Microkernel devrom as an umbrella organization in GSoC 2017

[Martin Decky]

Dear all,

> I am now predominantly interested in general feedback on this idea
> rather than jumping straight into technicalities of how to divide
> students and such. So do people like this idea? Should we proceed with it?

I definitively support this idea. Actually, I have been discussing it 
with Jakub for several months already and we originally planned to 
discuss it with others during FOSDEM. But there is no reason to hesitate 
now, of course.

My two cents:

  * I think we can host the information pages and also the idea page of
    the umbrella organization on the microkernel.info website. I believe
    it is a suitable quasi-neutral location.

  * We should discuss whether we will encourage or discourage the
    participating organizations in the umbrella organization to also
    submit their individual GSoC applications. I personally think that
    there is nothing wrong with that, but as already said many times,
    nobody outside Google actually knows what are the Google's criteria
    for selecting the organizations into GSoC, thus anything could harm
    our chances in principle.

  * My original suggestion was to name the umbrella organization after
    microkernel.info. I acknowledge that naming it after the devroom has
    its appeal -- it is a more physical, tangible entity. However, I
    would also like to suggest that the umbrella should not be limited
    to those organizations that actively participate or have
    participated in the devroom, but it should be open to any project
    which could be considered a microkernel OS (by a broad definition).
    Any objections against that?

    [On the other hand, I believe that the active devroom participants
    will form the "hard core" of the umbrella :)]


Best regards

Martin Decky