[Python-Dev] Results of the SOC projects (original) (raw)

Stephen J. Turnbull turnbull at sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
Fri Nov 17 02:49:04 CET 2006

Brett Cannon writes:

There was never a formal one to my knowledge. Part of the problem is that the PSF acted as a blanket organization this year so we just basically helped dole out slots to various Python projects. This meant it was not under very centralized control and thus not easy to track.

I don't think you need "centralization" or "control"; the Python mentors are all public spirited and responsible folks, right? It's just that report-writing is kind of unrewarding work, especially if you don't know what the report is supposed to be like (and haven't even been asked for them!)

Why not have a wiki page for reports, and hand out a T-shirt or something like that to mentors who file their reports? Somebody at the PSF should sit down, think about what the report really needs to say from their point of view, and buy a pizza (as well as the T-shirt!) for somebody trusted to write a good but minimal report. Then point to that: "Here's the quality of prose and citation you need to aspire to, here's the minimum length and content you must include."

Report-writing of this kind is for the mentors: you want to know who supervises well, and eventually do meta-mentoring. Of course the participants should be writing reports too, but this page should link to those reports. You'll get them; the mentor's T-shirt ("Somebody participated in the Summer of Code and all I got is this lousy T-shirt") is at stake!

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