Google's Summer of Code

"Students are flipping bits, not burgers."

Summer is under manner and, once again, pupils participating in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) undertaking are flipping bits, not burgers.

The undertaking deduces its name from the Summer of Love. Now in its 3rd twelvemonth since launching in 2005, the GSoC gives pupil software system developers an chance to derive practical experience creating open-source programmes or helping with constituted projects. While most pupils come up from computing machine scientific discipline and computing machine technology programs, a assortment of educational backgrounds are represented, including pupils in computational biological science and mainstream engineering. The pupils work with a wise man and are paid a stipend for their participation. According to Google's Web site, respective of the 2005 pupils served as wise men in 2006.

In its first three years, the GSoC engaged more than than than 1,000 pupils who worked on more than 100 open-source projects, creating 100s of one thousands of lines of code. In 2005, Google worked with 400 pupils and 40 mentoring organisations representing 49 states around the world. The figure increased to more than than 600 in 2006. In 2007, Google accepted 131 organisations and more than than 900 students. Students could submit up to 20 applications, although lone 1 would be accepted; 6,200 applications came in.

The Goals

According to the Web site, Google's ends for the GSoC undertaking include releasing more than open-source codification for the benefit of all; inspiring immature developers to take part in open-source development; assist open-source projects pull new developers and committers; supply qualified pupils the chance to happen summertime work in a field related to their academic training; and to give pupils more exposure to real-world software-development scenarios, such as as distributed development, software system licensing and mailing listing etiquette.

Google makes not see this undertaking as a recruiting tool, although the company makes expression at the program's consequences to place possible recruits. While past pupil participants have got reported that their experience on the undertaking made them more than attractive to employers, most World Health Organization establish work are not currently employed by Google.

How It Plant

A Wikipedia entry studies that early in March, prospective mentoring organisations submit applications to Google. By mid-March, Google prints its listing of recognized mentoring organisations and asks for pupil applications. When pupils apply, they item the undertaking they desire to perform. The corresponding mentoring organisation measures the students' proposal(s) and ranks the applications. Google then make up one's minds how many undertakings each mentoring organisation receives, and chooses the top-rated applicants for that organization. The mentoring organisation must supply a wise man for each recognized project.

In mid-April, Google prints a listing of recognized pupil applications on its Web site. Students get coding in late May, and Google gets issuing first payments. The wise men execute mid-term ratings in July and concluding evaluations in late August. In 2006, 82 percentage of the participating pupils received a positive evaluation. Any codification developed during the course of study of the undertaking belongs to the mentoring organisation unless otherwise agreed.

Projects 2007

The GSoC Web land site listings this year's participating members and supplies an abstract of the undertakings that are under way. There are far too many to cover here, but include One Laptop per Child, or OLPC , a new non-profit organization that is researching the possibilities of developing a $100 laptop. This engineering would have got a immense impact on how the world's children have their education. OLPC have eight undertakings in the GSoC project, dealing with such as substances as exploring every other energy systems, installations to bear down backup batteries, and similar issues.

Another participant, WordPress , the organisation behind the popular open-source blogging software, have 10 undertakings under way. They company's undertakings include coding that volition ease page direction and do it easier for bloggers to change the order of their pages. Another WordPress undertaking affects coding that betters support for podcasting.

The Mozilla Foundation is another participating member. Its respective undertakings include developing codification to back up roaming in the Thunderbird e-mail application, and coding to add Firefox support for the new JPEG 2000 image-compression algorithm. JPEG 2000 bring forths higher-quality mental images at littler data file sizes than the criterion JPEG, but currently only the Campaign browser renders the JPEG 2000.

Google itself have four undertakings running in the GSoC. Google's ain undertakings include development of coding to recognize socket support in Google Web Toolkit on a browser degree using GWT Socket module. Another Web Toolkit undertaking seeks to "make the procedure of authorship appliances in it less of a challenge."

Growing Striving

As could be expected, the GSoC undertaking have been a acquisition experience for Google and the mentoring organizations, as well as the students. In the 2005 season, Google received unfavorable judgment from the open-source organisations for providing deficient clip to program projects. Nevertheless, 39 organisations participated, including FreeBSD, Apache, Ubuntu and others.

Additionally, the bulk of undertakings stalled immediately at undertaking end. Wikipedia quoted Google's open-source programme manager, Chris DiBona, as saying that lone 30 percentage of pupils stuck with their undertakings afterward. The figure of surviving undertakings may be less than half. However, in an interview with InternetNews , DiBona said that the GSoC undertaking isn't only about getting programmers to stay with their undertakings after September. Google also desires to present pupils to the open-source development procedure and to maintain them working in a computing machine science-related field over the summer.

Some mentoring organisations indicated that, in future years, they would pass more than than clip selecting appropriate projects, and would look for 1s that are more likely to be completed within the clip allotment.

As for GSoC 2006, things got off to a bouldery start in late May when 1,800 pupil appliers received an inaccurate e-mail saying their undertakings had been accepted. A follow-up e-mail somes few proceedings later apologized for the error, and told receivers that if they had received two e-mails, 1 expression they were accepted and one expression they were not accepted, then they were not accepted. Not all appliers establish this amusing.

Similarly, GSoC 2007 have not been "glitch-free." Hoping to increase the figure of pupil applicants, Google extended the application deadline from March 24 to March 26, and then, at the last minute, to March 27. In early April, the credence letters were delayed for administrative reasons. At one point, Google's Web interface erroneously changed to give each applier a position of "not selected." This, as Wikipedia explained it, "caused a immense figure of Summer of Code result-awaiting swots to just endure a corporate bosom attack." Google responded by saying that the credence e-mail was the lone echt word regarding credence or rejection.

Good grief! Would person military volunteer to learn the folks at Google how to utilize e-mail and how to update a Web site?

Anyone wanting to hear Summer of Code podcasts from participating pupils can breaker on over to the Google Summer of Code Blog . You'll happen a figure of golf course to podcasts and videocasts. Apparently, pupils who meander into Google's central office are pressed into duty to make a podcast describing their activities.