GSOC 2013 ranking rubric for potential projects

[Benjamin De Kosnik]

Hey all. 

I'm getting private email about potential project for Google Summer of
Code 2013. This is great, and I'm glad to see interest. 

Although I've enjoyed mentoring people in the past, I will not be
mentoring this year. However, I do plan on reviewing potential
GCC/libstdc++ GSOC applications, and voting to select winning projects.
I'm using a different selection criteria this year, and wish to share
it with potential participants so that they understand how to maximize
their chance for selection.

Some background on GCC/libstdc++ GSOC is here:
http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SummerOfCode#Application

I will plus potential projects if I see:

1) past evidence of participation in open source community. This can be
bugzillas, mailing list participation, beta testing in any form, etc.
Be detailed. Be specific. There is never too much info here.

2) proactive stance on assignment paperwork. Getting FSF assignments in
place for studen contributors located outside the USA during the North
American summer months seems to be especially painful. If you want to
work on GCC, and know what you want to do enough to propose something
for GSOC, then start getting the assignment in place immediately.
There is no "too soon." (IMHO "future" assignments are perfect for this
because then participants can work, when it's ready to integrate it can
be done simply without having to know exact file names or directories.)

3) post project proposal on public GNU mailing lists

4) timely discussion and replies of project proposal on GNU mailing
lists

5) a mentor volunteer for the project

6) a project that looks interesting to me or fills a known need

best,
-benjamin