Guidelines for GSoC student proposals

From: Kevin Grittner <kgrittn(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: "pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Guidelines for GSoC student proposals
Date: 2017-03-17 13:57:18
Message-ID: CACjxUsNksRbs0tyLfJwXOqCmJ2KJHOtnn9RXAhrTtfhyDjkmwg@mail.gmail.com
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I've found various sources that give hints about what a student
proposal should look like, but nothing I could just give as a link,
so I pulled together what I could find, tempered by my own ideas and
opinions. I suggest that we send the below, or something like it to
each student who expresses interest in making a proposal, or who
submits a proposal that doesn't meet the below guidelines. Thoughts
or suggestions for changes before we do? Remember, time is short,
so this cannot be a 200 message bike-shedding debate -- we just need
to provide some sort of guidance to students in a timely way, with
the timeline being:

February 27 - March 20
Potential student participants discuss application ideas with
mentoring organizations
March 20 16:00 UTC
Student application period opens
April 3 16:00 UTC
Student application deadline

Each GSoC student proposal should be a PDF file of 6 to 8 pages. In
the end, Google will publish these documents on a web page, so the
student should make each proposal something which they will be happy
to have future potential employers review.

Some ideas for desirable content:

- A resume or CV of the student, including any prior GSoC work
- Their reasons for wanting to participate
- What else they have planned for the summer, and what their time
commitment to the GSoC work will be
- A clear statement that there will be no intellectual property
problems with the work they will be doing -- that the PostgreSQL
community will be able to use their work without encumbrances
(e.g., there should be no agreements related to prior or
ongoing work which might assign the rights to the work they do
to someone else)
- A description of what they will do, and how
- Milestones with dates
- What they consider to be the test that they have successfully
completed the project

Note that a student proposal is supposed to be far more detailed
than the ideas for projects provided by the organization -- those
are intended to be ideas for what the student might write up as a
proposal, not ready-to-go proposal documents.

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