Glossary
These are some of the terms most commonly used throughout the Melange website as well as this documentation.
Accepted Projects
Student proposals that have been accepted by a Mentoring Organization.
App Engine
Google's web application hosting platform. Melange is one of many web applications hosted on App Engine.
Community Bonding Period
The time between the date Students are accepted and the Program officially begins. During this time Organization Administrators may need to assist with Students withdrawing from the program and being replaced by other students. Students are encouraged to use this time to get familiar with the Organization's community, learn any unfamiliar tools and languages, and generally get ready to start coding. Mentors should be available to answer questions during this time.
Connections
The system Melange uses to make Mentors officially recognized by Mentoring Organizations and to add other Organization Administrators to their Mentoring Organizations is called "Connections." Connections are described in detail in their respective sections of this manual.
Dashboard
Participants who have filled out a profile have a My Dashboard in Melange where they see program information specifically relevant to them.
Deduplication
Students are allowed to submit a maximum number of proposals for Google Summer of Code as decided by the Program Administrator in the Program Settings at the start of the year. Often a proposal is set to be accepted by more than one organization. This is considered "duplication." The process of resolving which organization will accept which student (and proposal) is deduplication.
Evaluation
At the Midterm and Final Evaluation points of the program each Student is asked to complete a form to evaluate their Mentor and the program, and each Mentor is asked to complete a form to evaluate their Student's work. These forms, completed on Melange, are "evaluations".
Evaluation Template
The blank (and customizable) evaluation form, placed into Melange by the Program Administrator.
Final Evaluation Records
The evaluations completed by Students and Mentors at the end of the program.
Ideas List
The page or series of pages where an Organization describes possible projects for Students to apply for. More detail is better.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
A somewhat archaic but still common means of real-time multi-participant conversation, IRC is Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer. Many mentoring organizations use IRC as a place for Students to ask questions. IRC requires client software, much of which is freely available for a variety of platforms. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat for more information.
Melange
Melange is the software application used to run the Google Summer of Code program. Melange is used via a web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari (all modern standards-compliant browsers are supported).
Mentor
A member of an accepted Mentoring Organization who has filled out a profile on Melange and has been accepted to participate as a Mentor by the organization's Organization Administrator.
Mentoring Organization
An open source organization that was accepted into the Google Summer of Code program and supervises and benefits from work done by Students during a program. A Mentoring Organization is managed by one or more Organization Administrators.
Midterm
The mid-point of the Program when Students' progress on their projects are evaluated by their Mentors.
Midterm Evaluation Records
The evaluations completed by the Students and Mentors halfway through the program.
My Todos
This dashboard in Melange is where you can find various time-sensitive tasks that need your attention.
Organization Administrator
The primary manager of an accepted Mentoring Organization's responsibilities. Please see the Google Summer of Code FAQ (located on the Melange homepage) for information on the full complement of their responsibilities.
Organization Application Template
The set of questions to be answered as part of an organization's applying to participate in a program. Program Administrators create this template and Organization Administrators complete it in their application.
Profile
The personally identifying information you fill out that includes your name, address, t-shirt size, sex, etc. Completed on the Google Summer of Code website.
Program Administrator
One or more of the Google Open Source Programs Office's employees who manage the Google Summer of Code program.
Program Entity
A single program such as Google Summer of Code 2014 as represented in the Melange datastore. The program's timeline, allowed numbers of Students and Organizations, and other program-wide data are stored as part of this entity.
Program Timeline
The time frame and important dates of a given program.
Project
An accepted Student proposal. A project describes the scope and goals of the work that the student wishes to complete during the program.
Proposal
An application from a student to participate in Google Summer of Code. The proposal describes the scope and goals of the work that the student wishes to complete.
Role
A user's function on Melange. Any user can be one of 4 roles: Program Administrator, Organization Administrator, Mentor, or Student. (Organization Administrators can also serve as a Mentor.)
Slots
The number of Students an organization can accept, or the total number of students that may be accepted into the current Google Summer of Code program. A "slot allocation" is given to each mentoring organization to indicate how many total Student proposals they can accept during the current year's program.
Stipend
Money potentially awarded to a Student at three points during the program: acceptance, midterm evaluation, final evaluation.
Student
A user who meets the Student participation criteria for the Google Summer of Code program and has completed a Melange profile.
Student Application Period
The period of a program's timeline during which Students are proposing work that they wish to perform during the later work period of the program.
Sub-Organization
These are small features or participants in a Mentoring Organization that are not the whole organization. See Umbrella Organization.
Umbrella Organization
Some Mentoring Organizations in Google Summer of Code have small features or participants who do not fit into the larger schema of their work. The organization can become an "Umbrella Organization" and allow multiple projects to function independently during the program while still remaining cohesive.
Work Period
The period of a program's timeline during which Students actively implement software for the Mentoring Organization they are working with.