Google Summer of Code/2016/Rules

Rules for Google Summer of Code with the Gentoo Foundation

1. You are required to read and agree to these rules before your project starts. We will be happy to answer all your questions about them and provide any additional explanations you may need. Once your project starts you will be assumed to be aware of these rules and to have fully understood them. No excuse will be accepted. If you do not, or cannot, agree to any of these rules you cannot participate to Google summer of Code with the Gentoo Foundation.

2. Google requests feedback on your performance and behavior during your project. We will not hesitate to provide Google with negative feedback in case you do not respect these rules. The consequence is usually that you do not get complete or any payment at all from Google.

3. You will agree to do your best to communicate correctly and respectfully with everybody involved in GSoC. That is, mentors, administrators, and other students. Likewise, you will accept that other participants may have a culture different from yours, and may say or do things which you consider inappropriate. Any time this happens, you must first talk to your mentor and/or administrator. Very few of us are native English speakers (the author of these lines is not, for example) but we all try hard to communicate in proper English. Finally, you should remember that your mentors and administrators are volunteers, which means they are doing this on their own will, on their own personal time, and are not getting paid. We all have busy full-time jobs, and many of us have children or relatives to take care of.

4. Before you start your project, you will provide us with a phone number and a physical address where we can reach you during your working hours. We will verify this phone number by calling you. If we fail to verify this phone number you cannot participate to GSoC with Gentoo. During the project, if we cannot contact you (by either email, IRC or phone) for two consecutive working days, we will try our best to reach you by any means possible, including visiting the address you gave us, in order to make sure you are safe and healthy. In case that fails too, we will have no choice but consider you have given up on your project. The consequence is usually that you do not get complete or any payment at all from Google. Always talk to us before a period when you know you will not be available, or after it in case it was not planned.

5. Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a full time activity. Except in very rare circumstances, which will need to be discussed with us in advance, we will not accept you participate to GSoC with us if you have another full-time activity. If you have exams during the course of your project, please discuss this with us. We can usually arrange for that.

6. You are required to work on GSoC at least 35 hours each week. We prefer you do not work on GSoC more than 40 hours per week as we believe a balanced lifestyle is essential.

7. You are free to decide which days of the week and which time of the day you work. However, you will communicate us those days and times in advance. This is subject to approval by your mentor and the administrators of GSoC for Gentoo.

8. You are required to be present in the #gentoo-soc channel on the Frenode IRC network at all times during your working hours. You will communicate us in advance what your IRC nickname is. By experience we know that exchanging casually and regularly with mentors, administrators or fellow students is key to a successful Summer of Code.

9. At the end of each work day, you are required to email your answers to the following three questions to your mentor.

   1. What was my plan for today?
   2. Did I achieve it? If not, what do I intend to do about it?
   3. What is my plan for tomorrow?

This should take no more than two or three minutes at the end of your day. We insist that this must be done at the end of the work day and not the day after.

10. You are required by Google to provide weekly progress reports. You will send those by email to the gentoo-soc@lists.gentoo.org mailing list. You are encouraged to blog about your progress on your project but this is not mandatory. Note, though, that we do take into account how well and how much you participate with the Gentoo community in general.

11. You are required to have a meeting with your mentor, or a substitute depending on availability, once a week. This meeting must occur in the #gentoo-soc channel on the Frenode IRC network, or in an overflow channel if necessary.

12. You are required to have fun, and lots of it, during your entire Summer of Code.