In a way, too bad I’m not in the states for this summer school…. because it sounds so interesting! Let me quote:
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 students and 2500 mentors & co-mentors from nearly 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
Though I am not that good with coding, I surely hope that the ones that are passionate about coding in different programming languages will come up with some interesting stuff! I mean, look at this conversation published in a post by wordpress. Wouldn’t it be so nice if people, especially the younger generation, instead of playing X-box and other computer games(I don’t have anything against the computer games…) would help developing applications/systems online, even if this means fixing bugs or tweaking some plugin/skin/avatar…? Maybe it is too idealistic, but it would be nice….
Anyways, I recently bumped into the the Google Summer of CodeTM 2009 site, and they are open for registering students(log in first, create a profile, then fill in the application form) – all for free… For the timeline of the project or the schedule, view their set of links here. Also, there is a comprehensive list of accepted organisations(mentors), with their respective links, to which the students will be coupled as they register and express their afinities/options. Before you register, consult the list of the AdviceForStudents, with many articles placed by different individuals:
- Patrick Barnes, organization administrator for the Fedora Project, has posted some helpful hints in the Google Summer of Code Discussion Group.
- Alex Russell from the Dojo Project has also posted some great advice for students.
- Bart Massey with Portland State University has posted PSU’s application guidelines,
- The folks at the Drupal project also have some great application guidelines for students.
- Laurynas Biveinis has written an excellent introduction to life as a Summer of Code student.
- choosing a mentoring program:
- Alex Pico with GenMAPP has once again created a categorized list of mentoring organizations for 2009 using Delicio.us, a social bookmarking site. (a post on the Google Summer of Code Discussion list).
- Haoyu Bai – a custom search for all of our 2009 mentoring organizations. For more on how to use this tool most effectively, see Haoyu’s post on the Google Summer of Code Discussion list. - If you’re interested in some historical references on participating organizations, you can check out:
- Alex Pico with GenMAPP created a categorized list of mentoring organizations for GSoC 2008.
- check out this list of 2008 mentoring organizations categorized by programming language.
Any more questions? Check out the FAQ. You wanna know how the rankings are being done? Or maybe you want to become a mentor for an organization…. And if you still want to know more about the Google Summer of Code 2009, view the video here or read the latest installments of the Code Conversations….
