This document covers the expectations for Google Summer of Code applicants in regards to the structure of the proposal and the communication with the mentors.
For general information about our projects, please visit the FrameNet Brasil website.
All contributors should start by:
- reading the GSoC Student Guide;
- reading the GSoC 2022 Ideas list;
- reading the Contributors Covenant Code.
Successful applicants will turn in projects to address the issues listed in the ideas list, bringing together the kind of structured data FN-Br has been developing through the past decade with the computational techniques they find more suited for achieving the proposed goals. Please note that FN-Br is not only about big data, machine learning and whichever purely statistical approach to language is out there. The work in FN-Br is model-based, besides being also data-driven. The kinds of issues prompting the mentoring process that will take place if FN-Br is accepted for GSoC 2022 are not to be solved by solely training some algorithm from a ton of raw data. With that in mind, applicants should follow the steps below to submit their applications.
All of it! We've tried to give you all the information you need to be an awesome GSoC contributor.
- Look at the data reports and familiarize yourself with the kind of structure FN-Br builds;
- Read the following papers:
- Towards continuity between the lexicon and the constructicon in FrameNet Brasil.. TORRENT, T. T.; MATOS, E.; LAGE, L.; LAVIOLA, A.; TAVARES, T.; ALMEIDA, V. G.; SIGILIANO, N. (2018). In: LYNGFELT, B.; BORIN, L.; OHARA, K. H.; TORRENT, T. T. (Orgs.). Constructional Approaches to Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
- Frame-Based Annotation of Multimodal Corpora: Tracking (A)Synchronies in Meaning Construction. BELCAVELLO, F.; VIRIDIANO, M.; DINIZ DA COSTA, A.; MATOS, E. E.; TORRENT, T. T. (2020). In: Proceedings of the LREC International FrameNet Workshop 2020: Towards a Global, Multilingual FrameNet. Marseille, France: ELRA, p. 23-30.
Constributions not associated with any of the FrameNet Brasil proposed ideas typically get rejected.
Join the FrameNet GSoC Slack community and ask the mentors about what they expect of GSoC contributors. Get help from them to refine your project ideas. It is a good idea to start on your proposal early, post a draft to the FrameNet Slack community and tag one of the mentors, so they can review it and iterate based on the feedback you receive. This will only improve the quality of your proposal. Listening to your mentors' recommendations is very important at this stage!
💡 Communication is probably the most important part of the application process and the mentor is one of the most valuable resources for GSoC projects. Talk to the mentors and other developers, listen when they give you advice, and demonstrate that you've understood by incorporating their feedback into what you're proposing. The mentor likely has worked on the project for long enough to know the history of decisions, how things are architected, the other people involved, the process for doing things, and all other cultural lore that will help constributors be most successful.*
Also, make it easy for your mentors to give you feedback. If you're using Google docs, enable comments and submit a "draft" (we can't see the "final" versions until applications close). If you're using a format that doesn't accept comments, make sure your email is on the document and don't forget to check for feedback!*
We usually reject applicants who haven't listened to mentor feedback. If your mentors tell you that a project idea won't work for them, you're probably not going to get accepted unless you change it.
Write a 1-3 pages pre-project (take a look at the GSoC Sample Application Template) and submit it to projeto.framenetbr@ufjf.br, one week before the official submission deadline to get feedback from FN-Br before the official submission.
We actually recommend you submit a few days early in case you have internet problems or the system is down. Google does not extend this deadline, so it's best to be prepared early! You can edit your application up until the system closes.
Note: All applications must go through Google's application system; we can't accept any application unless it is submitted there.
The Google Summer of Code coding period is very short. On top of that, many applicants haven't done a lot of real-world development/engineering work previously; one of the primary purposes of the program is to introduce contributors to real-world development scenarios. On top of that, most mentors and contributors are in different locations – so face-to-face time is difficult. Because of this, it's vitally important to the success of the GSoC project for all expectations to be specified before contributors begin coding.
Frequent communication with your mentor is a must. Your mentor should always have a good idea of:
- what you're currently working on
- how far you've gotten
- how you're implementing it
- what you plan on working on next
- what issues have come up
- what you did to get around them
- what's blocking you if you're stuck
The mentors and contributors should know the answers to the following questions:
- What is the communication schedule? Daily? (Every two days? Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays?)
- What is the best medium to use for regular, scheduled communication? (Email? Slack? Zoom?)
- What is the best medium to use for non-scheduled communication? (Email? Slack?)
This forces you to be more organized and it gives your mentor a chance to help you out if you're having trouble.
Are you going on vacation, moving, writing papers for class? If your mentor doesn't know where you'll be or to expect a lag in your productivity, your mentor can't help you course correct or plan accordingly.
The project timeline doesn't allow for unplanned gaps in communication.