|
Having a look at GSoC guides, I came across this: https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/org-application.html#a-note-on-umbrella-orgs Google’s program administrators actually look quite fondly on the umbrella organizations that participate each year. It serves a dual purpose: it allows Google to accept more organizations in the “space” of just one, and also gives an opportunity to accept a marginally-topical org by putting it under the umbrella of a related org. This answers some of the concerns expressed earlier in the list, whether the projects should be closely related to Debian or have no relation to it. The way I understand it is that there is nothing wrong supporting a project from outside the organization. Including such projects does not make the application of an organization weaker, but it actually makes it stronger. I am glad that people at Google are so reasonable and have such a great common sense. Following is the email (parts of it) that expressed these
concerns: For what it's worth, I was present at a talk last year in which several audience members (other than myself) asked several times, in different ways, what the talk had to do with Debian, and the answer was that it wasn't actually used anywhere in the project at all, other than that it was a Debian Outreachy/GSoC project. This was very awkward for the former interns, and for several members of the audience, and I daresay left a rather bad impression. I don't want to see future interns experience a similar very awkward moment; I think it could actually work very counter to some of the goals of Outreachy/GSoC. I've thought about this since, and while I haven't come up with a good hard-and-fast rule to define how related a project is to Debian, I don't think it makes Debian look good to host a project in which Debian is at no point involved in the project, other than in name, with the logo on the slides, and maybe some overlapping of community members. Even just using Debian as the development environment is at least something connected to Debian. My assumption and/or preference would be that projects clearly related to Debian or very directly beneficial to Debian be given first consideration. Maybe that's a reasonable expectation, maybe not. Obviously, it also comes down to who will do the work, and I have made no proposals this cycle or see myself being significantly involved this cycle. |