[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] SOCIS 2012

Stefano Sabatini stefasab at gmail.com
Sun Jul 8 19:29:42 CEST 2012


On date Friday 2012-07-06 00:24:45 +0200, Stefano Sabatini encoded:
> On date Friday 2012-06-29 12:43:00 +0200, Stefano Sabatini encoded:
> > On date Friday 2012-06-29 12:37:47 +0200, Michael Niedermayer encoded:
> > > On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 11:21:39AM +0200, Stefano Sabatini wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > > Since the time is short we need to provide a list of candidate tasks
> > > 
> > > what is "short" when are the deadlines?
> > 
> > About two weeks since now:
> > http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis2012/timeline
> 
> I created the SOCIS 2012 page on the wiki with a libavfilter task
> mentored by me:
> http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_Summer_Of_Code_In_Space_2012
> 
> To all interested candidate mentors and backup mentors:
> update the page with your proposal(s) as soon as possible, or add your
> name as backup mentor, ask a wiki account to Mike Melanson in case you
> don't have one already.
> 
> I'll act as default backup mentor for all the tasks which have no
> backup mentor. A backup project admin seems like a good idea
> (Michael?).
> 
> I plan to send the application a few days before the deadline (15/07
> 11pm UTC), I'll send the application text for review on this list
> during the weekend.
> 
> In case we have more candidates than allocated tasks, I'll discuss the
> proposed tasks with the SOCIS admin and we'll select the one more
> suited to the ESA/SOCIS objectives, assuming all the candidate
> students seem equally qualified.

Hi, in attachment the text that I'll use for the application, based on
socis2011/gsoc2012 application text.

Feel free to comment, grammar nazi remarks are welcome.

Also, *in case you want to mentor the project please update the ideas
page here as soon as possible*:
http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_Summer_Of_Code_In_Space_2012
-- 
FFmpeg = Funny and Fancy Mastodontic Pacific Ecletic Generator
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* Project description (mandatory) - Describe in a few word your
  open-source project, why you would like to participate to SOCIS and
  what you hope to gain by participating.

FFmpeg is a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert
and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec - a leading
audio/video codec library.

FFmpeg is one of the most ubiquitous multimedia frameworks in the FLOSS
world, is used as the multimedia engine for a significant part of
multimedia applications, and provides the backend of possibly most
Internet-based multimedia transcoding services.

FFmpeg strives at being the *universal* multimedia tool, implementing
all possible multimedia formats (even the most oscure fringe formats),
and at being *complete*, providing full fledged support for all
multimedia operations, relying on external projects when it makes
sense.

* Space relevance (mandatory): Describe your project's connection with
  space activities.

Communication is a key aspect in space programs, being able to
communicate effectively and reliably, even in extreme conditions, is a
fundamental prerequisite for mission critical tasks.

FFmpeg is highly focused on providing the most possible reliable
and robust multimedia support, and a special emphasis is given on
optimizations issues, making it especially suited for computing
environments with strict memory and power requirements.

By participating to SOCIS, FFmpeg may extend its capabilities and
focus even more on robustness/reliability features making it the ideal
candidate for multimedia/communication tasks related to
mission-critical space missions.

In addition to this, the use of multimedia to demonstrate the work of
ESA and other space organizations to the public is also of increasing
importance. Free tools like FFmpeg allow space organisations to create
multimedia at a low cost and distribute content on a wide range of
platforms.

* SOCIS ideas page (mandatory): Address of the webpage describing your
  project's development ideas for the SOCIS program

http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_Summer_Of_Code_In_Space_2012

* Criteria for selecting mentors (mandatory): Describe here how your
  organization is planning to select and recruit the mentors for the
  various projects proposed.

Mentors will be selected on the base of availability and
qualification. Mentors propose themselves based on their expertise in
the domain area for the mentored tasks, and on their skill to deal
with students/people.

Mentors are usually veteran developers who delivered significant
contributions to the project and who deeply know the community and the
project itself. On the other hand there is no need for the
self-elected mentor to be a member of the FFmpeg community, provided
that he/she can prove sufficient technical knowledge for the task that
wishes to mentor.

* Disappearing mentor (mandatory): What is your plan for dealing with
  a disappearing mentor?

We'll try to assign a backup mentor for each task. The SOCIS admin
will take the responsibility to act as backup mentor in case the
appointed mentor will disappear during the project.

Finally, we rely on the developers community to help the student to
reach the task accomplishment, in addition to the help provided by the
appointed mentor.

We will also assign a designated backup administrator, which will act as
administrator in case the primary administrator will disapper or will
be impossibilitated to follow the project, for whatever reasons.

* Disappearing student (mandatory): What is your plan for dealing with
  a disappearing student?

We will try to keep scheduled contact with students during
qualification tasks to make sure they are reliable before they are
accepted. Also we'll make sure that we have different ways to reach
out each student.  We'll also arrange to have periodical reports from
students in order to track their progress.

In case of a disappearing student, we'll try to get in communication
with him/her using all the possible channels at our disposal, and in
case the student can't be reached within a reasonable amount of time,
we'll declare his/her task failed.

* Interaction with students during and after the program (mandatory)

We'll encourage the students to idle on IRC and we'll request them to
read and possibly participate to discussions on the main development
mailing-list. On the other hand we'll let the students choose the
communication means which better suit them (email, chat, direct voice
call or whatever, public or private communication as agreed with the
mentor).

We will also try to create a friendly environment where the students
can freely partecipate and where they can find support from the
community. In order to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunication
with the overall community we'll rely on personal comunication between
student and mentor in order to make the student aware of the "culture"
and of the community implicit rules.

We hope the students will stay around after the task termination on
the ground that they will feel comfortable into the project and will
have genuine interest in continuing their effort with it.


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