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From: daniel_james_at_[hidden]
Date: 2007-11-05 17:18:50

Author: danieljames
Date: 2007-11-05 17:18:49 EST (Mon, 05 Nov 2007)
New Revision: 40815
URL: http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/40815

Log:
Add google summer of code section, with a stub introduction page and the 2006
overview from trunk. Refs #1255.

Added:
   website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc.html (contents, props changed)
   website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc_2006_boost_overview.html (contents, props changed)
Text files modified:
   website/public_html/beta/common/menu-community.html | 10 ++++++++++
   1 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

Modified: website/public_html/beta/common/menu-community.html
==============================================================================
--- website/public_html/beta/common/menu-community.html (original)
+++ website/public_html/beta/common/menu-community.html 2007-11-05 17:18:49 EST (Mon, 05 Nov 2007)
@@ -43,4 +43,14 @@
         <span class="link">&gt;</span></a></li>
       </ul>
     </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="/community/gsoc.html">Google Summer of Code <span class=
+ "link">&gt;</span></a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="/community/gsoc_2006_boost_overview.html">2006 Overview
+ <span class="link">&gt;</span></a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
   </ul>

Added: website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc.html
==============================================================================
--- (empty file)
+++ website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc.html 2007-11-05 17:18:49 EST (Mon, 05 Nov 2007)
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
+<head>
+ <title>Boost C++ Libraries</title>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
+ <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/ico" />
+ <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=
+ "/style/section-community.css" />
+ <!--[if IE]> <style type="text/css"> body { behavior: url(/style/csshover.htc); } </style> <![endif]-->
+</head>
+
+<body>
+ <div id="heading">
+ <!--#include virtual="/common/heading.html" -->
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="body">
+ <div id="body-inner">
+ <div id="content">
+ <div class="section" id="intro">
+ <div class="section-0">
+ <div class="section-title">
+ <h1>Boost C++ Libraries</h1>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="section-body">
+ <p>In 2006 and 2007, Boost participated in the Google <a href=
+ "http://code.google.com/soc/">Summer of Code&trade;</a>,
+ initiative, a program by which student developers are sponsored
+ for their contributions within open source organizations
+ willing to mentor the participants.</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="gsoc_2006_boost_overview.html">An overview of
+ Boost participation in Google Summer of Code&trade;
+ 2006</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="sidebar">
+ <!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-common.html" -->
+ <!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-community.html" -->
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="clear"></div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="footer">
+ <div id="footer-left">
+ <div id="revised">
+ <p>Revised $Date: 2007-10-22 22:55:52 +0100 (Mon, 22 Oct 2007) $</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="copyright">
+ <p>Copyright Rene Rivera 2007.</p>
+ </div><!--#include virtual="/common/footer-license.html" -->
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="footer-right">
+ <!--#include virtual="/common/footer-banners.html" -->
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="clear"></div>
+ </div>
+</body>
+</html>

Added: website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc_2006_boost_overview.html
==============================================================================
--- (empty file)
+++ website/public_html/beta/community/gsoc_2006_boost_overview.html 2007-11-05 17:18:49 EST (Mon, 05 Nov 2007)
@@ -0,0 +1,941 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
+<head>
+ <title>An overview of Boost participation in Google Summer of Code&trade;
+ 2006</title>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
+ <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/ico" />
+ <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=
+ "/style/section-community.css" />
+ <!--[if IE]> <style type="text/css"> body { behavior: url(/style/csshover.htc); } </style> <![endif]-->
+</head>
+
+<body>
+ <div id="heading">
+ <!--#include virtual="/common/heading.html" -->
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="body">
+ <div id="body-inner">
+ <div id="content">
+ <div class="section" id="intro">
+ <div class="section-0">
+ <div class="section-title">
+ <h1>An overview of Boost participation in Google Summer of
+ Code&trade; 2006</h1>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="section-body">
+ <p>For the second consecutive year, Google has conducted its
+ Summer of Code™
+ initiative, a program by which student developers are sponsored
+ for their contributions within open source organizations
+ willing to mentor the participants. The 2006 campaign has run
+ between April and September, with active development work
+ taking place between May 23 and August 21.</p>
+
+ <p>Around mid April, when the program had just started, some
+ Boost members began considering the possibility to enter Summer
+ of Code as a mentoring organization. Despite the lack of time
+ and the fact that most of us were completely new to this
+ initiative, Boost managed to successfully apply for the
+ program. As a result ten projects were selected and mentored,
+ most of which are expected to become full contributions to
+ Boost in the near future.</p>
+
+ <p>We give here a summary report of this experience, along with
+ a short analysis of the main problems we found, so that we can
+ work at solving them and do better next year.</p>
+
+ <h2>Contents</h2>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ How the program works
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>2006 figures</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Boost participation
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href=
+ "#application_and_process_selection">Application and
+ process selection</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#accepted_projects">Accepted
+ projects</a></li>
+
+ <li>Development</li>
+
+ <li>Results</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ Analysis
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Boost appeal</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#opportunities_lost">Opportunities
+ lost?</a></li>
+
+ <li>Projects startup</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#ongoing_development">Ongoing
+ development</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#public_communication_issues">Public
+ communication issues</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#scope_of_projects">Scope of
+ projects</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#suggestions_for_improvement">Suggestions for
+ improvement</a>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Preparation</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#public_communication">Public
+ communication</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#project_management">Project
+ management</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>Conclusions</li>
+
+ <li>Acknowledgements</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2><a name="how_the_program_works" id=
+ "how_the_program_works"></a>How the program works</h2>
+
+ <p>There are three types of participants in Google Summer of
+ Code:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Google itself acts as the funding partner and conducts
+ the overall program.</li>
+
+ <li>The open source organizations accepted into the program
+ must designate people inside the organization who will act as
+ project mentors.</li>
+
+ <li>Students submit their project ideas and, if selected,
+ work in collaboration with one of the mentoring
+ organizations; upon successful completion of the project,
+ students receive the full stipend for the program.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The program goes through the following stages:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Organization selection: those open source organizations
+ willing to enter Summer of Code submit an expression of
+ interest to Google, along with information Google uses for
+ qualifying purposes. Selected organizations are publicly
+ announced and each organization is expected to provide a pool
+ of project ideas.</li>
+
+ <li>Student selection: students willing to participate submit
+ one or more project proposals, typically expanding on some of
+ the ideas previously provided by the mentoring organizations.
+ A student can apply several times and for different
+ organizations, but ultimately can only be chosen for just one
+ project. These proposals are routed by Google to the
+ appropriate organizations, which must analyze them, rank
+ them, and assign mentors to the most promising applications.
+ Based on the information provided by mentoring organizations,
+ Google issues the final list of accepted projects.</li>
+
+ <li>Development: Students, guided by their assigned mentors,
+ are expected to complete the projects in a period of three
+ months. Google asks mentors for a mid-program review upon
+ which continuation of the project depends.</li>
+
+ <li>Final review: Once the development period is over,
+ mentors are requested to inform Google on the results of the
+ project, and determine whether students qualify to receive
+ the full stipend.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="figures_2006" id="figures_2006"></a>2006
+ figures</h3>
+
+ <p>The 2006 campaign of Google Summer of Code took place
+ between April 14 and September 25. A total of 102 mentoring
+ organizations participated. Of the 6,338 applications submitted
+ by 3,044 students around the globe, 630 were finally selected
+ and funded. Google has spent more than US$3 million in student
+ stipends and compensations to the mentoring organizations.</p>
+
+ <h2><a name="boost_participation" id=
+ "boost_participation"></a>Boost participation</h2>
+
+ <h3><a name="application_and_process_selection" id=
+ "application_and_process_selection"></a>Application and process
+ selection</h3>
+
+ <p>On April 14, the same day Google Summer of Code started,
+ Julio M. Merino Vidal (later to become one of the selected
+ students) sent a message encouraging Boost members to
+ participate in this program as a mentoring organization. This
+ call sparked the interest of the community; although time was
+ already short for doing all the preparation labors, Boost
+ moderators put rapidly themselves to work and conducted the
+ preliminary registration steps. In the meantime, a Wiki page
+ was grown with project ideas provided by Boost members,
+ totalling more than twenty proposals.</p>
+
+ <p>By the beginning of May Boost was officially accepted into
+ the program and Boost moderators set out to form a group of
+ mentors, selected on an invitation basis. As student selection
+ is a delicate process, involving the assessment of individuals
+ on their technical skills, all subsequent discussions were
+ conducted by the selected mentors on a private mail list
+ established for their collaboration.</p>
+
+ <p>We were not prepared for the avalanche of student
+ applications that followed. On day two after the application
+ period was open, we had received three proposals; next day it
+ was 14, and within a week the count exceeded 50. By the end of
+ the application period the total number of proposals received
+ was 174, which forced us to go through a very intensive ranking
+ process and recruit additional mentors. Two rules were followed
+ so as rationalize the process of selection among dozens of
+ different proposals:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Where there were competing applications for the same
+ project idea, only one were to be ultimately selected; so, no
+ two projects with the same or very similar goals were
+ accepted.</li>
+
+ <li>Some of the applications built on a given Boost library
+ (for instance, the Boost Graph Library is a frequent target
+ for the addition of algorithms.) We limited the applications
+ to a maximum of two per Boost library.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>These rules have the combined effect of greatly reducing the
+ number of eligible applications while at the same time
+ distributing the accepted projects evenly across the space of
+ ideas. Moreover, students with unique proposals, i.e. project
+ ideas not coming from the pool originally presented by Boost,
+ are at a competitive advantage.</p>
+
+ <p>The different proposals were classified according to its
+ related technological area so that each cluster could be
+ handled by an appointed mentor with the required expertise on
+ the subject. Mentors submitted then "focus reports" summarizing
+ the applications under their responsibility; these reports
+ served as a first filter to help reduce the number of final
+ applications to be evaluated jointly. Along the process,
+ students with the most promising proposals were asked to refine
+ their ideas and provide further information.</p>
+
+ <p>Although not enforced by the official rules, we agreed upon
+ a one-to-one ratio of mentors to students, which ultimately
+ marked a hard limit on the maximum number of eligible
+ projects.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="accepted_projects" id=
+ "accepted_projects"></a>Accepted projects</h3>
+
+ <p>Google accepted and funded the ten top-ranked projects
+ endorsed by Boost. Of these, eight projects are libraries or
+ library components targeted for future inclusion into Boost,
+ while the remaining two consist of utility programs heavily
+ relying on Boost.</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>C++ Coroutine Library</strong><br />
+ Giovanni Piero Deretta, mentored by Eric Niebler.<br />
+ Library for the management through a modern C++ interface of
+ OS-provided coroutine facilities.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Concurrency Library</strong><br />
+ Matthew Calabrese, mentored by David Abrahams.<br />
+ STL-inspired generic framework for high-level specification
+ and execution of parallelizable algorithms.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>TR1 Math Special Functions</strong><br />
+ Xiaogang Zhang, mentored by John Maddock.<br />
+ Implementation of the 23 special mathematical functions
+ specified in C++ standard library extension proposal TR1.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>The Boost.Process library</strong><br />
+ Julio M. Merino Vidal, mentored by Jeff Garland.<br />
+ Portable library for process launching and basic
+ management.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Out-of-Core Graphs and Graph
+ Algorithms</strong><br />
+ St&eacute;phane Zampelli, mentored by Jeremy Siek.<br />
+ Extension of the Boost Graph Library to deal with out-of-core
+ structures, i.e. data sets too large to be kept in main
+ memory at once.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>MISC (M)ulti (I)ndex (S)pecialized
+ (C)ontainers</strong><br />
+ Mat&iacute;as Capeletto, mentored by Joaqu&iacute;n M
+ L&oacute;pez Mu&ntilde;oz.<br />
+ Families of specialized containers internally based on
+ Boost.MultiIndex.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Generic Tree Container</strong><br />
+ Bernhard Reiter, mentored by Ren&eacute; Rivera.<br />
+ Design and implementation of a family of STL-compatible tree
+ containers.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Viewer utility for FSMs</strong><br />
+ Ioana Tibuleac, mentored by Andreas Huber D&ouml;nni.<br />
+ Utility program for the visualization of finite state
+ machines (FSMs) specified with Boost.Statechart.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Modular C++ preprocessor, using
+ Boost.Spirit</strong><br />
+ Hermanpreet 'Lally' Singh, mentored by Joel de Guzman.<br />
+ Implementation with Boost.Spirit and Boost.Wave of a
+ front-end translator from Modular C++ (as specified in a
+ proposal to add modules to C++ by Daveed Vandevoorde) to
+ standard C++.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><strong>Implementing a state of the art Mincut/Maxflow
+ algorithm.</strong><br />
+ Stephan Diederich, mentored by Douglas Gregor.<br />
+ Implementation of a fast mincut/maxflow routine for the Boost
+ Graph Library based on a new algorithm devised by Vladimir
+ Kolmogorov.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h3><a name="development" id="development"></a>Development</h3>
+
+ <p>Two main facilities were set up to assist students and
+ mentors during the development phase: a mailing list and a
+ Trac/SVN project management system with separate directories
+ for each project. One of the students, Mat&iacute;as Capeletto,
+ out of personal initiative registered a Google Group aimed at
+ giving students with Boost a place for informal interaction and
+ discussion of common problems.</p>
+
+ <p>After the initial warm-up period, each student-mentor pair
+ performed development work mostly privately. The usage of the
+ Boost mailing lists was scarce, and only by the end of the
+ program did some students publicly announced their results.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="results" id="results"></a>Results</h3>
+
+ <p>By the date the development period was officially closed,
+ the status of the different projects was as follows:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Seven projects were completed or nearly completed and the
+ students are expected to ask for a formal review within 2006
+ or early 2007. Four of these projects necessitated a goal
+ reorientation during development, basically because the
+ original plan was too ambitious for three months. Most of the
+ projects are still in active development during the months
+ following the Summer of Code program.</li>
+
+ <li>Two projects did not reach the planned goals, but
+ nevertheless produced useful material that could be expanded
+ outside of the Summer of Code program.</li>
+
+ <li>One project was abandoned shortly after the midterm
+ review. The reasons for the abandonment are unknown.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The results of all the projects can be consulted online at
+ the dedicated <a href=
+ "https://www.boost-consulting.com:8443/trac/soc/browser/boost/soc/2006">
+ Trac site</a>.</p>
+
+ <h2><a name="analysis" id="analysis"></a>Analysis</h2>
+
+ <p>We examine the various stages of Boost participation in
+ Summer of Code, with an emphasis on discovering opportunities
+ for improvement.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="boost_appeal" id="boost_appeal"></a>Boost
+ appeal</h3>
+
+ <p>In a mid project <a href=
+ "http://code.google.com/soc/GSoC2006Statistics.pdf">presentation
+ at OSCON 2006</a>, Chris DiBona from Google provided some data
+ about the organizations which received the most
+ applications:</p>
+
+ <table summary=
+ "Organizations which received the most applications"
+ cellspacing="0">
+ <tr>
+ <th style="text-align:left">Organization</th>
+
+ <th>No of applications</th>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>KDE</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">244</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>Ubuntu &amp; Bazaar</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">236</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Python Software Foundation</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">212</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>GNOME</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">199</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Apache Software Foundation</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">190</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td><strong>Boost</strong></td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center"><strong>174</strong></td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Gaim</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">152</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>The GNU Project</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">148</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Drupal</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">146</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+
+ <blockquote style="FONT-SIZE: 75%;">
+ <p>The numbers shown here have been estimated from a chart
+ included in the presentation slides. This chart contains an
+ additional column labeled "Google" which actually accounts
+ for the applications dismissed because of their low
+ quality.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>The fact that Boost is ranked the sixth most attractive
+ organization out of a total of 102 was entirely unexpected,
+ especially considering the wide popularity of the rest of
+ top-rated organizations. There is a more or less implicit
+ consensus among Boost members that ours is a relatively niche
+ project, known for its quality standards by seasoned C++
+ practitioners, but with a limited penetration among entry level
+ programmers: maybe the figures above should make us reconsider
+ this assumption. A cursory examination of the applications
+ submitted to Boost reveals that most applicants were regular
+ users of Boost: many cite the Boost status among the C++
+ community as an appealing factor in order to apply.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="opportunities_lost" id=
+ "opportunities_lost"></a>Opportunities lost?</h3>
+
+ <p>If we look at the number of funded projects with respect to
+ the applications received, figures are not so favorable to
+ Boost.</p>
+
+ <table cellspacing="0" summary=
+ "Number of funded projects with respect to the applications received, for the organizations with the most funded projects.">
+ <tr>
+ <th style="text-align:left">Organization</th>
+
+ <th>No of projects</th>
+
+ <th>Project/app ratio</th>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>KDE</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">24</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">9.8 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>Ubuntu &amp; Bazaar</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">22</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">9.3 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Python Software Foundation</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">23</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">10.8 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>GNOME</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">19</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">9.5 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Apache Software Foundation</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">27</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">14.2 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td><strong>Boost</strong></td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center"><strong>10</strong></td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center"><strong>5.7 %</strong></td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Gaim</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">8</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">5.3 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr class="odd_tr">
+ <td>The GNU Project</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">10</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">6.8 %</td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+ <td>Drupal</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">14</td>
+
+ <td style="text-align:center">9.6 %</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+
+ <p>It turns out that the project/application ratio for almost
+ any other organization among the top nine is considerably
+ higher than that of Boost. As it happens, Google initially
+ requested that organizations submitted the maximum number of
+ projects they felt they could cope with, and we got funding for
+ exactly what we aimed for, so the limiting factor lies entirely
+ on Boost's side.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="projects_startup" id=
+ "projects_startup"></a>Projects startup</h3>
+
+ <p>Contributing to Boost relies on a fair number of guidelines
+ and protocols for coding, documentation, testing and
+ maintenance. Many of the required tools are exclusively used
+ within Boost, and some of them are not trivial, like for
+ instance Boost.Build. Although the Boost web site contains
+ information about all these tools and procedures, this
+ intelligence is scattered through unrelated pages and sometimes
+ is very hard to come by.</p>
+
+ <p>So, there is a good deal of expertise required to begin
+ working at Boost. Some students have reported on startup
+ difficulties getting to know these details and familiarizing
+ themselves with the tools, most notably <code>bjam</code> and
+ Quickbook. Each student overcome the startup difficulties on
+ their own or resorting to their mentors (see the section on
+ <a href="#public_communication_issues">public communication
+ issues</a>).</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="ongoing_development" id=
+ "ongoing_development"></a>Ongoing development</h3>
+
+ <p>Once students got past the startup stage, most projects
+ advanced without serious complications. In the majority of
+ cases, it was realized at some point during the development
+ that there was no time to complete it. Some participants had to
+ redefine the goals in an effort to keep the project within
+ schedule, while others simply decided that they would continue
+ working after the official deadline of Summer of Code.</p>
+
+ <p>The information flow between each student and their mentor
+ was usually reported by both parties to be satisfactory. The
+ projects suffering from lack of communication have been
+ precisely those yielding the poorest results. In general,
+ mentors have not felt overwhelmed by requests from their
+ students, and even in a couple of cases the projects were run
+ practically unattendedly. This fact is witness to the high
+ competence of the students recruited into the program.</p>
+
+ <p>The degree of usage of the Trac/SVN system has varied. Some
+ students did frequent updates, while others have just used the
+ repository to dump the final results for the official
+ submission to Google.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="public_communication_issues" id=
+ "public_communication_issues"></a>Public communication
+ issues</h3>
+
+ <p>Students and mentors had at their disposal three different
+ forums for the public interchange of information and
+ support:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Boost public lists, especially the developers and users
+ lists.</li>
+
+ <li>A dedicated mailing list reaching all students and
+ mentors working at Summer of Code in Boost.</li>
+
+ <li>A more casual Google Group, set up by one of the
+ students, aimed at providing the participants with a place
+ for socializing and resolution of common problems.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Despite this abundance of resources, there was an almost
+ complete lack of group communication among all the parties
+ involved and between these and the larger Boost community.
+ Seemingly, students were satisfied to pursue their activities
+ by relying on support from their mentors alone. This
+ circumstance has prevented Boost members from enriching the
+ initiative by offering their experience and insight, and has
+ possibly led students to the false impression that contributing
+ to Boost proceeds in a predictable linear path from requisites
+ to completion of the work. When asked about their not engaging
+ in public communication, the students gave vague justifications
+ that can be classified into the following:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Doubts were deemed too technical or specific to be worth
+ raising in public.</li>
+
+ <li>A crave for perfectionism detracted students from asking
+ or submitting work in progress until they felt their material
+ looked good enough.</li>
+
+ <li>Shyness: some students probably lacked previous
+ experience communicating in public, and most are not English
+ native speakers, which could also be a limiting factor.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Although students did not identify the following as a reason
+ not to go public, it is likely that many of them did not feel
+ the need given the readily access to their mentors they
+ enjoyed. It is easy to grow used to such a dedicated source of
+ support and neglect resorting to other resources. Mentors
+ should have encouraged their students to pursue the public
+ discussion of projects, which constitutes one of the pillars of
+ Boost renowned quality.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="scope_of_projects" id=
+ "scope_of_projects"></a>Scope of projects</h3>
+
+ <p>In hindsight, it has become apparent that most projects were
+ too ambitious to be completed within the three months of
+ duration of the program, and even those that were considered a
+ success will need weeks or months of polishing up before the
+ material is ready for a formal review. In contrast with other
+ organizations participating in the Summer of Code program,
+ Boost has as of this writing included no results into its code
+ base. No formal review for any project has been requested yet,
+ either.</p>
+
+ <p>These scope issues are very dependent on the particular type
+ of project. We can classify the Boost projects for Summer of
+ Code as follows:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Full-fledged libraries,</li>
+
+ <li>additions to existing Boost libraries,</li>
+
+ <li>utilities and tool projects using Boost.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Of these, additions (like for instance the mincut/maxflow
+ algorithm for BGL by Stephan Diederich) are the most suitable
+ for completion in a short period of time: most of the
+ preparation work is already done, and the student has clear
+ guides as to what coding and documentation standards to follow.
+ Also, these projects need not undergo a formal review, since it
+ is the responsibility of the hosting library author to review
+ the code and include it within her discretion. Utility projects
+ seem also suitable for small timeframes, though most project
+ proposals and requests are naturally oriented to contributions
+ of actual code to the Boost project.</p>
+
+ <p>As for those projects involving the design and realization
+ of full-fledged libraries, there is little hope that the goals
+ and scope can be kept modest enough for a three-month schedule.
+ Boost candidate libraries developed by professional authors
+ usually take much longer than three months to be accepted; some
+ libraries have been evolving through several <i>years</i>
+ before being included into Boost. So, the best we can hope for
+ if we are to support the realization of library projects for
+ Boost inside Summer of Code is that the results by the end of
+ the program can be evaluated to constitute a viable
+ <i>potential</i> contribution to Boost. When this is the case,
+ it is crucial that the student commits to further working on
+ the project up to completion and formal review. Perhaps more
+ important than getting libraries coded is to engage new authors
+ into a long-term relationship with the Boost project.</p>
+
+ <h2><a name="suggestions_for_improvement" id=
+ "suggestions_for_improvement"></a>Suggestions for
+ improvement</h2>
+
+ <p>The following proposals aim to alleviate some of the
+ problems we have identified during the development of Summer of
+ Code within Boost. These action points are related only to the
+ issues found in connection with Boost: we are not addressing
+ other areas of improvement associated to the Summer of Code
+ program itself.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="preparation" id="preparation"></a>Preparation</h3>
+
+ <p>Much work can be done before the actual program begins. The
+ following preparation activities can already be launched:</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Create a pool of ideas for projects.</strong> This
+ action will provide valuable extra time for evaluation and
+ refining of ideas before the Summer of Code begins. The
+ experience has shown that those projects with more preparation
+ work, especially in the area of design, were ultimately more
+ successful. The pool can also be used to retain interesting
+ ideas that arise at the mailing lists and very often are not
+ given proper attention and become abandoned.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Create a student pool.</strong> Prior involvement
+ with Boost is clearly an advantage both in the selection phase
+ and later during project development. Those students with a
+ serious interest in participating in Summer of Code with Boost
+ can enter the pool and begin exploring ideas and interacting
+ with the community well in advance of the summer, so as to put
+ themselves in a favorable position for the selection.
+ Advertisement for the student pool can be initiated in the
+ beginning of 2007 through the usual channels (web site and
+ mailing lists): additionally, Boost members involved with the
+ University can spread this information locally and help raise
+ the interest of students in their environment.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Create a mentor pool.</strong> Given the rush with
+ which Boost entered the 2006 Summer of Code campaign, the
+ invitation of mentors has to be done on an on-demand basis as
+ it became all too evident that the task was growing bigger and
+ bigger. It is important that the organization is better
+ prepared next year so that a number of people with the ability
+ and will to participate as Boost mentors are identified in
+ advance.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Prepare a startup package.</strong> In order to
+ facilitate the initial period of getting familiarized with the
+ various Boost guidelines, protocols and tools, it would be
+ extremely useful to prepare a compilation of startup material
+ for students. This package can consist of a single document
+ gathering the currently dispersed information, or go beyond
+ this and provide some bundle of documentation and pre-built
+ tools, an approach that one of the students is currently
+ working on.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="public_communication" id=
+ "public_communication"></a>Public communication</h3>
+
+ <p>It is crucial that students get involved with the community
+ as soon as possible and grow to appreciate the advantages of
+ public development with respect to solitary coding.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Mandate (bi)weekly reports.</strong> These reports
+ should be directed to the public mailing lists so as to give
+ all Boost members an opportunity to follow the work in progress
+ and contribute. Reporting has the extra benefit for students of
+ forcing them to reflect on their own work periodically and
+ struggle with the often difficult task of presenting their
+ ideas to others.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Conduct student-mentor exclusively through public
+ channels.</strong> This might be too drastic a policy, as some
+ matters need privacy, and depending on the amount of
+ information exchanged flooding problems may arise. Less severe
+ variations involve allowing for some private interchange at the
+ mentors' discretion and moving this kind of communication to a
+ dedicated public mailing list different from the general
+ ones.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="project_management" id=
+ "project_management"></a>Project management</h3>
+
+ <p>The two most important issues to improve upon with respect
+ to the management are:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>Project scope must be kept under control,</li>
+
+ <li>The progress has to be publicly visible, so that problems
+ of scope, design and/or schedule can be more easily
+ detected.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Some of the proposals in this section are not to be regarded
+ as strict rules, but rather as general guidelines to be kept in
+ mind by students and encouraged by mentors.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Create a best practices document.</strong> This
+ document can serve as a guideline for project management, an
+ area in which Boost traditionally imposes no requirements.
+ Students might lack the expertise in this area that is usually
+ taken for granted in the traditional model where contributions
+ to Boost are made by professional programmers.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Mandate a design phase.</strong> Having a concrete
+ design set up and clearly described early in the project will
+ help estimate the necessary effort for completion of the work.
+ This is also an opportunity for public discussion.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Maintain code, docs and tests in parallel.</strong>
+ All too often, novice programmers do the coding in one fell
+ swoop and only then move to testing and documenting their work.
+ This is unacceptable by all current methodology standards, and
+ can result in serious underestimations of the time to
+ completion.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Encourage the KISS principle.</strong> It is much
+ better to finish a simpler library and then iteratively evolve
+ it, once it has been exposed to public scrutiny and usage.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>More Trac updates.</strong> The repository should be
+ viewed as an everyday work tool, not only as the place into
+ which to dump the final results. Updating often leads to more
+ visibility of the work by the mentor and the public in
+ general.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Informal reviews.</strong> The typical Summer of
+ Code Boost project will not be completed by the official
+ deadline, as have been discussed earlier. To somehow
+ officialize the work done within the Summer of Code proper, and
+ also to allow the students to reach some sort of psychological
+ milestone, informal reviews can be instituted where Boost
+ members evaluate the work done at then end of Summer of
+ Code.</p>
+
+ <p><strong>Engage students.</strong> This experience has shown
+ that it is possible to guide willing and bright students to the
+ competence levels required for contributing to Boost. The best
+ possible outcome of Summer of Code campaigns are the
+ incorporation of new people into the circle of Boost active
+ contributors. Strive to make the students commit to Boost.</p>
+
+ <h2><a name="conclusions" id="conclusions"></a>Conclusions</h2>
+
+ <p>Despite the lack of previous experience in Boost, our
+ participation in Google Summer of Code has been extremely
+ fruitful: much useful material has been produced, and, perhaps
+ more importantly, some of the students are likely to commit on
+ a long-term basis and grow to be regular Boost contributors.
+ Traditionally, becoming a productive Boost author has a very
+ high entry barrier due to the extreme quality standards, lack
+ of public support and the very specific culture of the project.
+ The appeal of Summer of Code itself and the possibility of
+ being gently mentored into the world of Boost have most likely
+ been key factors in lowering this entry barrier.</p>
+
+ <p>The process has not been without some difficulties, either,
+ as it was expected of a newcomer organization as Boost. We have
+ tried to identify in this paper the areas of improvement and
+ suggest specific actions so that the upcoming Google Summer of
+ Code 2007 can be an even more rewarding experience.</p>
+
+ <h2><a name="acknowledgements" id=
+ "acknowledgements"></a>Acknowledgements</h2>
+
+ <p>This paper couldn't have been written without the numerous
+ reports and contributions kindly provided by Boost students and
+ mentors: Many thanks to all the participants for sharing their
+ experiences with me. Thank you also to the people at Google who
+ have promoted and conducted the Summer of Code initiative.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
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+ <div id="footer">
+ <div id="footer-left">
+ <div id="revised">
+ <p>Revised $Date: 2007-10-22 22:55:52 +0100 (Mon, 22 Oct 2007) $</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div id="copyright">
+ <p>&copy; Copyright 2006 Joaqu&iacute;n M L&oacute;pez
+ Mu&ntilde;oz.</p>
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+ </div>
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