[Bf-committers] Google SOC stuff

[Tim Wakeham]

Ok after my experience with SoC last year, I have a few ideas for this time
round.

Firstly, as Ton/Chris pointed out, most of the participants last year had
trouble with self directed work from home. There are a few things that I
think could improve this situation.

a) proposals should have a mandatory timeline and deliverables section, with
detailed project outline, which can later be worked to, with mentors help.

b) a web form, or blog page should be created that participants must fill
out like a diary, detailing what they achieved and what they need help with,
also good for mentors trying to get a grasp on how to help the student.

c) as already discussed, absolutely mandatory participation at the sunday
meetings where the students should be required to have their blog up to
date, and their project in line with the proposal timeline.  This also gives
room for devs and mentors to put pressure the participant if they aren't up
to scratch.

I disagree with the notion of providing a list of projects and/or enforcing
that only they can be applied for.  Had that been the case last year, I have
the feeling we would not have a fluid engine now.  It limits innovation and
inclusion of projects which could potentially propel Blender forward.  It
also stops people applying if there isnt something there which interests
them.

What I do think would be a good idea is to have everyone considering
entering a propsoal for Blender, to be involved in an online forum.  This
would be a good place for prospective participants to throw around ideas and
get feedback from devs on feasibility, changes, project timelines, what to
write in their proposals (in general terms of course),  and a whole other
myriad of things that could definitely be beneficial to both the people
selecting candidates - seeing their participation, eagerness, experience,
etc etc - and the candidates themselves.

We definitely need a stricter review of projects and the participants before
projects are settled on, this was painfully evident last year when more than
one project never even made it off the ground.  I dont see why an online
interview and/or submitted resume would be unreasonable except for the
obvious review process rerquired of the organisers.  That said, limiting
participants to only those with past experience kinda defeats the purpose,
and should probably be avoided.

I think this year our mentors also need to be far more involved. I'm not
saying they weren't great last year, but I heard from more than one other
person that they were having problems contacting mentors or timezone issues
or whatever.  I understand life always gets in the way of best made pans,
but in essence the mentors need to make the same committment that the
participants do.

In the lead up to SoC, and after the 'start gun', I really think there
should be a couple of coder lead workshops to help familiarise people with
the Blender codebase, where to find things, how to get it compiling
efficiently, how to get it compiling debug builds, style guidlines, what to
do/what not to do....and all the rest, you get the general idea.  I think
this is a really important thing that was sorely missed by more than one
participant last year, and they are not necessarily totally obvious things
regardless of your experience and skill level.  I don't advocate spoon
feeding, and I definitely encourage self directed learning, since I
understand how powerful that is from my experience last year, but it is very
hard to get started if you arent intimately familiar with Blender's code.

Efficiency is a hard nut to crack, especially when there is no face to face
contact with mentors, peers, organisers, etc etc, and no real
responsibility, sure money is a big enticement, but without someone
overseeing the whole thing there is no accountability.  Which is where
stricter control and oversight from mentors comes in, and again with peer
criticism through the meetings and blogs.  I'm sure there are other measures
that could be taken, too.

On the whole, I think we have all learned a great deal from the way SoC
operated last year, and I'd call upon any of the other participants last
year to put forward their feelings regarding organisation.

-Tim
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