An introductory presentation to Google Summer of Code (GSoC), focusing on the year 2020. More information can be found at https://kkpradeeban.blogspot.com/search/label/GSoC

1. Summer of CodeSummer of Code 20202020
PradeebanPradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.Kathiravelu, Ph.D.
Biomedical Informatics,Biomedical Informatics,
Emory UniversityEmory University

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

3. 3
I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER?
18+18+
Students only!

4. 4
Why should I bother?

Code for your preferredpreferredopen
source projectprojectfor 3 months.

And get paid!

5. 5
StipendsStipends
➢
StipendsStipends based on the location of yourbased on the location of your
university.university.
➢
3000 – 6600 $ in total.3000 – 6600 $ in total.
Background Image: http://blog.echoenduring.com/2010/11/23/learning-about-design-from-angry-birds/

6. 6
Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Code for an open source organization for 3 months.

Not accepted twice or more in previous GSoCs as
a student.

Google coordinates and rewards you!
– Getting Accepted.
– 3 milestones (a.k.a., evaluations).
• Phase 1 Evaluations. (30% of the stipend)
• Phase 2 Evaluations. (Another 30% of the stipend)
• Final Evaluations. (Final 40% of the stipend)
– A certificate, an awesome t-shirt, and gifts!

7. 7
Some statistics of 2019

201 Organizations
– 2,815 mentors and co-mentors.
– 2,066 from 72 countries, with an assigned student.

Registered
– 30,922 students, from 148 countries.

Accepted
– 1, 276 students/projects
• 148 countries. 6,586 universities.
 Completed successfully
– 1,134 students from 61 countries.

8. 8
Success Rate..
is pretty high!

Passed the final evaluations
– Success rate – 88.87%

9. 9
Why Google Summer of Code?

10. 10
What do you need?
♥

11. 11
Timeline (2020)

Jan 14th
– Feb 5th
: Organizations apply.

Feb 20th
: Accepted organizations announced.

March 16th
– 31st
: Student application period.

March 31st
– April 27th
: Organizations review
student applications.

12. 12
Timeline..
After getting accepted

April 27th
: Accepted Students announced.
– Community Bonding Period Begins.

May 18th
– Aug 10th: Coding Period.

June 15th
– June 19th
: Phase 1 Evaluations.

July 13th
– July 17th
: Phase 2 Evaluations.

Aug 10th
– Aug 17th: GSoC Final Submission.
– Students submit the final code and documentation.

13. 13
Timeline..
Concluding

Aug 17th
– 24th
: Final Evaluation.

Aug 25th
: Final Results.

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Got some idea..

15. 15
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 communication channel.

16. 16
Technologies..

Version Control Systems
– git, mercurial, ..

Build Tools
– Maven, Ivy, Ant, ..

IDEs (Integrated Development Environments)
– IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, ..
– Microsoft Visual Studio ..

Issue Tracker
– Jira, Bugzilla, Trac, ..

17. 17

Mailing Lists
– Dev, User, Commit lists, sub-groups, ..

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Slack channels

Issue Tracker

Forums and wiki

Blogs

Skype, Personal Mails, gtalk, conference
calls, .. [with the mentors, if that is preferred.]
Communicating with the team..
and the mentor, over the Internet

18. 18
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.

Language/English

19. 19
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”.

20. 20
Mailing lists

Post only to the relevant list/channel.

Check the mail archives or channel logs first.

No [URGENT]/[IMPORTANT] tags.

No unnecessary attachments.

No Cross Posting.

Don't hijack threads.

Don't post off-topic.

21. 21
IRC/Slack Etiquettes

Join the relevant channels.

Be an observer first.

Refer to others using their irc/slack nick to get
attention.

But avoid misusing.

Especially no unnecessary @channel or @here.

Don't expect immediate replies; wait.

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Find a mentoring organization..

Have a look at the list of past GSoC.

201 Last year!

New Organizations.

40 – 50 expected for 2020.

Google as the mentoring organization.

Introduce GSoC to an organization (Sounds
Smart!).

23. 23
Find THE right project..

Go through the organizations' projects list.
– Some organizations publish pretty soon.
– Refer to the projects list of 2019 of the
organizations until the GSoC 2020 is announced.

24. 24
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)

25. 25
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?

26. 26
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!

27. 27
Experience

Language
– Java, Python, Javascript, Go, 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.

28. 28
Opportunities..

Project that matches your previous work
experience.

Choose the right project.

Timezone Difference
– Use it effectively

Multiple Applications

Up to 3. But only one accepted per student.

Preferences!

29. 29
Shout!

Communicate early – but meaningfully.

Not necessary to send an email just to say ‘hi’.

Communicate often.

Ask questions.

Most importantly,
Answer others' questions!

Mentor is your friend!
(respect)

30. 30
Be Known..

Be heard!

Be visible!

Be responsive!

Be quick!

31. 31
Apply

Register as a student for GSoC.

Use the project's wiki for draft proposal
– if applicable.

Apply on Google's system.
– Can edit later, until the last minute!
– Get the mentors' opinions and improve.

Check often for the mentors' comments
– attend to them.

32. 32
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.

33. 33
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.

34. 34
Propose..

Timeline
– Finer details.
– Break up to periods of 3 - 4 days.
– Testing takes time.
– Don't be over-optimistic.
– Require considerable work hrs/week (30+, per Google).

Links
– References and additional details.

35. 35
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.

36. 36
• 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
• summer classes, vacations, etc.

37. 37

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:

38. 38
After the submission..

Don't go invisible!
– Evaluation is still going on.. ;)

You may be asked to provide
– additional information.
• Bug fixes / pull requests.
• Demos and screenshots.

You may even start coding on your project!
– Especially if you didn't apply for multiple projects.

Be motivated.

39. 39
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.

40. 40
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.

41. 41
Coding..
Easiest task of all.. ;)

Commit often, if given committership.
– Send frequent pull requests (daily ?) otherwise.
– Meaningful Commit messages.

Get feedback from the mentor(s).

Keep the community/mentor updated
– Daily (?).

Plan for the mid and final evaluations early,
with the mentor.

42. 42
Conclude/Continue..

Final Submission.

Make a static web page to summarize your GSoC work.

Submit the link at the GSoC site.

Don’t miss any of the evaluations.

Both mentors and students need to submit evaluations.

All 3 of the evaluations!

Focus on becoming a committer in the organization
– if not already given committership.

Keep contributing.

43. 43
What else?

More FOSS?

Annual?

Stipend?

Student?

Country/Location?

44. 44
More Open Source
programs/contests..

OpenDaylight Internship

Season of KDE (SoK)

Outreachy

Rails Girls Summer of Code

45. 45
Some links.. ;)

GSoC home page

Google Open Source Blog on GSoC

Proposal [Pradeeban]

GSoC 2015 Emory BMI

GSoC 2014 Emory BMI

GSoC 2010 OMII-UK/OGSA-DAI

GSoC 2009 AbiWord

46. 46
Are you ready?

Have a look at the successful projects.
– Proposals available online - Wikis, blogs, ..
– Project ideas 2020
• Emory BMI, caMicroscope, ..

Apache Software Foundation
– More slots and more choices.
• Tomcat, Derby, Axis2, and more ..

Join the projects' mailing lists and channels.

For Example, Apache CXF

47. 47
For more Information ..

Join the GSoC mailing lists.

Join your local GSoC Google Group
– For e.g., Group for Sri Lankan students:
http://groups.google.com/group/gsoc-srilanka

Drop me a line. :)
– kk.pradeeban@gmail.com | kkpradeeban.blogspot.com
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.

48. 48
Questions?..Questions?..

49. 49
Wish you all the best..Wish you all the best..