Sugree

Call for Students: Google Summer of Code 2008

This post should be considered as a backdate entry since last BarCamp Bangkok. In case of you didn't attend my session at BarCampBangkok and you are going to apply Google Summer of Code 2008, you are encouraged to read this entry carefully.

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1. Google Summer of Code is a program ran by Google aims to promote open source development to students in universities. 2008 is not the first year, actually, it has been started since 2005.

2. There are 3 roles in this problem, mentoring organization, mentor and student.

   • Mentoring organizations mean open source community that runs open source project. They have source code and knowhow. Any contributions are welcome so manpowers are always insufficient.
   • Mentors are usually developer or contributor in each open source project. They could help new developers to quickly start develop something based on existing code.
   • Students are newcomers. They may or may not have knowledge about open source project but they keen to contribute something to the project.

3. In addition to experience and contribution, all participants will get something back.

   • Each student that passes evaluation will get 500 USD after proposal accepted, 2000 USD after mid-term, 2000 USD after final evaluation and a cool geek t-shirt.
   • Each mentor, both primary and secondary, who helps in project will get a cool geek t-shirt.
   • Each mentoring organization will get 500 USD after final evaluation.

   Note that rewards are not the most important point. The taste of contribution to open source world is much more important.

4. There are so many mentoring organizations in previous year program. You may consider the right one for you easily. Anyway, it is possible to have new mentoring organizations this year.

5. Tentative timeline is already available at FAQ. In short, students are able to officially submit their applications on March 24-31, 2008. The accepted student proposal will be announced on April 14, 2008.

6. To all students, below are my suggestion.

   • Prepare now! Earlier is better.
   • It is possible to propose your partial proposal to some communities right now. Your idea will be reviewed early and you may improve your idea to get higher chance! For example, Drupal is actively reading your idea at [soc-2008] group.
   • To show your strength, I recommend to prepare some preliminary works, e.g., design and mockup.
   • If possible, you should prepare some live demonstration so all reviewers understand you exactly what you are going to do and your ability to make it done on time.

7. If your brain is all empty. Below are my idea for Drupal.

   • User dashboard - something similar to wordpress, joomla and blogger
   • Microblog module - something like Twitter
   • Powerful forum - improve manageability
   • Multisite manager - improve multisite installation and management
   • Visitor operation - ban/block/track IP/user
   • OpenSocial container - enable Drupal to host OpenSocial gadgets
   • XFN filter - enable social graph

   It's all about imagination!

Above are my talk at BarCamp Bangkok. Hope it is not useless.