[Soc-coordination] Disclosure of the Debian vouchings

[Olly Betts]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 03:19:47PM +0100, Sylvestre Ledru wrote:
> We would also like to vouch for the Xapian organization. [...]

Thanks (again) for this - it was much appreciated.

> Xapian has been accepted. Not the two others.

There was a (4 hour!) IRC meeting to give feedback to rejected orgs.  A
few useful things I gathered from skimming the logs of it:

* Multiple vouches helped a little (we had a vouch from SWIG too, but
  SWIG didn't apply last year or this, so I wasn't sure if this would
  really count, which is why I asked Debian to vouch.  Perhaps it was
  actually a shrewd move in hindsight).

* If you had a vouch from a Google employee, you needed to get them to
  contact carols (which it seems may not have been stated clearly enough
  in advance).

* The ideas page is *really* important.  The mentoring manual has tips
  on what they look for.

* Competition is fierce, and some really good applications don't make
  it.

So if the vouching idea continues next year, I suggest encouraging
vouched-for orgs to seek a second vouch from another established org
or a Google employee familiar with them and their work, and to work
hard on their ideas page.  And not to get downhearted, but to try
again (I believe this was Xapian's fourth attempt).

Cheers,
    Olly