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Difference between revisions of "Summer of Code/Application/2007"

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== When things go wrong ==
== When things go wrong ==
* Students. (Q14)
This section presents the overall strategy used to prevent students and mentors from dropping out of their tasks.
Communication breakdown seldom occurs abruptly. Usually, a student losing interest will keep an ever lowering profile. The mentors will regularly query for status (at least once a week). When the student is in trouble, the mentros will go to lengths to support the student actively. The tasks will be planned ahead by the mentor, with informal interim reports (maybe) and milestones. Of course there may be RL problems prohibiting the continuation of the task (unpredictable).
 
* Mentors. (Q15)
=== Students ===
There may be unforeseen difficulties for a mentor, leading to unavailability for some periods of time. The students can always turn to the very active irc channel for both general and specific inquiries. Mentors will update their status between them, so no students get left alone if a mentor drops out.
There are two main reasons for a student to stop participating in the assigned task:
Loss of interest, and unforeseen difficulties.
 
There are various causes for the former case, such as:
* The student cannot cope with the technical requirements of the task,
* Communication with the mentor does not fare well, or
* The student is daunted by the current codebase.
It is up to the mentors to identify this case and act.
Through the screening process the mentors will assess the technical skills of the candidate.
Then, if communication breakdown occurs it rarely happens abruptly.
Usually, a student losing interest will keep an ever lowering profile.
The mentors will regularly query for status (at least once a week).
When the student is in trouble, the mentors will go to lengths to support the student actively.
The tasks will be planned ahead in conjunction the mentor, with informal interim reports and milestones as applicable.
 
In the case of disappearing students due to unforeseen difficulties unrelated to the task at hand, there is not much that can be done effectively.
Hopefully, this case will be identified through the frequent student-mentor communication.
 
=== Mentors ===
Of the two above mentioned cases, only the case of unpredictable circumstances, unrelated to the project, applies to the mentors.
When a mentor anticipates a period of unavailability, the student will be referred to another mentor and the administrator will be notified.
The students can always turn to the very active irc channel for both general and specific inquiries.
Mentors will internally update their status, so no students get left alone if a mentor drops out.


== Data ==
== Data ==
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