Re: one more slot

[Dave Hall]

Hi Karl,

On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 15:35 -0500, Karl Berry wrote:
> Sam advises me that the clisp proposal had little chance of success, so
> I've downgraded that.  (Thanks Sam.)
> 
> So now we have one more slot to allocate, and one lucky project will
> (barring Google overrides) get two slots.  Looking at the list, it seems
> the contenders are wget, grub, phpgroupware, and gnowsys.  Could those
> mentors (and any others I missed) write a bit about their
> second-favorite project, chances of success, past history (if any) with
> the student, etc.?

phpGroupWare's second proposal is from Johan.  Johan is a talented
coder.  He worked on syncml last year as part of gSoC.  I was impressed
with his work.  Over the last year I have built a close relationship
with Johan, I am meeting him again in Copenhagen in 2 weeks.

As for chance of success, I think he has a very good chance of
succeeding.  Last year there were some communication issues towards the
end which meant that in the official times lines we struggled to reach
our objectives, but this was quickly rectified and we have both learnt
from that experience.  Given the discussion about gSoC this year Johan
is very eager to participate again this year.

It is hard ranking one proposal over another, but we bumped johan to
number 2 for a few reasons.  Primarily, setup is the first thing someone
uses in phpGw, and so first impressions are important.  Also Johan is an
existing developer, and we see gSoC as a way of drawing in new blood
(last year we chose johan over an existing dev).  Finally, Johan offered
to go #2 and not feel hard done by - I admire him for this.

> Reviewing the proposals again now, they all look pretty good (as one
> would expect), and are all in totally different spaces.  So I doubt
> there's any "objective" way to decide.

short straws ;)

> I hope no bitterness will ensue, since at least everyone gets one!

No bitterness here.  One slot locked in at this stage more than I had
hoped for.  Last year wasn't good for my stress levels :)  If we get 2
slots, it will be Christmas for phpGW.  Either way we will take what we
get and will support any decisions made.

Cheers

Dave