As a former two-time GSoC mentor who has firsthand seen the life-changing experience it gives to bright students, I only have this quote to offer:
"An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." —O. A. Battista, 1946 +1 on Abhishek's proposal. khush rehna, Jeffrey On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 7:09 AM Abhishek Bhardwaj < abhishek02bhardwaj...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Deb, > > I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Yaron’s > suggestion. From what I understand, Yaron was specifically referring to > candidates who are *eligible only for GSoC* and were interested in > contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation through that program. > > You mentioned three official ways to contribute to Wikimedia in a paid > capacity: > > 1. > > *Outreachy Internship* – The issue with Outreachy is its strict > eligibility criteria, which focus on underrepresented groups in the tech > industry. Many contributors do not fit into this category, making them > ineligible to participate. > 2. > > *Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology Software Engineering > Internship* – While this is a great initiative, it requires full-time > commitment during academic terms, making it inaccessible for many students > who would otherwise participate in GSoC. Additionally, the sheer volume of > applications often leaves many candidates without feedback (I applied > myself with a referral but never received a response—not complaining, just > sharing my experience). In contrast, GSoC allows contributors to learn and > grow, regardless of whether they ultimately receive an internship offer. > 3. > > *GSoC* – This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is not participating in > GSoC. This leaves a gap for students who are ineligible for both Outreachy > and the Wikimedia internship, making it harder for them to engage in > Wikimedia projects. > > What Yaron seemed to be suggesting (or at least what I understood) is that > this gap could be filled by *allowing more technical projects to be > funded through Wikimedia Rapid Grants *by hosting Wikimedia's own Summer > of Contribution. Historically, Rapid Grants have been conservative when it > comes to funding technical projects, mainly due to concerns about their > long-term sustainability. However, I believe that many contributors who > wanted to participate in GSoC this year would be interested in this > opportunity. While I’m sure there are internal considerations I’m unaware > of, it seems like a potential solution that could benefit many > contributors—if given the necessary approval and support. > > Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this! > > Best, > Abhishek > > On Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM Deb Tankersley <dtankers...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > >> Hello Yaron, >> >> Thanks for the input and suggestions! >> >> For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several >> externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer >> of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia >> Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship >> Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing >> right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, >> we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey. >> >> In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the >> prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be >> interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy >> <https://www.outreachy.org/> internship program that officially kicks >> off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the >> application period for interns but the mentors and project >> <https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/> application period is still >> open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, >> both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 >> months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their >> interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays. >> >> Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and >> December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups >> for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round >> of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in >> late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through >> June 2026. >> >> If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these >> programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it. >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> Deb >> >> -- >> >> deb tankersley (she/her) >> >> developer outreach program management >> >> Wikimedia Foundation >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren <yaro...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> 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 >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org >>> >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org >> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
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