Previous organization administrators and mentors have suggested organizing IRC meetings for GSOC & Outreachy candidates. So, for the current round, we are incorporating this idea.
Throughout the course of both programs, we'll have six meetings that will take place on June 19th, July 3rd, July 17th, July 31st, August 14th, August 28th (all meetings will be held b/w 9 am - 10 am PST on #wikimedia-devrel ).
The goal of these meetings would be to give candidates an opportunity to not only meet with fellow participants but also learn about their work, ask them questions, announce what they are up to more in the open, and ask any program specific questions from admins. We're also hoping that this process will make the evaluation process much more easy and transparent for all of us, as we've had some issues in the past.
This meeting is optional for mentors but mandatory for students.