Summer of Code Student Applications Now Open

The accepted Google Summer of Code 2007 mentors list is now complete at the Summer of Code website — 131 projects could use your help. Student applications are open and the end date is March 24. Google has an application guide in the Summer of Code Announce discussion group that provides more information on the application process.

multilingualize OLPC for SOC

[wixi]

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/WiXi [laptop.org]

Crystal Space

[mastershake_phd]

Crystal Space is on the list. Its an open source 3D/game engine. Cant wait till this is done and ported to some consoles.

What about rejected organisations?

[Anonymous Coward]

Our project - a fairly well known OSS project got rejected. We had a good comprehensive list of projects (that, IMO, rivals some of the big players in the announced list).

We received no explanation of any kind. I understand that Google doesn't owe us anything, but surely some feedback will help us improve in the future, especially that we are trying to garner some corporate support.

Anyone in the same boat? any ideas why this could happen?

Re:What about rejected organisations?

[Raphael]

I don't know what project the parent post was refering to, but it is not only GIMP [gimp.org] (with some interesting ideas [gimp.org]) that got rejected.

Other projects that were not selected include interesting improvements to the desktop infrastructure, such as GStreamer [freedesktop.org] (list of ideas [gnome.org]) or Avahi [avahi.org] (list of ideas [avahi.org]).

Any companies other than Google?

[starseeker]

Google has been doing this now for some years with what appear to be fairly impressive results - I wonder if we might start to see other companies pick up on this a little. What about, say, the major Linux distributions sponsoring some projects for the major open source desktops? Or universities sponsoring some scientific software (I was very interested to see fityk on the supported list this year)? Or perhaps IBM could sponsor some work? There should be many possibilities.

Google is supporting quite a lot of work and a great many projects, but it is unavoidable that many useful projects will fall though their net - they have only so much support they can offer. I would be interested to see other companies either partner with Google or do on their own what Google is doing - if Google can do so much, what could 5 or 10 more companies using the same basic method accomplish?

Re:What about rejected organisations?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because both of the original authors (Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis) now work at google.

http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/google_stars.html [pixelbeat.org]

Re:Pay really sucks

[gstein]

You know... we get this every year. Some whiner says "they don't pay well enough." Fine. My thought is always, "do something else with your summer."

Last year, we spent over $3 million on this program. This year, we're increasing that to $4 million. That means 800 students get an introduction to Open Source around the *world*. Your narrow view of life says the pay sucks. I don't think students in India would agree with you. Last year, an eastern European student used the money to start his own business.

Those 800 students are going to have a nice little entry on their resume which will read a lot better than "flipped hamburgers at the local burger stand." These students will get to interact with some of the best Open Source organizations on the planet. And work with mentors who can show them how these communities work. They will produce more code, for the benefit of *everybody*.

It is a fair bet those 800 students will produce more this summer than all the people who complain about the "low pay" will produce in *years*. I'm happy and fortunate to be able to do this, and I know there are thousands who are willing to participate. And I'm happy they will have a great attitude about it.

Re:Pay really sucks

[paulbd]

Many of us would prefer to work on open-source projects if we could get paid a fair salary to do so (I certainly would). It wouldn't even need to match what I can get from any one of the companies listed. But it *would* need to be enough to pay my cost of living and allow me to put some cash in the bank ...

dude, join the back of the queue! do you have any idea how many of the mentors that SoC2007 participants will be working with would love to find a way to fulfill what you've just described? finding a way to work and live from work on open source projects is high on a large number of developer's goals, but the vast majority of these projects do not make much, if any money. the ones that enable Red Hat and others to sell Linux - well divide up RH's profits among all those that could be said to contribute, and there isn't a lot to go around. The ones that make google, amazon etc. possible on an infrastructure level clearly leverage more financial return but hey, guess what? They've been around for a while, and there are others far more deserving than you or I of any living based on their financials.

In short: open source software development in the US doesn't really make a whole lot of sense anymore. Its not impossible, but its hard.