GSoC 2016: application period ongoing, a few advices

Hi,

Recipients of this email: the Git list, mentors and admins (I tried to use the address you normally use, or the one on the GSoC site. Let me know if I shall use another one), and students who showed interest in GSoC (I may have missed some ...). Bcc-ed is a student who applied via the web interface but did not disclose his email publicly yet.

As a reminder, the GSoC students application period has started (since March 14, deadline = March 25th = soon).

Up to now, we have 2 ongoing applications (1 final PDF and one draft).

I didn't see much discussion about students proposals, and I'm a bit worried about it. My main advice to students: make sure your applications are seen and reviewed by as many people as possible, and give them time to send feedback.

A few important things to know:

* Anything submitted on https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ is visible
  only to people invited there. Don't hesitate to discuss on-list to get
  feedback from other people (and don't hesitate to Cc people that may
  be interested, not everybody reads the whole list).

* PDF final proposals are visible to mentors only after the deadline.
  Nobody can comment on it before. Right now there's a final proposal
  without a draft, I suspect I'd have a lot of comments to make on it
  given the abstract, but I can't because I can't read the text.

* OTOH, drafts are meant to be read and commented before the deadline.
  The new site suggests using a google doc that can be edited,
  commented, ... and the same link can be posted to the list.

To potential mentors: please log in on the GSoC website and keep an eye on the list of proposals. Note that unlike the old system, comments we add there are only for mentors & admins, not seen by students.

Regards,