Guidelines for Students Participating in GSOC 2013 for SSF

Overview

  • Both new and prior GSOC Students with the Sahana Software Foundation will be considered as applicants.
  • Students must submit a bug or feature enhancement fix/patch for the project first. (Please engage with proposed mentors to identify an appropriate ticket that will demonstrate your skills and capabilities).
  • Students should get involved with projects now.
  • Our priorities and project ideas are likely to be weighted more favorably.

Expectations

Coding

It is expected that students will read and follow the developer guidelines for the project that they are working with.

For EDEN (Python/web2py):

For VESUVIUS, KILAUEA AND MAYON (PHP):

Communication

  • It is expected that students will report to the main Sahana discussion list (discuss@lists.sahanafoundation dot org) at the beginning of the project to introduce themselves and their project to the rest of the Sahana community.
  • It is expected that students will report to the main Sahana discussion list at a minimum once every other week providing a summary of current activities with pointers to their work in the code and on the wiki.
  • It is also advisable to keep all development related discussions on the developer's mailing lists (see below) so that other developers can provide feedback & suggestions on the ideas being worked out and for future archival purposes.
  • GSOC-related discussions should be prefaced with “[GSOC]” in the subject line.

IRC Channels

We maintain and monitor the followin IRC Channels on freenode. A web interface is available at http://webchat.freenode.net:

  • #Sahana - main disussion channel
  • #Sahana-Agasti - for VESUVIUS, KILAUEA and MAYON developers
  • #Sahana-Eden - for EDEN developers
  • #Sahana-Meeting - for meetings

All channels are logged. See http://www.sahanafoundation.org/chat for more information.

Mailing Lists

We maintain several e-mail discussion lists. The main point of entry for prospect GSOC students and GSOC discussions and reports to the community through the GSOC program is our main discussion list: discuss@lists.sahanafoundation dot org.

Scope

It is much better for students to limit the scope of their project and ensure that they complete it to a high standard - quality over quantity! If you have to rush to finish your project and your code is full of hacks and not tested then it is likely that this will eventually have to be re-written. For this reason we encourage students to implement all the functionality of their project by the mid-term evaluation, leaving the second half of GSoC to polish, test, optimize, test, refactor, test, document and test their code.

Evaluations

Sahana will evaluate students GSoC projects based on the following required outputs:

Mid Term

  • Demonstration - Students must present a demonstration of their project to the Sahana Community during the Sahana Community Call

Final

  • Demonstration - Students must present a demonstration of their project to the Sahana Community during the Sahana Community Call
  • Video Screen Cast - Students must create and publish a video screencast demonstrating their project * Documentation - It is expected that students will document all of their work in an appropriate place on the Sahana wiki (mentors will help with where to put things and with wiki access), including:
    • User Documentation
    • Developer Documentation
    • Update BluePrints - include next steps
    • Manual Test Scripts
  • Sahana Eden Only:
    • Unit Tests
    • Selenium Automated Test Scripts

Contributor License Agreement

In keeping with Sahana Software Foundation policy, all accepted students must sign and return a Contributor License Agreement. A CLA form may be downloaded here and should be scanned and returned to cla-submissions at SahanaFoundation dot org. Alternative means of return by post or fax are provided on the form. An electronic form may also be submitted (this is much easier).

Work Load

It is expected that students will treat this as a full time job (This means approximately 40 hours per week). Students should disclose any other commitments to other jobs, internships, study, holidays etc. Review the GSoC timeline

Application Process

All students applying for GSoC with Sahana are expected to have made previous contributions to Sahana - so if you haven't this is the first thing to do!

Application Template

It is expected that all students follow this template for their application.

1. Personal Details

  • Name
  • Contact Details
    • Email
    • Freenode IRC Nickname
    • Skype
  • Blog
  • Education
    • University/College
    • Course/Program
    • Year (Current & Total)
  • CV
  • LinkedIn
  • Your Code
    • GitHub Page
    • LaunchPad Page
  • Please list ALL other commitments between 17th June - 23 Sept 2013
  • Technical Skills - list all relevant languages, libraries, and technologies you are experienced in. Include your level (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced).
  • What experience do you have with Open Source Projects or any other relevant technologies?
  • Why would you like to apply for GSoC with Sahana?

2. Project Details

Students are welcome to apply for more than one project in order to increase their chances of getting accepted into GSoC with Sahana. Students are encouraged to ensure that their application for at least one of the project fully show-cases their effort and ability. If the mentors are impressed with the application for one of your projects, but this project is allocated to another student, there may be an opportunity to revise the other project application during the Interim Period.

BluePrint

Use this BluePrint Template to prepare a blueprint for your project. Blueprints should be added as pages on the appropriate Sahana wiki. Students are encouraged to collaborate together on BluePrints, and incorporate input frm the community. The wiki will track contributions to ensure that these are attributed to the correct student. However students are also free to create their own BluePrint.

Outputs

Please describe the following outputs which you will achieve at the different stages of your GSoC project.

  • Community Bonding Period
    • Learning Goals eg. Specific Feature within the Sahana Platform/API; How to use new technologies
    • Outstanding BluePrint Questions Questions in your blueprints which need to be answered before you start your project
    • Initial Tasks Any small tasks you plan on completing to prepare for your project
  • Mid-Term Evaluation
    • What features will you demonstrate during your mid-term evaluation? Prepare a initial “script” for this demonstration.
  • Final Evaluation
    • Personal Success Statement Describe what success will look like for you at the end of GSoC. What will you have learnt? What will you have gained?
    • Sahana Success Statement Describe what success will look like for Sahana at the end of your GSoC project. How will Sahana be better?
Plan

Provide a high level summary of the task you will be doing on your project for the each of the 14 weeks of GSoC.

Application Rating

Student's applications will be rated out of 100 points based on the following weights:

  • 50 points for Sahana Code Contributions
  • 10 points for Community Engagement
  • 10 points previous experience
  • 20 points Project Blue Print
  • 5 points Project Outputs
  • 5 points Project Plan

Communication with Sahana Team During Application Process

It is encouraged for students to communicate with the Sahana team members during the application process to help guide their applications. Venues to discuss projects:

If your questions are specific to a particular Sahana Project, mentors may direct you to a more specific mailing list or IRC channel. You should not expect to use personal email or direct messaging to communicate with mentors.


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