FINAL GSOC Update before De-Duplication Period

[Ed Cable]

Hi all,

So I've resolved that there are no conflicts with either Antonio nor Rishabh so we're all good to go there. 

The final debate now comes down to our additional seventh slot and Pawan and Oleg.

The most recent twist to this final selection is that we now have a duplication with Pawan since JBoss also selected him for their project.

Since several mentors were on the fence about Pawan and we know that he will still be able to participate in GSOC even if we don't accept him, I'm inclined to select Oleg.

I know we have concerns with Oleg's technical capacity and the potential for his colleagues at FINA to meddle in the overall affairs but if were to select Oleg, I would distinguish one senior individual from FINA to act as the primary mentor for Oleg and then have one of us as a backup mentor. We would be very clear on the scope of the project deliverables for Oleg and ensure that he meets those and is a successful intern but I would sort of see Oleg as a different case then our other interns. 

While I've spoken directly to several of the mentors about pros and cons of Oleg, here is a summary of those:

Pros:

* Oleg has been pushed very hard by Kakha and his colleagues to address the deficiences that arose in the interview so I foresee that Oleg's mentor would be very committed to ensuring he's successful.

* Ability to better incorporate Oleg and FINA team as contributors to our community - GSOC is a way to accelerate that participation and I do see Oleg being a longterm contributor to Mifos X as part of FINA especially if he's able to grow. 

Cons:

* on the converse, the close interaction from Oleg's mentor, Kakha, and FINA in general could back-fire and be more of a distraction. 

* need to fully scope out the project for Oleg - either drag and drop reporting or it could be integrate with FINA central bank reporting tool which will have value for Mifos in multiple markets. 

The biggest concern  about not picking Pawan and selecting Oleg would mean we wouldn't have a student to work on the standalone package which is important and also had good mentors lined up (both anuruddha and michael as backup).  Anuruddha thought has said he could take on work on this project himself directly. 

Pawan himself didn't express strong preference towards Mifos X over JBoss in his application - he did stated he'd pick Mifos but only because he'd be able to get the project done sooner.  

Is any mentor vehemently opposed to selecting Oleg if JBoss really wants Pawan. Do they have serious concerns about Oleg - not being able to pass and FINA mentorship being too much of a distraction.

If not, before the de-duplication meeting at 1900 GMT, I will resolve the duplication with JBoss by not accepting Pawan and accepting Oleg instead.

We should have another verbal meeting as there will be some re-shuffling of mentors (amongst Vishwas/Nayan/Anuruddha):

Picking Oleg over Pawan, our final intern class would look like: 

Student	Project	Mentor
Ishan	Mobile Field Officer Planner	1. Vishwas 2. Nayan/Anuruddha
Gaurav	Community App Optimizations	1. Kojo
Antonio	Pay as You Go Solar Module	1. James 2. Ashok/Pramod
Diunuge	Data Import Tool	1. Nayan 2. Anuruddha
Rishabh	Notifications Framework	1. Anuruddha 2. Vishwas/Nayan
Channa	Client Impact Portal	1. Sander
Oleg		1. FINA 2. Anuruddha

Ed

[Ed Cable]

And i did just hear back from the mentors at JBoss. They are pretty keen on Pawan.

One comment from one of their mentors on the email thread. So from the perspective of us not being blown away by Pawan and them eagerly embracing him, I'd give Pawan to them.

Hi guys,

we have one candidate for the same topic but Pawan is superior to him. Pawan did a great job to define the workflow for the GSoC task, assembled technical details and also he submitted a PR already. I'd definitely like guide to him this year, for the same qualities you've mentioned.

Thanks,

Karel

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Ed Cable

Mifos Community Manager

Director of Community Programs, Mifos Initiative

edc...@mifos.org | Skype: edcable | Mobile: 484.477.8649

Collectively Creating a World of 3 Billion Maries | http://openmf.org  

Note: As of Jan 1, 2014 my email has changed from edcable@openmf.org to edcable@mifos.org. Please update your address book accordingly.