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Revision 12 as of 2016-04-24 06:04:16
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Spend '''time''' creating your wiki page. Allow at least two hours to make a nice page. Spend '''time''' creating your wiki page. Allow at least two hours to make a nice page. See the '''pages created by students we selected in previous years''' and consider how much time and effort went into them.

Not every mentor requires every detail on this list, '''check with your prospective mentor''' or the #debian-soc IRC channel if you are not sure if something is required. Don't be stressed if you can't answer some of these things. Some of the items are simply suggestions, although the more detail you are able to share, the more easily you will be able to connect with your mentor and the wider community.
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  * also include a link to the Wikipedia article about your campus
 * name of the town/city, linked to the location in [[http://www.openstreetmap.org/|OpenStreetMap]] and article in Wikipedia
  * also consider including any or all of the following so we can know you a little better:
   *
a link to the Wikipedia article about your campus
   * name of the town/city, linked to the location in [[http://www.openstreetmap.org/|OpenStreetMap]] and article in Wikipedia
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 * are any of the other '''selected students''' from Debian or other projects near you? If so, link to their wiki pages too.
 * list every '''mailing list''' you are subscribed to, ask your mentor to suggest more:
 * are any of the other '''selected students''' from Debian or other projects near you? If so, you could mention that and link to their wiki pages too.
 * list every '''mailing list''' relevant to your project (are you already subscribed to them?), ask your mentor to suggest more:
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    * [[https://lists.debian.org/debian-news|debian-news]]
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 * tell us about the local free software community where you live. Is there a Debian group or any other group? Are there mailing lists, are there monthly meetings? Include links to these things and mention the names of people you have met.  * tell us about the local free software community where you live. Is there a Debian group or any other group? Are there mailing lists, are there monthly meetings? Include links to these things and mention the names of people you have met.  See the page DebianLocations to find people near you.
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  * do you have an Android phone, iPhone or something else?   * if relevant to your project, do you have an Android phone, iPhone or something else?
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  * is there a continuous integration system such as Jenkins? If so, link to it.   * is there a continuous integration system such as Jenkins or [[https://travis-ci.org|travis-ci]]? If so, link to it.
 * do you need any resources for your project?
  * do you need access to a public web server to publish your project?
   * is there one you can use for testing?
  * will your project need a server-side scripting language or database?
  * do you need any online accounts or cloud services to develop or deploy your project?

Why a wiki page?

As you are working remotely, your mentor and other members of the free software community can't see exactly how you are working. People may make incorrect assumptions about what you know, whether you received a particular communication or whether you can do a particular task with the computer and software environment you have. Using the wiki helps us close these gaps.

Please create links whenever possible. Words in CamelCase automatically become links to pages of the same name. Linking is what the web and wikis are all about. People don't want to go to Google to find out what something means, link to the page about it.

Spend time creating your wiki page. Allow at least two hours to make a nice page. See the pages created by students we selected in previous years and consider how much time and effort went into them.

Not every mentor requires every detail on this list, check with your prospective mentor or the #debian-soc IRC channel if you are not sure if something is required. Don't be stressed if you can't answer some of these things. Some of the items are simply suggestions, although the more detail you are able to share, the more easily you will be able to connect with your mentor and the wider community.

Learn the basics of wiki syntax

  • Make sure you learn the basic features of the MoinMoin wiki syntax, they are demonstrated on the page HelpOnMoinWikiSyntax. As a bare minimum, you should learn the syntax for:

    • bold
    • headings
    • bullet lists
    • linking to other pages in the wiki
    • linking to external sites
    • once you master those things, also try to learn:
      • formatting a code snippet in a wiki page
      • making a simple table
      • embedding images in your wiki page (you could include a photo or screenshot)
  • you can click the Edit link on any page in the wiki to see the wiki syntax used to create that page

Things to include about you and your project

  • links to every other public site that is relevant, including your blog, your Github or Sourceforge profile and https://contributors.debian.org

  • links to other third-party sites about you, for example, if you won an award and your name is listed somewhere, include a link to that site
  • name of your university and course, linked to the web site for the course/department
    • also consider including any or all of the following so we can know you a little better:
      • a link to the Wikipedia article about your campus
      • name of the town/city, linked to the location in OpenStreetMap and article in Wikipedia

  • if you will be in another city/country during the summer (for example, if your family home is not near your campus), please specify that too, with links
  • are any of the other selected students from Debian or other projects near you? If so, you could mention that and link to their wiki pages too.

  • list every mailing list relevant to your project (are you already subscribed to them?), ask your mentor to suggest more:

  • list every IRC channel relevant to your project and provide your IRC nickname.

  • you don't have to include your phone number, you can send it to the mentors privately

  • aside from your mentor, who are the other key people in Debian and upstream projects who you have to interact with during your project? Please list their names, with links to their own web sites and a note about their role and relation to your project.

  • tell us about the local free software community where you live. Is there a Debian group or any other group? Are there mailing lists, are there monthly meetings? Include links to these things and mention the names of people you have met. See the page DebianLocations to find people near you.

  • list events you could attend over the next 12 months (not only during GSoC) that are relevant to our industry. Include local events in your university or city and any international events you want to travel to. Include links to the web sites.
  • describe your hardware.
    • Are you using a laptop or desktop?
    • are you using a computer lab on campus, working at home or in an office?
    • what is the screen resolution?
    • if relevant to your project, do you have an Android phone, iPhone or something else?
    • do you have hardware specific to your project? If working on an RTC project, for example, which webcams do you have?
  • describe your operating system(s)
  • what type of Internet connection do you have?
    • is it a filtered or restricted connection in student accommodation?
    • are you forced to use a proxy server?
    • do you have IPv6?
    • can you tether with your mobile phone?
  • which development tools do you use?
    • are you using an IDE like Eclipse?
    • do you prefer emacs or vi? (responses to this question don't impact selection decisions)
  • which repository and build tools are relevant to your project?
    • will you need to use Git, SVN, Mercurial or any other version control system (VCS)?
    • if it is a Java project, will you use Maven, Ant, Gradle or something else?
    • if it is a C/C++ project, does it use autotools, CMake or something else?
    • is there a continuous integration system such as Jenkins or travis-ci? If so, link to it.

  • do you need any resources for your project?
    • do you need access to a public web server to publish your project?
      • is there one you can use for testing?
    • will your project need a server-side scripting language or database?
    • do you need any online accounts or cloud services to develop or deploy your project?

Things to include in your project plan

  • what are your main strengths (e.g. Java, C++, Python)
    • list them in order of experience, strongest skill first
  • what will you need to do and learn during the community bonding period?
    • do you need to learn Git, for example?
    • if not already running Debian, will you be installing it somehow?
    • do you have a PGP key and has it been signed by a Debian Developer? If not, can you find a Debian Developer locally to sign your key?

      • if you don't understand this, come and ask on the IRC channel #debian-soc
  • write what you will do in each week of the summer

    • if the work is described somewhere in a bug tracker or feature request, create a link to it
    • write what the mentor will need to do at the end of that week to verify that piece of work is completed
    • allow time (about half a day each week) for writing a blog and weekly report, updating the wiki and other documentation
    • if you are attending an event like DebConf, you do not need to commit to writing code that week, just write DebConf in your plan

    • if you have a week of vacation, write that in your plan too
  • do you have other commitments using more than 10 hours/week of your time, such as a part time job, training for a sporting team, etc?
    • write these things in your wiki or inform your mentor privately
  • what are the routines you will follow during the summer, for example, a weekly meeting with your mentor?

How will you respond when things go wrong?

  • what are the risks to your project and how will you deal with them?
    • how will you backup your work in case of hard disk failure?
    • How quickly can you resume working if your hard disk fails or your laptop is stolen or broken?
    • if your Internet fails, is there somewhere else you can go to use the Internet, can you use mobile phone tethering as a backup solution?
    • are electricity failures common where you live?