Summer of Code proposals

[Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org>]

As all committers will now know Apache is a mentoring organisation in 
Googles Summer of Code initiative.

I have already submitted (and received interest in) a proposal to build 
voice plugins for Forrest. However, there is plenty of scope for other 
proposals.

The idea is that the student be mentored by a committer on the project. 
The mentor is supposed to help the student learn the ways of Open Source 
development and to ensure there is someone to guide them in the 
development process. However, they are not on their own, all design 
discussion is to be held in the normal community way, so the student 
should gain the support of the community as a whole. As I see it, the 
mentor is someone who guarantees to read and respond to the students 
communications, whilst other committers play their normal role of only 
piping up if they have an interest.

I am willing to consider being a co-mentor on any projects submitted by 
the Apache Forrest project. So if anyone has any ideas and priorities - 
views perhaps. I have the time to spend on key projects within Forrest, 
so if there is anyone with "not quite enough time" to commit to being a 
mentor I will assist (I stress assist, I do not want to be lumbered with 
full mentorship, I already have one project and one co-mentored project).

The first stage is to attract students to the project by adding a brief 
outline to http://wiki.apache.org/general/SummerOfCode2005

The second stage is to work with any interested students to create a 
full project proposal.

Note competition is high for the Google sponsored projects, but the 
output of making a submission is a clear project proposal which will be 
a useful design document for Forrest.

Ross