[Soc-coordination] Debian as a GSoC umbrella org?

[Steffen Möller]

On 02/15/2011 02:49 PM, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 02:30:17PM +0100, Obey Arthur Liu wrote:
>> What is you opinion ? Would this be beneficial to the GSoC
>> participation of Debian or would it be too much spread ?
> 
> I must admit I don't see the point.
> 
> Essentially, the proposal is to partition upfront slots among Debian and
> sub-projects (such as, but not necessarily limited to,) blends. This
> goes against a basic principle of meritocracy among proposals. Very good
> proposals in one slot might remain out because in that slot all
> proposals are very good, whereas not-so-good proposals will get into a
> different slot if there aren't that many good proposals in that
> slot. That, in turn, might reflect bad on future slot assignments *to
> Debian*---as that is the name we're spending before the GSoC
> organization---

I suggest that the organiser, or an organising committee, should only
allow projects in that he personally considers as sufficiently
good - whatever "good" means (educational, useful, large
audience, technical excellence, ...).

I agree that an uninspired project (to avoid the term "good") harms us
more than leaving a slot unoccupied.

> if it will happen that many proposals will, in the end,
> fail. There is no guarantee that won't happen without upfront
> partitioning of course, but I believe that meritocracy helps in
> diminishing the risk.

The prevention of failures should not be our prime goal. But I am
confident that this is not what you had meant to say.

> Why can't we just allow proposals from blends to flow in together with
> non-blends one? If they are good proposals, I don't doubt they will have
> chances to compete side by side with other proposals, on the basis of
> their merits.

My answer is that those projects are too different to have them
compared directly.

Stefano, Arthur, if either of you vetos the idea to have a separate
organisation with  GSoC bearing the name "Debian", then this of course
won't happen and I do not feel any bad about it (who could I).

Best,

Steffen