Hi Matthew, Thank you for your email and for your strong interest in the GSoC project on the Flink connector for IoTDB Table Mode. I'm very sorry for the late reply!
It's great to see that you've already set up your local development environment, have a 2.x cluster running, and have been exploring the existing FlinkIoTDBSink and FlinkIoTDBSource examples in the iotdb-extras repo. That's an excellent start — especially for your first major open source contribution! Your strong Java and SQL background from internships will be a huge asset for this project. Important note on timeline: GSoC 2026 contributor proposals are actually open right now and the deadline is March 31, 2026 at 18:00 UTC (very soon!). If you're planning to apply, I strongly recommend submitting your proposal on the GSoC website as soon as possible. For pre-application steps, here are the most effective things you can do right now: * Small contributions (highly recommended): The best way to get familiar with the IoTDB community and codebase is to tackle a small task. We label beginner-friendly issues as "good-first-issue" on GitHub. You can filter them here: https://github.com/apache/iotdb/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good-first-issue%22Feel free to pick one related to connectors, Flink, or the Table Model. If you have any questions while working on it, just comment on the issue — we're happy to help! * Join the community: * Mailing list (our primary and official communication channel): Send an email to [email protected] (subject doesn't matter). You'll receive a confirmation email — just reply to it to finish subscribing. After that, please introduce yourself and mention your interest in the Flink Table Mode connector. * Slack (for real-time chat): The invite link on the website sometimes expires. Please try this updated one:https://join.slack.com/t/apacheiotdb/shared_invite/zt-qvso1nj8-7715TpySZtZqmyG5qXQwpg (If it still doesn't work, just let me know and I'll help invite you directly.) Thank you very much for attaching your CV — I've gone through it and it looks really solid! If you have any questions about the project, the code, a specific issue, or need help drafting your proposal, please feel free to reply here, post on the mailing list, or ping me on Slack/GitHub. We're excited to have you get involved and happy to help you start on the right foot. Looking forward to your contributions and hopefully seeing your GSoC application soon! Best regards, Haonan Apache IoTDB Community / GSoC Mentor On Feb 16, 2026, at 5:59 AM, Matthew Pappas <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Haonan! My name is Matthew and I am a 3rd year CS student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. I am planning to apply for the GSoC project on the Flink connector for IoTDB Table Mode! This would be my first time contributing to an major open source project like this and I am really excited to get involved, but I also want to make sure I start on the right foot. I’ve spent the last few days reading and getting familair the codebase and have already set up my local dev environment. I have a 2.x cluster (ConfigNode and DataNode) running on my machine and I’ve been playing around with the existing FlinkIoTDBSink and FlinkIoTDBSource examples in the iotdb-extras repo to understand the current architecture. I have strong experience with Java and SQL from my internships so I am comfortable with the backend logic, but I am new to the specific workflow of the IoTDB community and open source in general. Since applications open in about a month or so could you let me know if there are specific "pre application" steps I should start working on? For example is there a specific bug or small task you recommend for a first-time contributor or any way to filter issues as "first-time" friendly? Is there anything else in particular I should be aware of before getting started? I’ve already gone through the development guide and contribution docs. One more quick question: I noticed the Slack invite link on the website<https://iotdb.apache.org/Community/Development-Guide.html#references> doesn’t seem to work. Is there an updated invite link or is the mailing list the main communication channel? I have also attached my CV for more context. Thank you for reading! Matthew
