I'm a little disappointed not to see Mythtv on the list. It could do with a boost.
Mythtv was on the SOC list last year but I don't think we saw much in the way of enhancements - just an 'experimental' add detection algorithm which you can use instead of the standard one. They had a list of things they wanted done, most importantly making setup a bit easier and a new (ajax?) UI.
The latest Ubuntu (Feisty) includes support for the PVR-150 out of the box, (IVTV drivers?), and will include more for Mytht
I read on the MythTV dev list that it was a pretty much a disaster for last year. The students worked on several things and finished almost nothing. It apparently turned into a situation of wasting the mentors time and the students not having the discipline to do the work from home. The MythTV project didn't want to do that again.
It's too bad, I support the idea of SOC, but maybe it needs closer inspection of actual work done prior to paying them. (currency exchange problems aside)
The problem with SoC is that the participants are like (inexperienced) contractors to the project. All other devs on the projects are (usually) non-paid spare-time developer.
This means that the SoC students have to be treated differently, which some mentors didn't expect. Since they're inexperienced, they usually plan far more than they could ever achieve in the time frame, but some projects picked those first since they sounded best. They expected the students to complete their work after deadline, so they gave them a positive review, even though nothing was finished. Of course, nothing happend, since students are used to dropping everything after a course is done.
For example, take a look at the Haiku project's SoC ideas [haiku-os.org]. They didn't participate last year, so they haven't learnt that lesson yet. Most of these projects are like a large master's thesis, some even more! That's ridiculous, there's no way any SoC student would be able to do that in the given time frame.
When students try to work on a project that's far above their head, you can expect that they constantly talk to their mentors about how to do it.
No Mythtv this year.... (Score:2)
Mythtv was on the SOC list last year but I don't think we saw much in the way of enhancements - just an 'experimental' add detection algorithm which you can use instead of the standard one. They had a list of things they wanted done, most importantly making setup a bit easier and a new (ajax?) UI.
The latest Ubuntu (Feisty) includes support for the PVR-150 out of the box, (IVTV drivers?), and will include more for Mytht
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
It's too bad, I support the idea of SOC, but maybe it needs closer inspection of actual work done prior to paying them. (currency exchange problems aside)
Re:No Mythtv this year.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with SoC is that the participants are like (inexperienced) contractors to the project. All other devs on the projects are (usually) non-paid spare-time developer.
This means that the SoC students have to be treated differently, which some mentors didn't expect. Since they're inexperienced, they usually plan far more than they could ever achieve in the time frame, but some projects picked those first since they sounded best. They expected the students to complete their work after deadline, so they gave them a positive review, even though nothing was finished. Of course, nothing happend, since students are used to dropping everything after a course is done.
For example, take a look at the Haiku project's SoC ideas [haiku-os.org]. They didn't participate last year, so they haven't learnt that lesson yet. Most of these projects are like a large master's thesis, some even more! That's ridiculous, there's no way any SoC student would be able to do that in the given time frame.
When students try to work on a project that's far above their head, you can expect that they constantly talk to their mentors about how to do it.