualified to do so on. If it is out of your field, I'd ask that you
only down-rate (and comment on) an application if it is clearly
perfunctory, of low quality, or you see other reasons to be seriously
concerned about the quality of the application or the plan. If you've
got experience or insight in the field of the application, *please share
it* in the comments, to help educate other mentors and help shape the
discussions over applications.

If you are the listed mentor for a project, or would be willing to serve
as a co-mentor or backup mentor for a project, please also click the
slider for 'Willing to Mentor'. It makes the admin's jobs easier as we
assign primary mentors to each project.

If you are not on Melange as a mentor, you need to sign up NOW!
Projects without mentors assigned cannot be given a slot, per Google
policy. Please follow the instructions and fill in the reason you're
signing up as a mentor on melange, referencing your project.

If you're on melange but can't see this link
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/dashboard/google/gsoc2013#proposals_submitted
then you're not yes connected to R as a mentor.

If you are not on the Google group (if you got this email via a BCC) or
if you proposed comentors are not on the GSoC-R group, they need to sign
up, now. Again, provide a 'Reason' when sighing up to make it obvious
to us. If you're not sure if they are on this list, please forward this
email.

****************************************************************
SCHEDULE:
The schedule, as always, is posted here:
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/events/google/gsoc2013
and is the final word in case of any questions.

For R, Schedule Steps over the next few weeks are as follows

May 6 Slot requests to Google (org administrators)
Toby, Virgilio, and I are currently looking at student applications and
will make a slot request to Google.

now-May 22 Student Application Review and Scoring (mentors, students)

May 24 final acceptance choices to google (org admins)

May 27 accepted students announced

June 17 coding starts (though I encourage you to start on May 27th)

Regards and Good Luck,

Brian

--
Brian G. Peterson
http://braverock.com/brian/
Ph: 773-459-4973
IM: bgpbraverock

[Qiang Kou]

Thank you for your work

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Bueno es hablar, pero mejor es callar

[Yann Richet]

I am on melange, signup this group, but not yet associated to R gsoc 2013. Could you register me as a mentor (id richetyann) ?
Best regards,

Yann 

[Gergely Daróczi]

Dear All,

could you please comment on what you mean under "Please Comment and vote on all project applications that you feel qualified to do so on"?

I have rated only the proposal submitted for my project idea and I am not sure if I could/should comment on other projects too that I am a bit familiar (I have some ideas or worked with the packages), or should I leave it to the possible mentors or those, who has actively contributed to that project.

Another related question: the proposal of Daniel Nagy got a rating of "1" beside the two "5" from which one was given by me (and I am pretty sure that the other one by one of the backup mentors) without any comment. It would be awesome to see why the proposal is so bad (at least in a private comment).

Thank you very much!

Best,

Gergely

[Brian G. Peterson]

On 05/08/2013 04:54 AM, Gergely Dar�czi wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> could you please comment on what you mean under "Please Comment and vote
> on all project applications that you feel qualified to do so on"?
>
> I have rated only the proposal submitted for my project idea and I am
> not sure if I could/should comment on other projects too that I am a bit
> familiar (I have some ideas or worked with the packages), or should I
> leave it to the possible mentors or those, who has actively contributed
> to that project.

Please *do* comment and vote on anything that you feel you have some
background or knowledge of. If all the R mentors did was vote for their
own projects, we (the R GSoC program administrators) would have no
information except a few small inputs to base a decision on.

R is a set of collaborative projects, we want *all* the mentors who have
knowledge of a field or technique to weigh in on the proposals that they
feel qualified to do so. In past years, this has generated a (sometimes
surprising) amount of consensus on the best proposals which should be
accepted.

> Another related question: the proposal of Daniel Nagy got a rating of
> "1" beside the two "5" from which one was given by me (and I am pretty
> sure that the other one by one of the backup mentors) without any
> comment. It would be awesome to see why the proposal is so bad (at least
> in a private comment).

Please *do not* talk about scores on this list!

Google requires that we keep the Accept/Reject decision secret. Google,
and only Google, will announce it per the program schedule.

Private comments on the application are the place to raise concerns or
questions for the eyes of the other mentors, or to discuss the relative
merits of that or other proposals. Public comments are for requesting
more information from the student. Please keep any concerns about
applications in the private comments on melange.

If, as a mentor, you are down-voting an application, *please* make a
private comment regarding why. Incomplete application, you don't think
the proposed functionality that useful or general, you have some
knowledge about the implementation difficulty, there's a better
application (with link) that has also been submitted, whatever: but
please do everyone the professional courtesy of stating privately why
you are down-voting.

Regards,

[Gergely Daróczi]

On 8 May 2013 12:17, Brian G. Peterson <br...@braverock.com> wrote:

Awesome, thank you very much for your really useful reply, Brian!

Best,

Gergely