Re: HFOSS: VizAudio & DOTS

[Willie Walker <William Walker Sun COM>]

Hi Bryen:

Before throwing in the towel for the VizAudio solution, I think we 
should still give the interns a choice, but clearly mark the VizAudio 
one as one that will have no technical mentorship and that those 
involved (e.g., the libnotify folks) tend to be very unresponsive to 
questions.  But, in the unlikely event that the intern happens to be 
very interested and already has a background, then there might be a match.

BTW, PulseAudio is still somewhat of a space of serious issue and 
contention.  Right now, I'd hesitate to accept any solution that depends 
on it.

So, I still propose:

* Flavio writes up the MouseTrap description
* Bryen writes up the VizAudio description
* Eitan writes up the Dots description

All these need to be clear in the following:

* A clear problem statement
* A set of deliverables and a measurement for success
* A list of the mentors and other resources

In addition, we need strong buy-in from the mentors to see the project 
through and want to help the intern succeed.  Having someone sign up as 
a mentor and then leave midstream really blows chunks for everyone and 
we need to avoid that.

Can you guys all do this?

Will

Bryen wrote:
> Alrighty, so we've had at least some discussion on the pros and cons of
> both proposed projects here on the list, plus some discussions online in
> IRC.  Here's where I stand now.
>
> While I personally truly want to see the VizAudio concept get off the
> ground, its clear its not quite ready for something to be given to HFOSS
> interns.  Primarily the reason is because we don't have a strong
> technical mentor to offer to the project yet.  But underlying, there
> seems we need to continue to collaborate on how the VizAudio concept
> gets implemented.  Some have suggested libnotify, others have suggested
> PulseAudio, and possibly there's other good and valid solutions.   Eitan
> has offered a great vision for how it would be used with PulseAudio when
> he and I discussed the concept yesterday.
>
> I must say, despite all this, I'm far more excited about VizAudio after
> this week.  The concept is really beginning to crystallize itself and I
> think we can make a go of it in the near future once we figure out some
> of the pieces to put in place.  Soon, I'll be on Planet GNOME and will
> then blog about it to see if we can get even more collaboration from the
> community at large.
>
> DOTS has a greater advantage in positioning itself for HFOSS internship.
> DOTS has some code already built, plus Eitan would be a great technical
> mentor.  Note to Eitan, you can include more than one mentor so you're
> not completely burdened with the work.  My only concern on DOTS is that
> it has some limited usage and really needs someone with a braille
> printer to test out the development as it proceeds.  If any of you have
> access to someone who can offer up their time to test with a braille
> embossing printer, that would be awesome.
>
> Eitan, you'll need to formulate an outline that Stormy can pass along to
> HFOSS next week about your proposal and what you would like to see the
> interns be able to come up with.
>
> So, if there's no further discussion, I'm putting my support to DOTS for
> HFOSS inclusion.  I think it is a great project and covers a specific
> need that helps us compete better with other proprietary solutions.
> Heck, I don't know braille, but I'm tempted to buy one I saw on eBay
> just to see how it all works.  (Saw one for $149 yesterday.)
>
> Thanks to everyone for the great motivation we all had for making great
> and sane projects for HFOSS.  Let's keep our eyes open for other
> internship possibilities and further expand our a11y world.
>
> Bryen
>
> On Wed, 2009-02-25 at 22:07 +0100, Flavio Percoco Premoli wrote:
> > Willie Walker escribió:
> > > So....hey two interns, three projects.  Maybe we let the interns 
> > > decide what they want to work on?  If that's the path we take, let's 
> > > still at least try to line up a technical mentor for the VizAudio task 
> > > and a mentor with braille expertise for the Dots task.
> > I agree with this... I mean, we are deciding what 2 interns are going to 
> > do in 10 weeks, so could be a good thing to let them chose showing them 
> > the tasks of the projects and what they/we should reach in the 10 weeks.
> >
> > I would like to add (and not to create more decision problems =D ) that 
> > we could also consider a 10 bugs fixing week, is it possible? I mean, we 
> > could chose one of the a11y applications with more bugs (not hard to 
> > learn/program) and do an intensive bug fixing on that app.
> >
> > Well, That's just another idea. I agree with letting the two interns 
> > decide (if possible) and for that we have to prepare a good document for 
> > each project explaining the taks and everything related to the project.
> >
> > Cheers.