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
2016:00 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
theyhave planned for the summer, and what their time commitment to the GSoC work will be - A clear statement that
therewill be no intellectual property problems with the work they will be doing -- that the PostgreSQL community
willbe able to use their work without encumbrances (e.g., there should be no agreements related to prior or ongoing
workwhich 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.
