The latest presentation on the Google Summer of Code, based on my experience as a Google Summer of Code student and mentor with the open source communities AbiWord and OGSA-DAI.

1. Summer of Code 2012
Kathiravelu Pradeeban
AbiWord

2. Contents
➢ Why GSoC?
➢ Before you begin..
➢ Right Project?
➢ Shout!
➢ Apply.
➢ Code.
➢ Conclude/Continue.
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➢ What Else?

3. Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
 Code for your preferred open source
organization for 3 months.
 University students of age 18 and more.
 Google coordinates and rewards you!
– 3 milestones.
• Getting Accepted.
• Mid-Evaluations.
• Final Evaluations.
– A certificate, an awesome t-shirt, and gifts!
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– {500, 2250, 2250} USD.

4. Some statistics of 2011
 175 Organizations
– 2096 mentors and co-mentors.
 Submitted
– 3,731 students, from 97 countries.
– 5,651 proposals.
 Accepted
– 1115 students/projects
• 68 countries.
• 595 universities. 4

5. Success Rate..
is pretty high!
 Passed the mid evaluations
– Success rate up to mid – 90%+
 Passed the final evaluations
– Success rate – 88%
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6. Why Google Summer of Code?
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7. What do you need?
♥
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8. Timeline (2012)

Feb 4th : Program Announced.
th th

Feb 27 – March 9 : Organizations apply.
th

March 16 : List of Accepted Organizations.

March 17th – 25th : Students discussing project
ideas.

March 26th – April 6th : Students application
period.
8

9. Timeline..
After getting accepted

April 23rd : Accepted Students announced.
– Community Bonding Period Begins.
st

May 21 : Coding Begins.
th rd

July 9 – July 13 : Mid Evaluations.

Aug 13rd : Suggested Pencils Down.
– Tests, Documentation improvements, etc.
9

10. Timeline..
Concluding

Aug 20th : Firm Pencils Down.
– Stop Work!
th

Aug 24 : Final Evaluation Deadline.
th

Aug 29 : Final Results.

Aug 31st : Begin Code Submission to Google.
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11. Before you begin..
 Google Summer of Code is all about being
Open Source.
 Get your basics and motives right.
 Netiquettes.
 Sign up to the lists.
 Join the relevant channel.
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12. Technologies..
 Version Control Systems
– SVN, CVS, GIT, Mercurial, ..
 Build Tools
– Ant, Maven, ..
 IDEs (Integrated Development Environments)
– IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, ..
– Microsoft Visual Studio, Anjuta, ..
 Issue Tracker
– Bugzilla, Jira, Trac, .. 12

13. Communicating with the team..
and the mentor, over the Internet
 Mailing Lists
– Dev, User, Commit lists, sub-groups, ..
 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
 Issue Tracker
 Forums and wiki
 Blogs
 Skype, Personal Mails, gtalk, conference
calls, .. [with the mentors, if that is preferred.] 13

14. Network Etiquettes
 Be Specific and clear.
 Research (google.. ;)) before asking.
 Be helpful to others.
 Be ethical; respect.
 NO CAPS! (UNLESS YOU ARE SHOUTING!)
 Don't take messages personally.
 Dn't snd ur sms msgs to thrds or lsts.
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 Language/English

15. Proper Addressing..
over the lists/irc/..
 Address the devs and users properly.
– First Name or Preferred calling name.
– NO Sir, Madam, bro, sis, pal..
• Even if you know them, personally.
– No Mr., Dr., or Prof. either.
– Be gender neutral.
• “Folks” over “Guys and Girls”.
– Not too personal.
• Use “Hi”, instead of “Dear”.
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16. Mailing lists
 Post only to the relevant list.
 Check the mail archives first.
 Avoid HTML mails.
 No [URGENT]/[IMPORTANT] tags.
 No unnecessary attachments.
 No Cross Posting.
 Don't hijack threads.
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 Don't post off-topic.

17. IRC Etiquettes
 Be an observer first.
 Refer to others using their irc nick.
 Don't expect immediate replies; wait.
 Don't post bulk of text into irc.
– Post error logs to http://pastebin.com/ or
http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and share the url instead.
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18. Find a mentoring organization..
 Have a look at the list of GSoC2011.
 175 Last year!
 New Organizations.
 Google as the mentoring organization.
 Introduce GSoC to an organization (Sounds
Smart!).
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19. Find THE right project..
 Go through the organizations' projects list.
– Some organizations publish pretty soon.
– Refer to the projects list of 2011 of the
organizations till the GSoC 2012 is announced.
• AbiWord
• PhpMyAdmin
• Kubuntu
• DocBook Wiki
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20. Get to know more..
about the projects
 Talk to the mentor(s)
– Assigned by the organization
– for each project idea.
 Mailing lists and archives.
 Issue Tracker
– Open issues or tickets
• New features/enhancements (RFE)
• Bugs (easy/difficult and normal/critical)
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21. What makes you
special?
 Experience
– Being a great user doesn't mean that you can be a
good developer.
 Your interests and motivation
– Pick something you really enjoy doing.
– Being a great developer doesn't mean that you
can be a good contributor.
 Opportunities
– What makes you the right person? 21

22. Are you willing
to contribute further?
 Willingness
– To contribute to the community
– Beyond the time frame of GsoC.
 We want committers and long time
volunteers!
– Not just students!
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23. Experience
 Language
– Java, C++, C, ..
– Not much time to learn a new language (?)
 Prove It!
– Patches.
– Assist other students!!!
– Project expertise
• Bug reports and fixes.
• Go through the archives, wikis, and web sites. 23

24. Opportunities..
 Project that matches your previous work
experience.
 Choose the right project.
 Timezone Difference
– Use it effectively
– e.g., For Sri Lanka,GMT + 0530.
 Multiple Applications (20!)
 Preferences! 24

25. Shout!
 Communicate early.
 Communicate often.
 Ask questions.
 Most importantly,
Answer others' questions!
 Mentor is your friend!
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(respect)

26. Be Known..
 Be heard!
 Be visible!
 Be responsive!
 Be quick!
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27. Apply
 Register as a student for GSoC.
 Use the project's wiki for draft proposal
– if applicable.
 Apply on Google's melange.
– Can edit later, till the last minute!
– Get the mentors' opinions and improve.
 Check often for the mentors' comments
– attend to them. 27

28. Propose.. ♡
 How to impress..
– the mentor/developers?
 Stick to the organization's template.
 Abstract.
 Introduce yourself properly.
– Focus on the relevant facts.
– Why do you fit? Your skill sets.
– List of the patches (if any) you have submitted. 28

29. Propose..
 Project Goals
– Proves you got them correct.
 Deliverables
– Code, Documentation, test cases, ..
 Description
– Benefits to the organization and other projects.
– Can also be given along with the timeline.
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30. Propose..
 Timeline
– Finer details.
– Break upto periods of 3 - 4 days.
– Testing takes time.
– Don't be over-optimistic.
– Some organizations require considerable work
hrs/week (40 ?).
 Links
– References and additional details. 30

31. Application Template
 Name:
 Email:
 Project Title:
 Synopsis:
– A short description of your project.
 Benefits to the organization/project
– and/or other project(s):
 Deliverables:
– Quantifiable results. 31

32. • e.g.: “At the end of my project, AbiWord’s piece
table will be 50 times faster.”
 Project Details:
– A more detailed description of your project:
 Project Schedule:
– How long will the project take?
– When can you begin work?
– Do you know of any planned absences or other
major conflicts
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• summer classes, vacations, etc.

33.  Bio:
– Who are you?
– What makes you the best person to work on this
project?
 Additional Requirements:
– Patches / Specific requirements for the project.
 Further Related Information:
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34. After the submission..
 Don't go invisible!
– Evaluation is still going on.. ;)
 You may be asked to provide
– additional information.
• Patches.
• Screenshots.
 Start coding on your project.
– only if you didn't apply for multiple projects.
 Be motivated. 34

35. Got Selected? yay/
 Don't Panic.
 You have one more month
– just to mingle with the developers and the code
base.
 Mentors are there to help you!
 Keep touch with the developers.
 Users.
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36. Community Bonding Period
 Learn the project
– Go through the code base
– Documentation.
• Coding styles and coding guide lines.
 Communicate often
 Understand the project idea more.
– Come up with a design.
– Start with simple hacks.
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37. Coding..
Easiest task of all.. ;)
 Commit often, if given committership.
– Send daily patches otherwise.
– Meaningful Commit messages.
 Get feedback from the mentor(s).
 Keep the community updated
– Daily (?).
 Plan for the mid and final evaluations early,
with the mentor.
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38. Conclude/Continue..
 Pencils Down Date
 Firm Pencils Down Date
– GSoC Coding ends here.
 Get a tarball of all the diff files to submit to
Google.
 Focus on becoming a committer
– if not already given committership.
 Keep contributing. 38

39. What else?
 More FOSS?
 Annual?
 Stipend?
 Student?
 Country/Location?
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40. More Open Source
programs/contests..
 OpenOffice.org Internship
 Ubiquiti RouterStation UI/Firmware
 Wesnoth Summer Art Scholarship
 Umit Summer of Code (USoC)
 Season of KDE (SoK)
 The OpenMRS Internship Program (OIP)
 Joomla! Student Outreach Program
 Ruby Summer of Code
 Fedora Summer Coding
– http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_Coding_2010
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– https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2011

41. Some links.. ;)
 GSoC-2011 FAQ
 GSoC-2011 Accepted Organizations
 GSoC Student Guide
 Google Open Source Blog on GSoC
 Proposal [Pradeeban] - GSoC 2009 AbiWord
 Proposal [Pradeeban] -
GSoC 2010 OMII-UK/OGSA-DAI
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42. Are you ready?
 Have a look at the successful projects.
– Proposals available online - Wikis, blogs, ..
 Apache Software Foundation
– More slots and more choices.
• Tomcat, Derby, Axis2, and more ..
 Join the projects' mailing lists and IRC.
– AbiWord
• abiword-dev@abisource.com
• abiword-user@abisource.com
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• #abiword at irc.gnome.org

43. For more Information ..
 Join your local GSoC Google Group
– For e.g., Group for Sri Lankan students:
http://groups.google.com/group/gsoc-srilanka
 Local GSoC IRC channel
– For e.g., Sri Lanka - #gsoc-lk at irc.freenode.net.
 Drop me a line. ;)
– kk.pradeeban@gmail.com | kkpradeeban.blogspot.com
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Logos used in the presentation are owned by the respective open source organizations or the individuals, and used for the
particular non - commercial informative purpose only.

44. Questions?..
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45. Wish you all the best..
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