Google Summer of Code

[Thomas Wieczorek]

Hello!

Greg, I really like your idea and I like to see how things develop.
You get a lot of ideas and I think that getting all done in a short
time is not easy.
I just started studying and I like Ruby and it's community. I'd like
to know if you and the others have any project idea which might be too
big or where you just have not enough time to accomplish them. I'd
like to pick up one of them and propose it as a GSoC project.

Best Regards, Thomas

[Gregory Brown]

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Thomas Wieczorek
<wiec...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> I just started studying and I like Ruby and it's community. I'd like
> to know if you and the others have any project idea which might be too
> big or where you just have not enough time to accomplish them. I'd
> like to pick up one of them and propose it as a GSoC project.

I was a Google SoC student in 2006, and it was a really rewarding
program to work through.
My general thoughts and advice are here:

http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2006/08/a_summer_of_code.html

Last year I was an unassigned mentor assisting with miscellaneous
program tasks, but this year I may take on a student, so I can't
really give you specific proposal suggestions as I may be one of the
judges :)

My general advice is to pick a project that is not too big to fit into
your summer, and also something that is sufficiently important to you
personally to keep you motivated on it. That having been said, don't
pitch something that's too specific to your individual needs, and
don't pitch a project just because it sounds sexy.

The best summer of code projects will be the ones that are useful,
solve a real need, and have potential to grow beyond the initial drive
that the program provides.

There is a lot to be done within the documentation space, but I
already know some students that might be interested in making
proposals about that. If you'd like to work on that kind of stuff,
let me know and I'll put you in touch with any students you might want
to collaborate with to make sure your proposals don't overlap too
much.

As far as the project ideas I've suggested, you're welcome to select
any one of them and pitch them as an idea. I think they're all
reasonably useful. Keep in mind the chances of your GSoC proposal
succeeding will be greater if you don't choose something I'm already
working on. :)

-greg