Please congratulate GSoC'ers directly (was Re: [Ilugc] google summer of code 2009)

[Vamsee Kanakala]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> On 04/24/2009 06:18 AM, Vamsee Kanakala wrote:
>   
>>>   
>>>       
>> +1. And it will also shut up those forever moaning about India not
>> having enough FOSS contributors. Let a thousand flowers bloom :)
>>     
>
> I hope it doesn't shut up some of the valid criticisms of the general
> lack of contributions in relative terms. GSoC while nice is hardly the
> end of the line. We still have a huge problem of retaining students once
> the project time period is over. Many of them disappear till the next
> year where they might show up in a altogether different project. The
> motivation, if purely monetary is not enough to be sustainable.
>   

Okay, maybe I'm just playing the devil's advocate here - do you really 
blame the students for not sticking around? Perhaps they found a better, 
interesting project - there's no rule that they have to dedicate 
themselves to one project. If I was a student, I have time on my side, 
so I'm more likely to 'shop around' for that perfect fit.  And foss 
projects are not very immune to politics either.

Also, retaining open source developers, interestingly, is very much a 
marketing problem - sometimes it needs what you call 'hype' to keep them 
interested and motivated enough to stick around. The really popular open 
source projects have less of a problem retaining developers than others. 
GSoC gives that initial thrust monetary and otherwise, to bring students 
to you - how you keep them, is up to you. Not very much unlike 
customers, I suppose. Sorry for another business analogy.

I suppose a lot of heartbreak and confusion comes from thinking that 
foss is somehow unaffected by monetary/economic considerations - it is 
very much so, and managing an open source project's appeal to developers 
is being able to walk that thin line successfully. Not that I did this 
all myself, but as a Rails developer, I had enough time to analyze the 
craze/hype cycle of technology - just some observations.

-- 
Vamsee.