[Soc-coordination] Update: provisional number of slots is *still* 10

[Wouter Verhelst]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 10:43:32AM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 02:25:17AM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote:
> >On Tue, 15 Apr 2008, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> >> That would favour students who are in their later years of
> >> engineering (or similar) studies. I'm not sure that's reasonable.
> >
> >More importantly, it's favoring the students who are more likely to
> >complete their project successfully (and usefully), because they have
> >thought through what is required and have a base of knowledge
> >necessary to complete it. It likely also favors advanced students as a
> >side effect, but there's nothing really wrong with that. Students who
> >don't make the final cut should be encouraged to try again next year,
> >ideally with evaluations by mentors indicating precisely what the
> >weaknesses in their proposal were.
> 
> Absolutely, yes. I *want* a bias towards students who:
> 
>  * have already shown themselves to be organised and prepared to work
>  * have looked into the problem thoroughly
>  * have shown they have the skills needed
> 
> precisely because they're the most likely to succeed. We like
> successful projects and students, and so do the folks at Google.

Hmm, yeah, if you look at it from that side, I have to agree. I was just
being worried about unfairness resulting from this kind of thing, but on
second thought, fairness is not a requirement -- quality is.

-- 
<Lo-lan-do> Home is where you have to wash the dishes.
  -- #debian-devel, Freenode, 2004-09-22