Hi, On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 7:09 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I know that both mentors and GSoC-ers from past years are on this > list. Any tips, inputs, guidance to the applicants this year would be > more than welcome. So, could we see some hand-holding ? Especially as > the window closes this coming Friday ?
http://pradeepto.livejournal.com/12565.html and ... Following is verbatim copy of Madhusudan CS ( ex-SoC dude ) article in the KDE handbook. Google Summer of Code Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to contribute code for various open source projects. We are proud to share with you that KDE was the largest umbrella in GSoC 2008, with Google assigning 48 students slot to KDE. The program works like this, Google selects the FOSS communities as mentoring organizations(MOs) and those organization. Those MOs list ideas for their projects. Prospect students can select one of them or come up with their own and write a detailed proposal after doing some research on that idea. And those proposals are ranked by mentors and the best student proposals are selected. Following are the points which we have experienced and have heard from the students participating in previous years to get into GSoC without much pain. * First of all have a clear vision of contributing to a FOSS project. * Select a project in such a way that - working on that project interests you and your are passionate about. If improving that project really interests you and if you like its philosophies and vision then that may be the project you are looking for. No point in selecting projects half heartedly. For example, you are an amateur astronomer and user of KStars and really like it. Now you have a cool idea regarding the same, then make a proposal for same. Maybe you could send patches that could fix a small bug or such. And you don't need to do this right before making the SoC proposal, start early. Earn the respect of people who might become your future mentors. * The whole idea behind paying students to work on a FOSS project is to get more and more contributors to the FOSS community. Its not just about a single project where students run away after completing the project and getting the money. * Keeping these things in mind, its never early to start contributing to the project you like. Start as soon as possible. Probably today, may be right now! Yes, you heard it right - NOW!. The idea is to join the community and project group early have get yourself familiar with the code base, the community itself long before the SoC actually starts. Start contributing to the project in small bits and pieces ( send patches and such ) for starters to get your feet wet, moving to higher and better targets. Thus earning a bit of credibility from the community and in the process gaining enough knowledge to know what the project really needs. And finally submit a proposal based on your experience which in effect results in a much better proposals. * When reviewing student proposals, the mentors usually looks for the credibility of the students. So if you are already contributing you already know people in the community and most probably your prospect mentor himself and have great a chance of getting selected. * Keep in mind that, if mentors somehow feel like you may not be of any help in the long run, you may not be selected. This is not to tell you to pose as if you stay for the community in the long run, but to really prove you are worth it and you are a real gain in the long run (Be extra careful, mentors are really really intelligent people). * Communication is the most important aspect of GSoC. As soon as you select an idea, don't start doing things in dark and bang with your proposal all of a sudden. Do things as transparently as possible. Communicate with your community and potential mentors at every stage while preparing the proposal. Feel free to ask about things you either did not understand or want more info about on the project's IRC Channel or mailing list. They will be kind and more than willing to help you. Don't put false or wrong things on your proposal. Show that you can carry off things well. If the above points are kept in mind, we think GSoC just happens, you need not struggle for it! Cheers! Pradeepto -- The KDE Project : http://www.kde.org KDE India : http://www.kde.in Mailing List : http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-india _______________________________________________ Fedora-india mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-india
