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<p>Dear Board Members, all --</p>
<p> </p>
<p> this email concerns me. I am surprised at the amount of effort here to
spin this story.. I am available to answer any questions..</p>
<p>Default action is -- no action. Many people are productively working away and
there is no action item on any of this, as far as I know.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> best regards from Berkeley, California</p>
<p> Brian M Hamlin</p>
<p><br><br>On Fri, 1 Apr 2016 15:11:47 +0200, Margherita Di Leo
<diregola@gmail.com> wrote:</p>
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<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear members of the Board,</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">I am writing to you because I am experiencing some
issues with a person that applied to be mentor for GSoC. I don’t think it is
any news that as admins are responsible for the mentors and, should they
disappear during the year, admins should take over. It is our interest to
*select* mentors that are reliable, and have a solid record in the community
they contribute to. Managing mentors from all the project communities under
OSGeo’s umbrella, as well as guest projects, is not easy, mostly because we
don’t know each and every person that apply to become mentor. Most of the
times, it is sufficient to browse the code contribution of these people. We have
also simplified the procedure to become a mentor, so that the mentors have to
appoint themselves in a wiki page [1], the more transparent the procedure is,
the better. We normally contact would-be mentors if any information is missing
or unclear, especially if we don’t know them. </span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, it occurred that one of those people, that I
don’t personally know, had indicated several entries in the field of
“software community”, some of which are not under OSGeo umbrella. Normally,
what I do in these cases, I contacted him asking to clarify what exactly was the
idea he wanted to mentor for. I also discussed with Anne and she was in cc in
the whole email exchange. This person never clarified his intentions, remaining
vague. Anne and I were in doubt whether the procedure was not clear to him. I
can extrapolate some sentences from the email exchange:</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Me: “</span><span style="font-size:
14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">I'm writing you because I saw that you requested to mentor this year
for GSoC. Could you please specify for which software community and which
idea?”</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He: “I am new to GSoC. After
many years of building the SciPy Geo stack for OSGeo-Live, I believe I could
take a student through many different paths. I have not looked at the ideas page
much -- what is the protocol there ? Do I add ideas ?”</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He had not specified
OSGeo-Live as a project he wanted to mentor for, but since he specified several,
and cited it in his first email, I assumed he meant to mentor for OSGeo-Live.
However, I requested him again to specify at least one idea he wanted to mentor
for, and linked him some resources, because he was clearly confused about the
whole GSoC concept. Waiting for his answer, I have hold to appoint him as
mentor.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He never got back with a
reply, but his next email was: “Hi Margherita -- whats going on now
?”</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can imagine my surprise,
however, I replied that we received no students submissions for OSGeo-Live.
Moreover, student submissions were closed and we accept further mentors only if
they are already bound to a specific proposal. Then his answer was the most
surprising one:</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hi Margherita -</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"> </p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> this is confusing, since I
am not listed as "OSGeo-Live" mentor.. perhaps someone else is giving you
information and you are distracted ?</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You might be mixing this with
last years OSGeo-Live and your brother-in-law ?</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had two students, but I don
think they were clear on the process, either, since this is their first time
too</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I am available as listed -
thanks”</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So he never mentioned who are
the students and what are the ideas that he is up to mentor, but he is accusing
me to be distracted and confused, and he is mentioning my brother in law, that
is, no mystery, epifanio. At this, I perceived his intention was more like
spamming / bullying rather than mentoring, and I replied :</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“this is confusing indeed,
because you were not clear at all about the OSGeo or guest project you wanted to
mentor for! I guessed it was the OSGeo-live because was the only OSGeo project
you mentioned in your email! Please try not to mix my family ties with gsoc and
make clear to yourself your plans about mentoring.”</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, the reason why I’m
writing is that this person has started to slander my work as admin in public
chats, like this:</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt;
margin-right: 3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px;
font-family: Arial; color: #999999; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: ah hm interesting --
my student just wrote me and said that he DID supply the application for PostGIS
in time for the deadline</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-right:
3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; color: #888888; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: thats a neat twist,
considering that my mentor status was listed as "PostGIS" .. and the rejection
email from Margharita definitely said "We did not receive any applications for
OSGeo-Live"</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-right:
3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; color: #888888; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: and, there is one and
only one PostGIS mentor listed, which is me</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-right:
3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; color: #888888; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: -</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-right:
3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; color: #888888; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: so I have to give you
some credit epifanio for actually feeding your sister-in-law some story that got
me out .. effective "revenge" there</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-right:
3pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; color: #888888; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">x</span><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family:
Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: you said you would
get me, and you did</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, I’m not impressed by his bullying, and I pity
him. But, beside I don’t have a clue of what he is talking about (not that it
interests me in the slightest) I need to maintain my reputation crystal clear,
and since this is a delicate matter about privacy, I don’t feel like sharing
to everyone all the email exchange revealing the name of this person and so on.
This would be mean. But I remain at disposal of any member of the board that
wanted to go further in this matter.</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">I also would like to point out that this is a very
serious matter, since in the GSoC program, money are involved and I don’t want
to raise the slightest doubt about my respectability or my favouring a member of
my family in any circumstances. If this person continues on this way, I’m
afraid I’ll be forced to do anything is legally in my power to protect my
respectability.</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, as far as GSoC is concerned: I have always
given the benefit of the doubt to anyone. English is my second language and I
cannot be always sure to understand every shades of what people mean, and in the
doubt, I always assume that they mean good. However, it looks clear to me that
this person’s behavior demonstrates a childish attitude (not to say worse)
and, as long as the mentors selection is under my responsibility, I don’t
consider him mature and reliable to become a mentor for any of our
students.</span></p>
<br><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial;
color: #000000; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;
white-space: pre-wrap;">Please, pardon the length of my email, but I needed to
bring this matter to the Board in order to make the situation as transparent and
crystal clear as possible. Allow me to add that behaviours like this one really
dishearten people from taking the initiative of doing something on a voluntary
basis. </span></p>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b4f2f68b-d1f1-3179-afc9-1cde7cb09266"><br><br><span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000;
background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; white-space:
pre-wrap;">[1] <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2016_Administrative" target="">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2016_Administrative</a></span></span><br><div> </div>
-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">
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<div><span style="color: #666666;">Margherita Di Leo</span>
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</blockquote>
<p><br><br></p>
<p><br> --<br>Brian M Hamlin<br> OSGeo California Chapter<br>
blog.light42.com<br></p>
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