[SoC] GSoC is about to start

[Wolf Bergenheim]

Hello Mentors and Students!

The summer of code is about to commence, are you ready? This means, dear
MMentors, that in less than two weeks our students will start to eagerly
code away at their projects.

In order for the students to be able to do commit early commit often we
need to provide them with SVN access. If your project is unable to
provide access to an SVN, please contact me so that I can ask SAC to
create a new SoC repository for those students.

The a new feature I hope to have this year is a project Wiki page. All
SoC projects should have a Wiki page with a project description and
project plan. Also the weekly project reports should be put on the wiki
page. This will allow anyone who is interested in your project to follow
progress. If your project doesn't have its own Wiki you are welcome to
use the OSGeo Wiki or the Project page on Melange if you prefer.

Finally a note on weekly reports. Last year we tried them for the first
time and they proved to be good. The students who regularly submitted
weekly reports were the most successful. So this year I'm going to
enforce weekly reports. This means simply that missing weekly reports
will lead to flunking. Plain and simple. So, Mentors remind your
students to send reports, and Students, write those reports. I expect to
see 20 reports on this list and your Wiki page every Friday. Its not
hard to write a report. The email can also be a link to the wiki page.
Alternatively your weekly reports could be in a blog, as long as you
also send a link to the blog to this list.

The weekly report could be as simple as:
> This week I fixed a problem with the foo component. Next week I plan
> on developing a new bar. Progress next week will be lower because I
> have to attend a very important event, but I will catch up the week
> after that.

The more you write the better. Last year we had wonderful reports with
screenshots and everything I hope seeing more of them this year. ;)

If you are not able to work for a week due to illness or something bad,
talk to your mentor or the Admins. We'll work it out.

I hope all Students will feel welcome and that we all have a nice summer!

Regards,
Wolf Bergenheim
OSGeo GSoC Administrator