GSOC proposals

[Brendan Colloran]

Hi everyone!

A number of people have expressed interest in writing a GSOC proposal for the Iodide project, and the time has come to start drafting formal proposals, see https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline

For general advice about how to write a compelling proposal, I'd advise all the folks who are interested to visit: https://wiki.mozilla.org/SummerOfCode

Regarding specific project ideas and proposals:

- A number of you have already been able to start diving into the central code, and have had some time to explore its functionality and begin thinking about things you might want to work on to improve Iodide. If you already have something in mind, that's great! Run with it!

- For students most interested in data science: documentation will be critical to the Iodide project, and a very compelling project could take the form of a series of notebooks that introduce the functionality of the Iodide notebook and demonstrate how to do data science using it. A student undertaking this project could also help identify workflow issues in Iodide and suggest solutions (and, optionally, help to fix those issues in the core code, but that would not be the emphasis of this project). This project would involve writing a substantial amount of both code and prose, which is not everyone's cup of tea. But myself and Hamilton have a lot of experience with written communication of data science, as well as visualization, statistical graphics, etc, and we can provide especially strong mentorship to students interested in developing these skills.

If you're ready to start working out the details of a project proposal, and you want to discuss your ideas, please feel free to send a direct email to both myself and Hamilton (bcol...@mozilla.com, hul...@mozilla.com). We'll be working together on helping students refine their proposals.

Thanks all!

-brendan

[Brendan Colloran]

Reminder to everyone that if you're interested in participating in GSoC, you should begin thinking about your proposal ideas now. We advise reaching out very soon if you want to discuss any ideas before you get the point of writing a full proposal.

Remember: the application deadline is March 27 16:00 UTC! (time line link below)

Best,

Brendan