[Bioperl-l] Google Summer of Code: Call for Bio* Volunteers

[Mark A. Jensen]

I think I passed the point of no return when I actually started *reading*
Higher-Order Perl.....
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Fields" <cjfields at illinois.edu>
To: "Mark A. Jensen" <maj at fortinbras.us>
Cc: "Hilmar Lapp" <hlapp at gmx.net>; "bioPerl List" <bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Bioperl-l] Google Summer of Code: Call for Bio* Volunteers


> Hilmar,
>
> I second Mark as a mentor.  Or would that be 'pushing him over the  line?' 
> ;>
>
> chris
>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Mark A. Jensen wrote:
>
>> If my newbie status is not a barrier, I would be pleased to mentor a 
>> student. If it is a barrier, I would be pleased to look at  applications
>> or what have you.
>> Mark
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hilmar Lapp" <hlapp at gmx.net>
>> To: "bioPerl List" <bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org>
>> Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 11:53 AM
>> Subject: [Bioperl-l] Google Summer of Code: Call for Bio* Volunteers
>>
>>
>>> Google is committed to run the Summer of Code program [1] again  this  year. 
>>> It will be for the 5th time.
>>> In broad strokes, the program funds what you might call remote  summer 
>>> internships for students to contribute to an open-source  software  project. 
>>> Participating projects (or umbrella  organizations) provide  project ideas 
>>> and supply mentors that guide  the work on those.  Students apply to a 
>>> project within the program  with specific project  ideas, based on those 
>>> suggested or based on  their own idea, get ranked  by the mentors of the 
>>> project, and  those accepted into the program get  paired up with mentors. 
>>> Projects are chiefly about programming, the  coding period is 3  months 
>>> (Jun-Aug), and there is no travel required  by either  student or mentor. 
>>> The program is global; other than the US  trade  restrictions that Google is 
>>> under, there are no restrictions as  to  where student or mentor reside. The 
>>> main motivations behind the   program are to recruit new contributors to 
>>> open-source projects,  and  to produce more open-source code. See the 
>>> program FAQs [2] for  more  information.
>>> I've had the honor of being part of the program for the last two   years, 
>>> administering NESCent's participation as an organization  [3]  and in 2007 
>>> mentoring a student. I have to say I find it the  most  awesome open-source 
>>> program since sliced bread (or the  invention of  BLAST if that means more 
>>> to you). Despite that and  sadly enough, there  has been a dearth of 
>>> participating  bioinformatics projects (though  some notable ones, such as 
>>> CytoScape have participated).
>>> There have been two Bio* Summer of Code projects under the NESCent 
>>> umbrella, one in 2007 [4] and one in 2008 [5]. I would be willing  to 
>>> volunteer to take the lead on and administer a full-blown   participation of 
>>> O|B|F as a Bio* umbrella organization, provided 1)  at  least one Bio* 
>>> person volunteers to serve as backup  administrator, and  2) enough Bio* 
>>> contributors volunteer to serve  as prospective mentors.
>>> Mentoring involves participating in creating the page of project  ideas 
>>> (I'd provide template and guidance), corresponding with  applicants who 
>>> have questions, participating in student  application ranking, and for 
>>> primary mentors (those directly  assigned to a student) based on  empirical 
>>> evidence at least 5hrs/ week of time spent with the student  to help him/her 
>>> get over  obstacles or avoid wrong paths.
>>> I think almost all mentors would concur that the experience was  very 
>>> gratifying, but as a mentor you will be spending a non- negligible  amount 
>>> of time with the student. I think it is the  student-mentor  pairing and 
>>> interaction, not the stipend, that in  the end makes the  participation for 
>>> students uniquely productive  in terms of learning,  and different from 
>>> simply contributing to  the project of choice (which  they could always do).
>>> For a personal impression for how the program is from a mentor 
>>> perspective, I'll let Chris Fields speak who was the mentor for  the  2008 
>>> phyloXML in BioPerl project. From a student's  perspective, I'll  leave it 
>>> to the 2007 Biojava student Bohyun Lee  (blee34-at- mail.gatech.edu) and the 
>>> 2008 BioPerl student Mira Han  (mirhan-at- indiana.edu) to comment (if they 
>>> are still on the list).
>>> So if you think this is a good idea for Bio* to be part of, if you   would 
>>> like to help in some way, if you can see yourself as a  mentor,  or if you 
>>> are a lurking would-be student, please let  yourself be  heard. Email either 
>>> to the list or to me.
>>> Cheers,
>>> -hilmar
>>> [1] http://code.google.com/soc/2008
>>> [2] http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2009/faqs.html
>>> [3] http://hackathon.nescent.org/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2007
>>> http://hackathon.nescent.org/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2008
>>> [4] http://biojava.org/wiki/BioJava:PhyloSOC07
>>> [5] http://bioperl.org/wiki/PhyloXML_support_in_BioPerl
>>> -- 
>>> ===========================================================
>>> : Hilmar Lapp  -:-  Durham, NC  -:-  hlapp at gmx dot net :
>>> ===========================================================
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org
>>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioperl-l
>>>
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