Should we apply to summer of code this year?

[Etan Reisner]

So I still think it would be nice if we could apply but unfortunately I'm
probably not going to be in a position to be around much to mentor this
summer[1].

I think if we decided we did want to apply this year though we would need
to do so with the idea that we would really be focusing on projects that
work on finishing up the number of half-finished SoC projects from years
past (remote logging, detachable UIs, privacy rewrite, etc.).

I think starting new independent projects (unless they had a much more
reasonable scope and were sufficiently worthwhile really aren't what we
need).

That being said I think we would also really need to make it clear that
the students are going to need to hang around in #pidgin or devel at c.p.i so
as to be more available and they are going to need to work with our vcs
(whatever it may be at that point) and actually have code going in
regularly. (We've been bitten by too many students being dark in the past
I think.)

I also think we need to push a much more communal mentoring presence this
time (we've always had it but I don't think we made it clear enough to the
students in the past).

That being said I'm fine with both Eion and Florian being mentors
(including having that mean accepting an instantbird project, bearing in
mind my aforementioned project-completing-proposal bias).

I can't recall offhand if we can specifically request a number of slots
but I think if we can we really need to keep the number low this year (for
practical mentor-count reasons but more importantly because I think it
will force us to pick, and get, better projects).

As part of that I think we should just make it clear to applicants
(however best we can do that) that we aren't looking for a large set of
students this year and our goals are much more focused (this should, in
part, cover your expectation concerns I think?).

The above, much longer than I'd realized it was going to be,
notwithstanding, I'm totally fine with not applying to SoC this year. If
we do choose not to apply we really should blog/wiki/News/etc. about our
reasons why and make it clear that we aren't suggesting we don't want
people who are interested in helping out to not bother approaching us just
that we'd rather not do it formally this year for various reasons.

    -Etan

[1] Sara is in the midst of baking Jonah a sibling, due the beginning of July.
    I'd appreciate it if we would keep congratulations (as welcome as they
    are) off-thread to keep the conversation (as much more of it as there
    is still time for) on topic.