Before you apply for the Systers-mailman GSOC:

Thank you for your interest in being a Systers GSoC student. Please be sure to answer all of the application questions to the best of your ability. Be sure to keep an eye on the notifications in Melange - we will be asking at the minimum a second round of questions.

We recommend that you apply to multiple organizations. While we'd love to take everyone but we cannot.

APPLY VIA MELANGE: This is a version of the application for your convenience. THE ONLY WAY to submit an application is via the GSOC2010 site http://socghop.appspot.com/site/home/site. Applications sent anywhere else WILL BE IGNORED.

A: Read everything in: getting_started

B. Attempt to set up the required development/test/run environment.

   At least, Download code from Launch Pad, make a modification such as adding
   a new empty file, or fixing one of the trial bugs, and upload the branch.
   This requires a launchpad account and ssh keys.
   If you are able to complete the entire installation, and end up with a running  
   installation please invite members of SYSTERS-DEV to your mailing list - use your    
   launchpad name for your mailing list.

Note: we are happy to give you help with your bug fixing and with setting up the development environment. Please subscribe to systers-dev@systers.org (www.systers.org/mailman/listinfo/systers-dev ) and ask questions there. Questions asked as part of this application may not be seen and responded to until the application deadline is passed, which is too late for you to make your application better. Learning to ask questions of other developers is part of the experience of being in an open source community. There are only about a dozen developers on this list.

1. How can we reach you (email, IRC, etc.) if we have questions about your application?

2. Which systers-mailman project are you applying for (please submit a separate application for each project):

2a. What do you plan to accomplish over this summer for this project? (please tell us what part of a larger project you want to work on – e.g., “I want to work on the search portion of the archives project” –, how you will approach that project portion, and what your milestones are. You may want to ask for help from the systers-dev@systers.org list if you have not created project milestones before, or if you are unsure what is realistic to accomplish. GSOC divides the summer in half, and at the midpoint, you are paid if you are reasonably close to the milestones you proposed to reach by then, and again for meeting your milestones at the end of the summer. If your project proposal is accepted, you will have a chance to work with your mentors to revise these milestones, and we always take into account “unforeseen circumstances”, such as discovering that the code you were going to build on top of is incompatible with mailman. However, being able to realistically estimate how much you will be able to accomplish is an important part of this proposal.)

2b. Project specific questions:

If you are applying to work on the front end portion of the mailman archives project, please answer this question:

Select a “feature” or aspect of the current mailman archives that annoys or frustrates you, describe it, and propose 3 different ways that problem could be solved (if you have to get really “out of the box” to think up 3 solutions, go for it). Then discuss the pros and cons of your solutions (hint: describing use cases for the feature and how each solution works for the different use cases would be a good way to organize your answer). Are there any use cases where the existing solution is better?

3. If you have your own project to propose, please describe it here:

4. What is your launchPad username:

5. Describe how much of the systers-mailman environment you were able to install. Describe what problems you had. And what prevented you from getting the entire system up and running?

6. If you tried to fix one of the Trial Bugs mentioned above,

• which one did you try?

• describe your approach.

• if you got stuck, where did you get stuck?

• what kind of help did you ask for/get?
• how would you test whether your solution works? What were the specific test cases you would run? (if you solved it, tell us what you did; if you didn't solve it, describe a set of test cases that would tell you whether your solution works)

(We aren't that interested in whether you were successful, but more in how you went about learning about the code and solving a problem. Please describe your experience from that perspective)

7. Why do you think you are a good candidate for this project? Describe the skills you confidently bring to the project, and what you hope to learn from working on this project, and your interest in the systers mission.

8. Are you a syster (www.systers.org)? Would you join if you are accepted? (Note: systers is only open to women in computing; if you are male, you may not join, though you are welcome to join systers-dev, our development list. ) -How would you make sure that you understand how dlists (the systers mailman customizations) work, if you are unable or choose not to join?

9. All our projects are in python. Describe the largest project you have completed in python. If you haven't used python, describe the programming experience you have that will allow you to learn python quickly and be successful on this project.

10. Describe any plans you have over the time period of GSOC (including the community bonding period) in addition to GSoC, such as classes, a summer job, vacation plans, master's thesis, etc. Here is the GSOC timeline http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2010/timeline.

11. Schooling:

• What year are you in school?
• What programming courses have you taken?
  • What did you like about them? What did you not like?

• What is your major?
  • Why have you chosen that?

• Have you done group projects (programming or otherwise)?
  • What was your primary contribution to/role in the group?

• What made working in a group better than alone? What made it harder?

12. Do you have work experience in programming? Tell us about it.

13. Do you have previous open source experience. Tell us what you have done.