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Summer of Code Now Taking Student Applications

Posted by Zonk on Tue May 02, 2006 10:22 PM
from the fame-and-fortune dept.
Businesses Google The Internet Programming IT Technology
chrisd writes "Just wanted to let you know that we've opened up the student application process for the Summer of Code. We've signed up ~100 mentoring organizations this year, including Apache, Postgres, Xiph, The Shmoo Group, Drupal, Gallery and many others. We're accepting applications through May 8th this year."
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[+] Summer of Code 2006 is On 117 comments
chrisd writes "The Summer of Code is officially on again this year. As of today, we're taking in applications from mentoring organizations, so watch that list of mentoring organizations grow! Then, starting May 1st, we'll start taking student applications. We've prepared two FAQs, one for Mentors and one for Students. We've also have created an IRC channel and Google Group for you. The website for the Summer of Code can be found at http://code.google.com/soc/."
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  • Freenet also participating in SoC (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sanity (1431) * on Tuesday May 02 2006, @10:31PM (#15251191) Homepage Journal
    The Freenet [freenetproject.org] project is also looking for students, please take a look here [freenetproject.org] for more information. Our new Freenet Client Protocol spec [freenetproject.org] makes it very easy to build applications on top of the new Freenet 0.7 "darknet" architecture.

    • Blender (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LetterRip (30937)
      Don't forget Blender! http://www.blender.org/ [blender.org]

      There are all sorts of cool things that could be done as projects, pretty much any siggraph paper, any computer graphics research, etc. would make a good candidate.

      LetterRip

    • Nmap too! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fv (95460) * <fyodor@insecure.org> on Tuesday May 02 2006, @11:10PM (#15251332) Homepage
      If I may be excused for pimping my project too, we are seeking summer developers for the Nmap Security Scanner [insecure.org]. Last year's program was a lot of fun, and we accomplished some really cool projects [slashdot.org]. This year we have made a new list of project ideas [insecure.org], including:
      • Create a new graphical frontend and powerful results viewer
      • Generate graphical maps from the Nmap XML output (you can take inspiration from projects like fe3d [icapsid.net] and Cheops [marko.net]/Cheops-NG [sourceforge.net]).
      • Create a web interface for scanning your networks and reporting the results.
      • Become a performance Czar, whipping out your profilers and introducing your own algorithms to make Nmap run even faster while using fewer resources.
      • Create a brand new interpretation of the venerable Netcat and Hping utilities.
      • Add scripting/module support to Nmap so it can be used for vulnerability assessment or more intrusive application discovery.

      I think those are some of the coolest projects, though the page lists others (and is always growing as I get new ideas). And don't forget, you can always propose any new idea you come up with -- don't feel limited to that list.

      And while we hope you consider Nmap, remember that you can increase your odds by applying to multiple projects. I've seen some pretty cool ideas from the other organizations.

      -Fyodor [insecure.org]

  • This is good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mikesd81 (518581) <mikesd1@@@verizon...net> on Tuesday May 02 2006, @10:38PM (#15251216) Homepage
    This reminds me of an article on /. the other day about young people losing interesting in coding. The fact that they can have this program and it's successful tells me that they are in fact *not* losing interest in coding.
    • It is annoying that minors cannot participate in this, though. College ages being 'young' or not is debatable.

      • Re:This is good (Score:5, Informative)

        by chrisd (1457) * <chrisd@dibona.cQUOTEom minus punct> on Tuesday May 02 2006, @11:05PM (#15251313) Homepage
        We're trying to come up with a high school program for next year. We couldn't figure one out for this year.
        • I don't think he meant high school. Many students are graduating high school early and going on to college at 17, 16 (like me), or even 15. These are precisely the students a project like the SoC should be targetting, but they are ignored.
      • Well, chrisd has replied saying that they'er trying to come up with a solution. To back that, they can tell what your credentials are a bit when you're in college, and a lot of the computer science majors are used to cranking out code fairly quickly with minimal supervision.

        I think that the problems Google in developing a high school event involve things like, finding who has expertise, figuring out appropriate levels of oversight, if more oversight is needed, finding people willing to provide that guidanc
    • What next, "young people are losing interest in machining?"

      Please, don't let the industry mature! /young machinist
    • Depends what you mean by successful. Gerv of the Mozilla Foundation looked at last year's projects [mozillazine.org] a few months later, and found that they had died off as soon as the SoC ended. Hopefully this time around the Mozilla folks will be more careful about setting up projects.
      • > Why can't anyone here realize

        You know, when everybody around you seem insane or stupid, there is an alternative explanation you should consider... :-)

  • Wikipedia (Score:5, Informative)

    by Raul654 (453029) on Tuesday May 02 2006, @10:42PM (#15251236) Homepage
    Wikipedia *always* needs more coders - the 3-5 that we have just are not enough. Here's the relavant page [wikimedia.org]

  • ffmpeg, nice! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Psionicist (561330) on Tuesday May 02 2006, @10:43PM (#15251242)
    It was a nice surprise to see FFmpeg in there, these guys, while largely unknown, deserve some _serious_ credits for their work. If you don't know, FFmpeg develop the libav libraries (libavcodec and libavformat) that demux, mux, decode and encode pretty much every video and audio format in existence.

    If you use mplayer, you rely on these libs. If you use xine, you rely on their work. If you use VLC - same. Heck, even if you use Media Player Classic + ffdshow on Windowz you use their libs.

    Thumbs up!

    (No, I have nothing to do with them. I do use their libs in my project though, and they are nice).
    • Along similar lines, MythTV [mythtv.org] is also involved.

    • If you use mplayer, you rely on these libs.

      I think that's a bit too simplistic...

      MPlayer and FFMPEG have a very close relationship. FFMPEG's CVS server is hosted by MPlayer, and many of the developers develop for both projects.

      That said, MPlayer doesn't really rely on ffmpeg. Though it makes use of libavcodec as (usually) the default codecs, there are almost always OTHER codecs which would support the same formats if libavcodec wasn't available.

      For MPEG-4, Xvid and Divx are available natively, and several

    • FFmpeg develop the libav libraries (libavcodec and libavformat) that demux, mux, decode and encode pretty much every video and audio format in existence

      I don't want to be a stick-in-tha-mud here, but are you sure? Last time I looked, there were no OSS codecs for many of the latest formats. For example, if we can just keep the MS bashing out of this for a second, I'm thinking of WMV9 (HD).

      It would be really cool if most AV compression formats in existence could be encoded/decoded by Open Source software, but
  • http://haiku-os.org/learn.php?mode=news_view&id=40 6&haikuusersession=c036c3e0b54b7e66a167d1654b692eb 2/ [haiku-os.org]

    It's sad that they didn't even bother to reveal the reason why they refused.
    • Believe it or not, Google has limited funds for SoC. The real factor was that they'd like to sponsor (1) big-name projects that have a lot of momentum and recognition, or (2) projects that are new and innovative. I used BeOS for years and love it still, but Haiku is too little, too late. Why sponsor reinvention of the wheel?
      • *cough* THREE Linux distros *cough*

        Haiku isn't a reinvention of the wheel anyway. It's an improved implementation of it. They've fixed many of the errors Be made the first time around and the aim of R1 is to build a solid base from which the platform can be extended. In terms of user experience, I'd argue that BeOS still beats the pants off Linux. That's not to say Linux isn't great, it is, but I think there's something to be said for an OS built from the ground up specifically for desktop use.
    • Actually, we just had so many mentors apply and among them quite a few operating systems were accepted. Maybe next year.

  • Internet2 is a mentoring organization (Score:5, Informative)

    by shalunov (149369) on Tuesday May 02 2006, @10:47PM (#15251255) Homepage
    <shameless plug>Internet2 needs you as a coder this summer [internet2.edu]. </shameless plug>
  • For the second year, the Fedora Project is participating in the Summer of Code as well.

    See this page [fedoraproject.org] for more details.
  • This isn't a diss of SoC - quite the opposite. I really appreciate their efforts to get people into coding and to organize an event on a very impressive scale. That is no mean feat!


    What I would like to say, though, is that I noticed at least a few people felt left out - their projects weren't accepted, or they didn't meet one or another entry requirement. (Hell, I've a whole bunch of projects that I could use help with! I'm working on some games, some crypto stuff, some utilities... Nothing quite like the smell of shorted-out synapses!)


    I really do urge those who don't want (or can't) code for SoC but do want to get involved in a project that needs help to contact any of those who are mentioning projects being short of coders. We can't all pay or give prizes, but volunteer work on any serious project can be enjoyable and can be a good addition to a resume in some cases. (Volunteer work experience is still work experience.)

    • Yes, this is true. The Haiku project was one that got denied, and Google refused to even give a reason. It's a shame in Haiku's case, because they've come so far (the network stack and the USB stack are really the only missing pieces, aside from those they already have a fully-functional recreation of BeOS R5, compatible with a significant number of R5 apps, including Firefox) with virtually zero corporate backing, and when a chance to finally get some money, some promotion and some developer interest comes
  • If you are a student and keen on developing open source, then the Summer of code is a great opportunity for experience, kudos, and some cash. Either pick a project (some are pretty broad) or if you prefer come up with your own idea (compatible with the project) and submit it to one of the the approx. 70 organisations.
    Or pick a project based on the mentor - many are captains of open source!
    Most mentors will be happy to have anyone who has ability, and the motivation to work through to complete a project.

  • Adium (Score:3, Informative)

    by ZachPruckowski (918562) <zachary.pruckowski@gmail.com> on Tuesday May 02 2006, @11:21PM (#15251372)
    Since we're on the topic of shameless plugs, Adium got the nod too [adiumx.com]. But they knew last week. Any reason why it took so long for this to be published? Also, is there any way of insuring that all the projects get a fair shake at volunteers? I mean, everyone's gonna see Mozilla and GNU and friends on the list and jump on it.
    • everyone's gonna see Mozilla and GNU and friends on the list and jump on it.

      Just because you're interested in something doesn't mean everyone else is. I'm a programmer and an audio guy. I would find plain old coding boring as hell. I like doing DSP and such so I'm definitely far more interested getting paid to contribute to say, Ardour, FFmpeg, or XMMS2 than to work on a Mozilla project.
      • It's not that I'm interested in it, I just feel like, being a college kid, most college kids or late high school kids would want to jump on the big ones, if only for the name.
  • What they could do is find a code that puts things in alphabetical order, regardless of upper or lower case, so that openSUSE does not come after Xorg (and YES, it is openSUSE [opensuse.org], not OpenSuSE)

  • vs internship? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sentientbrendan (316150) on Tuesday May 02 2006, @11:22PM (#15251375)
    I'm wondering how this would compare to an internship, considering that's what college students such as myself would otherwise be doing with our time.

    On the con side, the pay seems slightly low. You work from home only talk to your mentor over the internet, which seems like it might distract from the learning experience. I've telecommuted before, and while it might seem convenient at first, there are numerous related to communication, and being able to go home at the end of the day and be a psycologically non-work space that detract from those advantages. Probably the biggest problem is staying in touch with people who are in different time zones, or who merely have different working schedules. In a telecommuting situation, some people work at odd hours.

    Maybe someone who worked on the summer of code previously could comment on how easy or hard it was to keep in touch with his mentor? Were there many mentors who basically ignored partipants (no need to name names)? How helpful were they in general?

    Overall, as I see it the strong benefit is to be able to come up with your own project, and to be able to work on open source. Those kind of go hand in hand to give the participants a lot of freedom in what they do. For me, this would be worth the negatives mentioned above.

    I guess one last factor to address, that might be merely a tie breaker for some people or a deal breaker for others, is just how good it will look on a resume. College students looking for internships are looking for work experience, but also an opportunity to break into the industry. Will future employers look at there resume's and think, "He worked for a big name company over this summer, came up with his own project and executed it." Alternatively, an employer might wonder about time spent in such an unstructured way, and wonder if participants goofed off all summer. I sincerely doubt this, but its something to consider and maybe something someone in a hiring position in industry could comment on.

    • You work from home only talk to your mentor over the internet, which seems like it might distract from the learning experience. I've telecommuted before, and while it might seem convenient at first, there are numerous related to communication, and being able to go home at the end of the day and be a psycologically non-work space that detract from those advantages.

      Well, assuming your mentor is willing, you could always talk to him/her on the phone once in a while -- it doesn't have to be only over the net. A

  • for students to help develop their own next generation virtual learning environment.

    The project is very supportive of folks who would like to contribute, serveral programmers who started adding features to Moodle as students at Humboldt State University are now core developers, and have the experience of having tools they have developed be used, reviewed, and built upon by educators and educatees around the world.

    Project ideas and discussion [moodle.org].

  • Do your own Web 2.0 startup this summer instead (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    While some smart,young people will choose to get involved with these open source projects, some other smart,young people will be developing and launching their Web 2.0 startups. Yep, the seeds of the next Google will be planted this summer, and it definitely won't come from the people working for $4500(?) for 16 weeks of full-time work.

    Thank god Larry and Sergey didn't spend their time working on some open source project called BackRub, otherwise there won't have been any Google.

    To every geek, coder, studen

  • Internet Archive, too (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gojomo (53369) on Wednesday May 03 2006, @12:01AM (#15251461) Homepage
    The Internet Archive [archive.org] is participating, too. We'd accept contribution projects related to the Heritrix web crawler, Wayback access tool, or NutchWAX full-text search facility. See our Summer of Code 2006 Ideas Page [archive.org].

    - Gordon @ IA

  • Blenderheads unite! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Blender got a lot of super cool features in the last Googoe SOC. It would be an absolute shame to miss this opportunity. There is so much work that is done, but so much more that can be done. The animation system got recoded last time, plus fur/hair/cloth rendering (and a hundred more items I can't remember right now). People are shocked at what you can do with a program whos binaries are still less than 10 megabytes. It rivals applications ten times as large (in file size). Blenderheads unite! Get t

  • Work on Mars! (Score:4, Informative)

    by notyou2 (202944) on Wednesday May 03 2006, @12:42AM (#15251550) Homepage
    Check it out... you can do work for NASA Mars missions: http://code.google.com/soc/mars/about.html [google.com]

  • You college students are lucky! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CoughDropAddict (40792) on Wednesday May 03 2006, @12:47AM (#15251562) Homepage
    I would have loved the opportunity to do this while I was in college. Seize it while you can!

    When you are a little kid, you have tons of time, but little skill, so you spend a lot of time being bored.

    When you are an adult, you have a lot more skill and you're capable of doing great things, but so many things compete for your attention (job, house/apartment, car, family) that it's harder to chase big ideas. The people who do so become the abnormal people we call "startup founders."

    College is this great crossover where you're just becoming good enough to do great things, but it's still normal to live in a totally non-domestic way. It's the time to chase big dreams.

    Google is not only giving you lots of great ideas for interesting work and arranging for mentors to guide you through the learning process, but they're paying you to do it! Find a project that sounds up your alley, and do it!
  • I'd like to do this...but I just finished my Masters degree and am no longer a student.

  • A small problem? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Godji (957148) on Wednesday May 03 2006, @02:30AM (#15251779) Homepage
    First of all I'm not trying to troll - Summer of Code is a great initiative! Please take this as a question, not as critique.

    I see a small potential problem however: In some 3 months, one is supposed to implement a project. Fair enough, but doesn't that usually require significant familiarity with the code of that project? How is a student expected to have this familiarity? Does he/she get it while working on the project or is he/she supposed to already have it?

    This is a point that has stopped many enthusiasts. They are afreaid that, while they are experienced coders, they have no idea how Program X works, and are afraid to even try to extend it.

    Has this been adressed in any way?

  • My University [www.upv.es] applied and was rejected. There were many students expecting the acceptance, including myself.

    The worst of all is Google just says "Sorry, you are not being accepted" but they won't tell you why. That's discouraging.

    • Google does this for free. I mean, they're giving their money (LOTS of money) for free. Is not that they need to give people excuses, they may very well cancel the SoC program if they'd want.

      IOW: Be polite. They're being already kind enought by doing this, if you aren't accepted sorry - deal with it, is not that google owes you nothing.
    • Because I'm sure you might have to sign a contract of some sort.
    • Maybe practice for a year, topcoder is a good place to start.
        • You have to be 18 to take your education furthur? Why can't someone learn something that will influence their coding for the rest of their lives? if they know how to code, then why can't they learn to use it? Many aspiring minorities have empty summers and would love an open door.
      • I'm sure that a lot of under 18yo folks would take the CoS jobs, pay or no pay.

        I would imagine that anyone interested in doing one of these jobs for no pay is quite welcome to do so, 18 or not.

    • Just spend your summer coding your dream girl in your basement. Sure, you're going to have to make a lot of advances in AI research, robotics, and biology, and spend some time collecting Turing and Nobel awards for your advancements, but it will be worth it in the end when you see the finished results.

      Or, you can do what I do, and just wait.

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