[Gsoc-orga] [gsoc-mentors] Filtering GSoC applications

Tue Apr 22 15:05:25 UTC 2025

Hi Dawid,

I was about to write to you about the proposal.

We have intensily discusse the proposal but in the end decided against
including it.

The main reservation was that the project is not really a fit for GSOC
in the sense that it is supposed to be a learning experience for
students. The project attacks a very specific issue of the Polish
community and wasn't publicised like the others, so that other
students had a chance to apply. Instead it feels too much hand-picked for
the specific student and that means a much lower bar for the student
than for the others. The proposal didn't stand out either and didn't
seem to be going much beyond the task description that came with the
project, at least from what an outside can decern. The link to his
previous GSOC project didn't contain any usable information.

The other concern was that you would be first time mentors but haven't
so far connected much with the GSOC team. The rating and selection is
a joint effort of all mentors and the feedback we give each other
helpful for the process.

Simon suggest that the EWG might be a better place, if you are looking
for funding an intern for work like that. I believe there is another
round of software microgrants comming up. That might be a good
opportunity.

Sarah

On Tue, Apr 22, 2025 at 03:44:11PM +0200, Dawid Skalec wrote:
> Dear Sarah,
> 
> First of all, I’m very sorry I couldn’t attend today’s video meeting. I’m
> currently abroad and unfortunately don’t have access to a stable internet
> connection.
> 
> I’m also writing to kindly ask about the status of the project titled
> "Providing Tools That Help Mapping in OpenStreetMap Using Polish Government
> Data" listed on the GSoC 2025 OpenStreetMap proposals page.
> 
> I noticed that the project is not marked as "Selected to rank", and I was
> wondering if you could possibly share any insights into the reason behind
> this status. I would greatly appreciate any information or clarification
> you could provide.
> 
> Thank you in advance for your time.
> 
> Dawid Skalec
> 
> czw., 17 kwi 2025 o 15:04 Sarah Hoffmann via gsoc-mentors <
> gsoc-mentors at openstreetmap.org> napisał(a):
> 
> > Hi all,
> >
> > first, things first. We have found a time for the selection meeting:
> >
> >    when: Tuesday, March 22nd, 9am UTC
> >    where: https://meet.topf.org/gsoc
> >
> > Please mark the date in your calendars.
> >
> >
> > Many thanks for looking through your applications. After removing all
> > those without a mentor, we are now down to 17 applications. (Ian, you
> > haven't marked the Ferrostar application but also haven't said anything
> > about not participating. I've left the application in to be on the safe
> > side.)
> >
> > Next, we ask you, to rate the applications at a scale from 0 to 9
> > (0...so bad, not even worth considering, 9... stellar proposal, must have).
> > Tobias has as always prepared a spreadsheet for you to fill:
> >
> > https://files.osmfoundation.org/s/sYRq8JpCMc6zMJa
> >
> > It would be great if everybody could rate every proposal. If you are
> > short on time, please do make sure that you rate your own.
> >
> > During the selection meeting on Thursday, we will then decide, which
> > students we want to have this year. The average score over all mentors
> > will be the base for deciding how we rank the students. Apart from that,
> > the opinion of the mentor is always important, so it would be great if at
> > least one person per project can make it to the meeting.
> >
> > Thanks again for all your work so far.
> >
> > See you on Tuesday.
> >
> > Sarah
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 02:03:13PM +0200, Sarah Hoffmann wrote:
> > > Hello GSOC mentors,
> > >
> > > as you are probably aware, GSOC applications have closed on Tuesday. We
> > > received a total of 136 proposals this year, up from 34 last year. This
> > > is mainly due to an influx in AI-generated spam proposals. To keep this
> > > managable for all of you, we've done a heavy pre-selection and set to
> > > ignore all proposals that:
> > >
> > >  * are for an idea where there is no mentor
> > >  * are resumes only
> > >  * have obvious signs of being generated without rereading
> > >    (something like '[enter your name here]')
> > >  * do not have more technical content then what was written on the
> > >    GSOC project idea page
> > >
> > > The main issue this year is that people seem to have mostly ignored our
> > > instructions for writing proposals and used auto-generated proposals
> > > instead that follow Google's official proposal guide. That means that a
> > > lot of proposals are missing the mandatory OSM user account and also the
> > > link to contributions. I've nonetheles left them in for now, if they
> > > showed at least marginal signs of having gone through a human
> > > intelligence. Feel free to spot-check 'your' ignored proposals and
> > > unignore any that might have gotten misclassified.
> > >
> > > At this point, we would ask you to further filter the proposals for your
> > > projects. Please have a look at the proposals and mark up to 3 with
> > > "want to mentor" that fulfil your minimum criteria. To echo Google's
> > > advice here: do NOT consider any student that you have not been in
> > > personal contact with and had the impression that they are willing to
> > > invest actual human time. If that leaves you with 0 good proposals, then
> > > that is fine. Please send me a quick note that you are done with your
> > > reviews in that case, so we know that we can proceed.
> > >
> > > Getting this done by Wednesday would be ideal so that we can proceed
> > with the
> > > process. Feel free to reach out to gsoc-orga at openstreetmap.org with any
> > > questions.
> > >
> > > We will have the usual mentor meeting for the final rating and
> > > student choice. Can you please fill your availabilities, so we can find
> > > a suitable date here: https://whenisgood.net/osmgsoc25s
> > >
> > > Thanks for your help!
> > >
> > > Sarah
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gsoc-mentors mailing list
> > gsoc-mentors at openstreetmap.org
> > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/gsoc-mentors
> >