Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them: https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/ What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect. Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!) There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there. And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however. Any thoughts? -Yaron -- WikiWorks · MediaWiki Consulting · http://wikiworks.com
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