Talk:GSoC Skills

Gale 24Apr08, 18:09 UTC: Should this be amalgamated into GSoC Selection Criteria? Or if we want a separate page for skills (given that the selection criteria already assume them), then we should link to here on GSoC Selection Criteria. James: The latter.

Gale 04May08, 00:49 UTC: I do still have a little difficulty with this page and wonder if it would be easier to focus if combined into GSoC Selection Criteria as GSoC Skills and Selection Criteria (for example). Maybe I'd feel this less if there was a bit more "meat" here that was actually skills.

The "Developer Skills" and "Difficulty of Projects" sections are OK, if a bit thin (is type of degree relevant so worthy of mention?). But "Communication" though it needs mentioning as a skill, seems to be drifting away into the Guidelines and News pages, and I'm not sure if communication skills per se are a major part of accepted students not always participating in devel list? I changed "skip read" to "skim read" as I wonder if it might help to suggest they "did" find the time to read a bit more. Wouldn't this help them learn more about how the code and the project "fit together" and maybe produce better code? If so, it might want adding to the Guidelines as a "strong suggestion"?

James 07:20, 4 May 2008 (PDT): The purpose of this page is as a landing page for people who click on the Skills and Difficulty links in the template in GSoC Ideas and More GSoC Ideas. It stops that template from getting overly long. So it is for people who know almost nothing about GSoC and what we expect and who wonder if they are 'good enough' for it.

The key sentence in the communication section is 'If there's problems with your mentor, or CVS won't accept any of your check ins, will you get this across to us?'. I personally do not care how, e-mail-to-mentor, e-mail-to-list, IRC, gtalk, wiki messages. So yes, we could be shorter here.
 * Changes? If we can keep the key sentence and perhaps link to the guidelines page, and IRC pages, that might make things briefer here - and combat 'drift'.  If it means moving content to the guideline page we need to be careful to be clear to separate what is required and all the other things which are recommended.  This gets into policy, and for 2008 that is Vaughan's domain.  Editing the guidelines page is a bit of a mine-field.
 * Combining with GSoC Selection Criteria is something I'm not keen on. There are skills, which can be assessed reasonably objectively, and there are attitudes which are more subjective.  If you can't program in C, don't bother apply.  If you're bolshy and hard to get on with, well maybe there is a way that you'll fit in all the same.  With regard to 'selection' I see two pages, one for 'do I have a hope?' and one for 'how do I improve my chances?'.

Gale 04May08, 18:11 UTC: I've had a go at the Skills page, including a link to the Selection Criteria. This isn't really an active page except during pre-application / application time, which is why I don't want to see it turn into a duplicated announcements page for current students. As I said, I've few concerns about this being its own page if it's focussed. See what you think.