Google Summer of Code/Application 2013 - Revision history

Mlforcada: /* Application */

2013-03-22T15:24:00Z

Application

Mlforcada: /* Application */

2013-03-22T15:18:47Z

Application

Francis Tyers: /* Application */

2013-03-21T14:22:54Z

Application

Francis Tyers: /* Application */

2013-03-21T14:22:13Z

Application

Francis Tyers at 22:02, 20 March 2013

2013-03-20T22:02:36Z

Francis Tyers at 10:43, 19 March 2013

2013-03-19T10:43:43Z

Jimregan: disappearing mentors...

2013-03-19T10:43:05Z

disappearing mentors...

Gramirez: /* Application */

2013-03-19T10:33:26Z

Application

Francis Tyers: /* Application */

2013-03-18T20:05:35Z

Application

Francis Tyers: /* Application */

2013-03-18T19:53:53Z

Application

@@ Line 103: / Line 103: @@
 First, we encourage all of our students visit our IRC channel (#apertium @ freenode) as often as possible, even before the start of the program, since that would help them find a suitable mentor and a useful project that they can work on.
-We advice them strongly to read our Wiki pages and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result, students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
+We advice them strongly to read our [http://wiki.apertium.org Wiki pages] and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result, students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
 In addition, we define coding challenges for each of the proposed projects, which serve both as an entry task, and as means

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ;6. Backup Admin*
+We need to decide on one. I can be the backup admin if needed. Have we decided who'll be the main admin? --[[User:Mlforcada|Mlforcada]] 15:18, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
 ;7. If you chose "veteran" in the dropdown above, please summarise your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation. Please also list your pass/fail rate for each year.
@@ Line 34: / Line 36: @@
 Successes:
+(This seems to refer only to GSoC 2012 am I right? --[[User:Mlforcada|Mlforcada]] 15:18, 22 March 2013 (UTC))
 * Getting useful results: 9 out of 11 projects were successful in that they produced useful, working code, and 6 of the projects were released, which means that the code got to a sufficient level to be let into the world.
 * Getting maintainable results: 5 out of the 11 projects have had outside developers (e.g. not the students nor their mentors) work on them.
@@ Line 59: / Line 64: @@
 *Apertium likes Google Summer of Code: it is a programme that supports open-source as much as we do!
 *Apertium needs Google Summer of Code: it is an incredible opportunity for us to spread the word, to attract newcomers and to improve the platform
 What we hope to gain by participating is more students getting to know open-source, contributing to open-source and, especially if they are passionate about languages and computers, contributing to Apertium.
@@ Line 78: / Line 83: @@
 * Active contributors: All of our mentors are active contributors to the project. Most of us know each other personally, either through meet ups, working together or conferences.
+(Am I an active contributor? --[[User:Mlforcada|Mlforcada]] 15:18, 22 March 2013 (UTC))
 * Knowledgeable in their field: Many of our mentors are university professors or PhD students or graduates. However, this is not enough to be considered for mentoring.
 * Enough time to spare: We ensure that our mentors have enough time to spare. Members of the project who have less than 5-10 hours/week to dedicate to their student are discouraged from applying to be a mentor.

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 ;13. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?*
+Students will be encouraged to let us know how they want to break up their time, and to plan for holidays and try and plan for other absences. This will avoid both mentors and students wasting time. If a mentor reports the unscheduled disappearance of a student (72-hour silence), they will be contacted by the administrators. If silence persists, their task will be frozen and we will report to Google.
 ;14. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?*

@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 * Experience with mentoring: The majority of our mentors also have experience with mentoring (from past GSOCs), either they have been mentors, or in some cases, been mentored. Any new mentors are paired with an experienced mentor.
-;13. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?*
+;13. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?*
+;14. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?*
-We assign backup mentors to all projects, and in many cases there are more than two mentors for a particular project, which helps us to avoid this problem.
+It is quite unlikely, since all of the mentors are very active developers, with long-term commitment to the project — they are people we have met face-to-face at conferences, workshops or even in daily life.
+However, there is always the possibility that some problem comes up, so we also assign backup mentors to all projects, and in many cases there are more than two mentors for a particular project.
+If a mentor cannot continue for whatever reason, the backup/co-mentor will take over, and one of the organisation administrators will take on the role of second backup mentor.
+;15. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before and during the program?
-;14. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before and during the program?
 First, we encourage all of our students visit our IRC channel (#apertium @ freenode) as often as possible, even before the start of the program, since that would help them find a suitable mentor and a useful project that they can work on.
-We advice them strongly to read our wiki pages and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result, students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
+We advice them strongly to read our Wiki pages and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result, students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
 In addition, we define coding challenges for each of the proposed projects, which serve both as an entry task, and as means
@@ Line 97: / Line 104: @@
 We urge them to keep to the project plan they made when applying, and assist them when they fall behind.
-;15. What will you do to encourage that your accepted students stick with the project after Google Summer of Code concludes?*
+;16. What will you do to encourage that your accepted students stick with the project after Google Summer of Code concludes?*
 We have found that the following has helped us have quite a high retention rate in previous years:
@@ Line 105: / Line 112: @@
 * Passing on information about MSc and PhD positions, and academic and other grants.
-;16. Are you an established or larger organisation who would like to vouch for a new organisation applying this year? If so, please list their name(s) here.
+;17. Are you an established or larger organisation who would like to vouch for a new organisation applying this year? If so, please list their name(s) here.

@@ Line 77: / Line 77: @@
 ;12. What criteria did you use to select your mentors for this year's program? Please be as specific as possible.*
+* Active contributors: All of our mentors are active contributors to the project. Most of us know each other personally, either through meet ups, working together or conferences.
-* Active contributors:
+* Knowledgeable in their field: Many of our mentors are university professors or PhD students or graduates. However, this is not enough to be considered for mentoring.
-* Knowledgeable in their field:
+* Enough time to spare: We ensure that our mentors have enough time to spare. Members of the project who have less than 5-10 hours/week to dedicate to their student are discouraged from applying to be a mentor.
-* Enough time to spare:
+* Experience with mentoring: The majority of our mentors also have experience with mentoring (from past GSOCs), either they have been mentors, or in some cases, been mentored. Any new mentors are paired with an experienced mentor.
-* Experience with mentoring:
 ;13. What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?*
@@ Line 88: / Line 88: @@
 ;14. What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before and during the program?
 First, we encourage all of our students visit our IRC channel (#apertium @ freenode) as often as possible, even before the start of the program, since that would help them find a suitable mentor and a useful project that they can work on.
-We advice them strongly to read our wiki pages and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result,
+We advice them strongly to read our wiki pages and manuals, use our system, try to break it and fix it, and finally tell us about it. As a result, students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
-students get familiar with Apertium before the coding period starts, which increases their chances of ending up with a successful project.
 In addition, we define coding challenges for each of the proposed projects, which serve both as an entry task, and as means
@@ Line 95: / Line 94: @@
 Finally, during the coding stage, we talk to our students on a daily basis and give them suggestions and advice when they get stuck.
 We urge them to keep to the project plan they made when applying, and assist them when they fall behind.
 ;15. What will you do to encourage that your accepted students stick with the project after Google Summer of Code concludes?*
 We have found that the following has helped us have quite a high retention rate in previous years:
 * Helping students out publishing papers for conferences, or assisting with academic work.
-* Organising a workshop where students can present their work to the wider community
+* Organising a workshop (FreeRBMT) where students can present their work to the wider community
 * Encouraging students to get involved in mentoring themselves, through the GCI programme
-* Passing on information about MSc and PhD positions, and academic and other grants
+* Passing on information about MSc and PhD positions, and academic and other grants.
-;16. Are you an established or larger organisation who would like to vouch for a new organisation applying this year? If so, please list their name(s) here.
+;16. Are you an established or larger organisation who would like to vouch for a new organisation applying this year? If so, please list their name(s) here.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Challenges:
-* Getting students to work quickly: [GEMA] Apertium is a complex eight-moduled pipeline mixing both linguistics and computer engineering knowledge, getting started is not always straightforward and a special effort is done to break the problems to be addressed by students into isolated little pieces.
+* Getting students to work quickly: Apertium is a fairly complex pipeline mixing programming knowledge with linguistic knowledge, getting started is not always straightforward and a special effort needs to be made to break the problems to be addressed by students into "chewable" pieces.
 * Getting the final furlong: Many of our GSOC projects were successful, in that the code worked, but they needed some finishing touches to be release-worthy. Encouraging students to do this proved in some cases difficult.
 * Persuading students to publicise their results, in 2009 we got around half of our students to present their work to the wider community, and in 2010 two (though two students who completed their projects outside of GSoC also presented their work), but some either didn't plan to have the time or we weren't persuasive enough. In 2011/2012 we had one student present their work.
@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 *Apertium needs Google Summer of Code: it is an incredible opportunity for us to spread the word, to attract newcomers and to improve the platform
-What we hope to gain by participating is more students getting to know open-source, contributing to open-source and specially if they are passionated by languages and computers contributing to Apertium.
+What we hope to gain by participating is more students getting to know open-source, contributing to open-source and, especially if they are passionate about languages and computers, contributing to Apertium.
 ;9. What is the URL for your Ideas list?*

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 The platform, including data for a large number of language pairs, a translation engine and auxiliary tools is being developed around the world, largely in universities and companies (e.g. Prompsit Language Engineering), but independent free-software developers also play a huge role.
-There are currently 27 published language pairs within the project (including a number of "firsts" — for example Aragonese—Spanish, Spanish—Occitan, Breton—French, and Basque—Spanish among others), and several more in development.
+There are currently 33 published language pairs within the project (including a number of "firsts" — for example Aragonese—Spanish, Spanish—Occitan, Breton—French, and Basque—Spanish among others), and several more in development.
 ;3. Organisation home page url*