GSoC 2017: application open, deadline = February 9, 2017

Hi,

The Google Summer of Code 2017 program is launched (https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/).

Last year, Pranit Bauva worked on porting "git bisect" from shell to C, mentored by Christian and Lars (I didn't follow closely, but essentially many preparatory steps, cleanups and tests were merged in master, and patches starting the real port are still queued in pu). The org admins were Peff and I.

The application deadline is February 9, 2017, i.e. a bit more than 2 weeks from now. So, we should decide quickly whether or not to participate, and if so work on the application.

On my side, I've been struggling to find some time budget to allocate to Git since last year and I couldn't even keep up with discussions on this list :-(. Last summer, I thought that being an org co-admin would help, but it didn't. So, as much as possible, I'd like to avoid being an org admin this year. It's not a lot of work (much, much less than being a mentor!), but if I manage to get some time to work for Git, I'd rather do that on coding and reviewing this year.

So, a bunch of unanswered questions:

* Does the git.git community want to participate in GSoC this year?
  Actually, I have mixed feelings about this: I do like GSoC, but it
  seems we lack reviewer time more than coder time, and GSoC does not
  make it better. OTOH, a GSoC participant is a potential reviewer in
  the long run ...

* Does the libgit2 community want to participate in GSoC? If so, we
  should clarify the application process. Last year, I wrote (too late):

  > It's essentially too late to change this for this year, but next
  > time we should discuss earlier about how we want to organize this
  > git.git/libgit2 thing. For example, I think it would make little sense
  > to have a git.git microproject and then apply for a libgit2 project
  > since we have very different ways of interacting. And honestly, right
  > now the application is really git.git-centric so I don't think it
  > attracts students towards libgit2. So, if you want to attract more
  > students, we should work on that.

If the answer to one of the above question is yes, then:

* Who's willing to mentor? and to admin?

* We need to write the application, i.e. essentially polish and update
  the text here: https://git.github.io/SoC-2016-Org-Application/ and
  update the list of project ideas and microprojects :
  https://git.github.io/SoC-2017-Ideas/
  https://git.github.io/SoC-2016-Microprojects/

Cheers,