Summer of Code Student Application Deadline Looms

chrisd writes "Hi everyone, just wanted to do one last shake of the old tree...the Summer of Code student application deadline is coming up on the 26th. We've got some great applications but I'd love to see more. We're accepting 800 students this year into the program and we have 131 open source organizations who'd love to see you apply. Anyone can talk about open source but you could be coding some with some of the best developmers out there. Apply today." Just a note: the 26th is an extension of the previous deadline. If you thought you wouldn't have time, you now have until next Monday. Get crackin'.

GNUstep !

[Nicolas Roard]

For those unaware, GNUstep got accepted this year [blogspot.com] ... So if you want to discover a neat little OO language (Objective-C), and work on a really great framework, don't hesitate !

GNUstep [gnustep.org] is a free implementation of the OpenStep API, cross-platform (windows, linux, etc), close to Apple's Cocoa (ie, Cocoa is itself an extension of the OpenStep API, so in fact you can port Cocoa app to GNUstep and vice-versa -- GNUstep can now even read/write apple nibs natively). In addition to the frameworks, there's nice development tools, in particular Gorm, the GNUstep's pendant to InterfaceBuilder.

Check the GNUstep wiki [gnustep.org] to see a list of potential projects !

Great Program!

[fv]

I have been participating as a mentor for the SoC program since it started, and I highly recommend it. It is a great way to get paid, gain valuable experience and a great resume booster, and write code which will be used by thousands or millions of people! Your can read about the successful creations of Nmap SoC students in 2005 [slashdot.org] and 2006 [seclists.org].

This year I am involved with three projects which have been accepted for SoC this year:

• Nmap Security Scanner [insecure.org] (SoC Ideas Page [insecure.org])
• UMIT [sourceforge.net] (SoC Ideas Page [sourceforge.net]). This is an Nmap graphical front end which started out as a student's Nmap-SoC project, and now he has been accepted by Google to run it as an independent SoC project!
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility [cpsr.org] (SoC Ideas Page [privaterra.org]). I serve on the board of directors for this 501(c)3 nonprofit which aims to educate and influence policy makers and the public on technical issues.

And even if none of those projects float your boat, there are 128 others to choose from [google.com]. Remember that you can apply for multiple projects, and doing so can (with sufficient care and detail for each application) be a good way to increase your odds.

-Fyodor
Insecure.Org [insecure.org]

Re:Ah well.

[Aladrin]

Legal agreements. The code they produce has to have legally binding agreements with it, and minors cannot enter into contracts in many places.

The exact nature of the agreement varies from project to project, at the decision of the project. Common agreements assign ownership of the code to the project, or assign ownership to the student but guarantee a perpetual licensing agreement with the project.

Wikimedia's open projects

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out Wikimedia's open list [wikimedia.org] for the Summer of Code '07. Some great stuff there. All you wiki-fanatics out there can do both SoC and wiki stuff at the same time.

Re:Where is the bleeding edge?

[MrDomino]

Parent is ridiculous. AI gets a good representation from e.g. the Fast Artificial Neural Network Library [google.com], and there are lots of innovative and experimental project ideas--see for instance Squeak's [google.com] collaborative development [squeak.org] proposal.

Can we say karma whore?

Re:No Mythtv this year....

[RelaxedTension]

I read on the MythTV dev list that it was a pretty much a disaster for last year. The students worked on several things and finished almost nothing. It apparently turned into a situation of wasting the mentors time and the students not having the discipline to do the work from home. The MythTV project didn't want to do that again.

It's too bad, I support the idea of SOC, but maybe it needs closer inspection of actual work done prior to paying them. (currency exchange problems aside)

Open Source Game Projects!

[mithro]

There are also a bunch of other Open Source Game projects you can work on, here is a short list.

• ScummVM - For all you adventure freaks. [scummvm.org]
• bzflag - that age old tank game. [bzflag.org]
• Ogre3d - one of the best OSS 3d engines out there. [ogre3d.org]
• Thousand Parsec - Go conqure the universe! [thousandparsec.net]

If you are interested in game programming you should give them a look.