[YLUG] Google Summer of Code - Get Paid to Work on Open Source This Summer

[Gavin Atkinson]

Hi all,

Evey year Google run something called the Summer of Code, where they will 
pay students to work on open-source projects over the Summer holiday.  If 
you're not currently a student, then I'm afraid that this email is of no 
use to you.

There are many (~150) open source projects participating this year, with a 
full list at 
http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010
Each project accepts applications from students wanting to work on 
particular projects, and then the project and Google work out together how 
many students can be taken on this year.  The student will receive $5000 
USD upon completion of the project, with the mentoring organisation 
receiving a further $500.

I'm involved in FreeBSD, and as a result the email I've forwarded below is 
a little FreeBSD-centric.  While I'd be more than happy to see local 
people apply to work with FreeBSD over the summer, be sure to check out 
the list if there's another mentoring organisation you'd rather be 
involved with.  If you are interested in applying for a FreeBSD project, 
feel free to contact me directly or in #freebsd-soc on efnet.

Unfortunately, the timing is a little awkward from a UK education 
perspective (we, unlike in the US, have quite a long Easter break at the 
undergraduate level), but it would be very nice to get more UK 
undergraduate and postgraduate students involved in GSoC.

The deadline for applications is rapidly approaching, so be sure to take a 
look at the Google page at http://code.google.com/soc and the mentoring 
organisation's project ideas, expecially FreeBSD's list :).  Also note 
that many projects will accept ideas that are not on their project ideas 
list, so it's worth discussing your project ideas with the mentoring 
organisation if you have an idea that isn't suggested.

Thanks,

Gavin
(gavin at FreeBD.org)


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> Subject: Summer of Code - Get Paid to Work on Open Source This Summer
>
>  Summer of Code - Get Paid to Work on Open Source This Summer
>
> Google Summer of Code is an exciting opportunity for students to 
> "intern" with an open source project for a summer. The FreeBSD Project, 
> as one of the most successful and oldest open source projects, is an 
> excellent place to do this internship. Founded in 1993, the project now 
> consists of several hundred "committers" and tens of thousands of 
> contributors. FreeBSD is the foundation for many commercial products, 
> including Apple's Mac OS X, NetApp's OnTap/GX, Juniper's JunOS, as well 
> countless other products, from Cisco anti-spam appliances to Isilon's 
> cluster storage hardware, and is widely used in the Internet Service 
> Provider and corporate IT worlds. Many of these sponsors participate 
> daily in the FreeBSD community, and students have the opportunity to 
> develop software ideas in an exciting environment with many real world 
> applications, and under the mentorship of experienced developers.
>
> After the summer ends, many of our students are sponsored by Google or 
> the FreeBSD Foundation to attend operating systems and open source 
> conferences to present on their work, and a significant number go on to 
> become FreeBSD developers. It's also a great job networking opportunity!
>
> There are many dozens of example project ideas listed on the FreeBSD web 
> site here:
>
>  http://www.freebsd.org/projects/summerofcode.html
>
> and for many other open source organizations as well:
>
>  http://code.google.com/soc
>
> Some of the example projects include working on embedded operating 
> systems, unix filesystems, network performance and implementing new 
> network protocols, and more.  Most sample project ideas include 
> developers you can contact to discuss a proposal, and we recommend doing 
> so in advance of submitting a proposal.  Strong C language skills are 
> recommended for most projects.
>
>     -  Murray
>