Re: [GSoC 2020] Extraordinary circumstances and early birds

From: Pranam Lashkari (plashkari628_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-03-28 15:16:08

On Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 8:04 PM madhur4127 via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
wrote:

> Hi Boost Community,
>
> This could be an opportunity for Boost to mentor these students who don't
> have prior experience with open source or with a rich C++ background.
>

When it comes to a program like GSoC it is not for the beginners and
learning when it comes to being a part of an advanced project like Boost
C++ Library. We do expect students to have a prior background in C++. No
mentor would ever have time for babysitting. Even in these
circumstances almost none of us would have extra time cause everyone would
be working from home and taking care of the family.

> FYI, you are late.
>
> Mateusz posted in other thread about the student being late (as of today)
> but the GSoC application deadline is due March 31, which I would
> wholeheartedly agree in case of normal circumstances.
>
> The point I'm trying to make here is that in these extraordinary
> circumstances:
> - should Boost neglect the "early bird" and treat all applicants equally?
>

That would be unfair to the students who have come early and contributed to
the library.

> - should Boost compensate for the lack of work samples with the history of
> the student (like academic records, academic projects, research papers)?
>

I strongly disagree with this point and especially when it comes to India
my objections for this becomes even stronger. Opensource contributions and
especially contributions to the boost stays at most priority. Work which
they have done with us by contributing to boost makes us see his/her
ability clearly. We don't know how much contribution someone has done in
academic projects or research paper, how strong knowledge he/she possesses
for the topic.

> - should Boost consider other factors too while selecting the student this
> year like the education level (seniority level: 4th/5th year of study or
> PhD)? For example, if a student had taken a course in numerical
> algorithms/computational algorithms then that applicant's insights could be
> beneficial to Boost.Multiprecision than other applicants.
>

It surely gives an upper hand to the student but code always speaks more
than any other paper and records.

If a student performs well in the competency test then it indicates that the
> student would do the job and I think the selection criteria should be
> tweaked so as to consider that students who lost internships and otherwise
> who could be a great value to the library (even for a short time - GSoC)
> don't get neglected.
>

Most valuable person to a library is someone who sticks around for a longer
time. Anyways boost just can not select all the students they want boost
gets a particular number of slots in GSoC and it is limited and changing
any criteria now is too late and unfair to others.

Thank you,
Pranam Lashkari