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Guide to the Mailing Lists for Google Summer of Code^TM

Please note that we run our program mailing lists using Google Groups, and for the sake of this documentation the terms "group" and "list" are used interchangeably.

Public Mailing Lists

We have two public program mailing lists, the Google Summer of Code Announce list and the Google Summer of Code Discuss list.

Google Summer of Code Announce

List Description

The Google Summer of Code Announce list will be used for all program announcements.

Intended Audience

The Google Summer of Code Announce group is meant for anyone who wishes to receive announcements about the program, be they mentors, organization administrators, student applicants or interested observers. All mentors, organization administrators and accepted student participants should subscribe to this list in order to stay abreast of important announcements about the program.

Google Summer of Code Discuss

List Description

The Google Summer of Code Discuss list will be used for general program discussion. Unless a communication should be private (see Private Mailing Lists, below), all program discussion should take place on this open list.

Intended Audience

The Google Summer of Code Discuss group is meant for anyone who wishes to discuss the program, be they mentors, organization administrators, student applicants or interested observers. Since we want as much of our communication as possible about the program to take place openly, we encourage mentors, organization administrators and accepted student participants for 2008 to subscribe to and make extensive use of this list.

Private Mailing Lists

We have two private mailing lists, the Google Summer of Code Mentors list and the Google Summer of Code Students list.

Google Summer of Code Mentors List

List Description

The Google Summer of Code Mentors list will be used for discussion between Google program administrators, mentors and organization administrators. Unless a communication should be private, all program discussion should take place on the Google Summer of Code Discuss list.

There are definitely situations, however, where discretion in communication is necessary. For example, a mentor may need advice about dealing with a student who is shy about posting questions to the development mailing list, and sends all questions only to the mentor. Posing the question "How do I get my student to post on the development mailing list?" on a globally public list is likely not going to help the student feel any less in the spotlight, and may even worsen the problem. In such a case, a mentor looking for advice should ask the question of her/his fellow mentors privately.

Google program administrators will use posts to the Google Summer of Code Mentors list to glean information that will be useful to future participants to post publicly, i.e. on the program wiki. Of course, all information will be published in an anonymized fashion. In cases where information that has been sent to the list that would be valuable to a wider audience but anonymizing the details would prove difficult, we may email the poster before publishing any of the information external to the list.

Intended Audience

The Google Summer of Code Mentors list will be used for private discussion between Google's program administrators, past and present organization administrators, and mentors who have/have had accepted students assigned to them. 

New Subscribers

For those organizations who are new to the program or have new organization administrators, we will begin subscribing your organization admins immediately. Other mentors will be added to the list on a semi-frequent basis.  You can always ping to remind us to add you.

Google Summer of Code Students List

List Description

The Google Summer of Code Students list will be used for private discussion between Google program administrators and the program's past and present student participants. Unless a communication should be private, all program discussion should take place on the Google Summer of Code Discuss list.

There are definitely situations, however, where discretion in communication is necessary. For example, a student may need advice about dealing with a mentor whose feedback on her code is not detailed enough for her to make sufficient progress. Posting the question "How do I get my mentor to give me better guidance?" on a globally public list is not a comfortable place for the student to be, and we want to create an environment in which our student participants feel comfortable asking any question.

Google program administrators will use posts to the Google Summer of Code Students list to glean information that will be useful to future participants to post publicly, i.e. on the program wiki. Of course, all information will be published in an anonymized fashion. In cases where information that has been sent to the list that would be valuable to a wider audience but anonymizing the details would prove difficult, we may email the poster before publishing any of the information external to the list.

Intended Audience

The Google Summer of Code Students list will be used for private discussion between Google program administrators and accepted students from 2005, 2006 and 2007. Students who do not receive passing evaluations are unsubscribed.

New Subscribers

We will begin subscribing accepted student applicants shortly after accepted proposals are announced.

What About Former GSoC Students Who Are Now Mentors?

A former Google Summer of Code student becoming a mentor for the program is an incredibly cool thing. That said, we want our students-only list to be a place where our students can comfortably communicate without fearing that an ill-phrased question or complaint may be shared with their mentor. On the other hand, students who have gone on to become mentors are in a great position to give useful advice to their peers. They also remain student members of the GSoC community despite going on to become mentors.

 

We thought a lot about this situation and we've decided to go with this plan:

• Subscribe past successful student participants to the Google Summer of Code Students list well before any new students are accepted
• Ask any students-turned-mentor to post to the list, letting everyone know who they are, a bit about themselves and what organization(s) they are a mentor for
• Add new student subscribers and provide a pointer to the thread where students-turned-mentors have added their information
• Any student who feels uncomfortable with the mentor presence on the list can let us know, either on the discussion list itself or in a private email to the support alias
• We will ask the student-turned mentor to unsubscribe, then verify that said individual has unsubscribed

Granted, this approach is a bit cumbersome, but we figured it would work best for all.

Mailing Lists Troubleshooting

If you are having any issues with the mailing lists, from not being on a list that you think you should be on to receiving notification that you have been added to a list, but cannot post to it, let us know. Please include the Google Account address you'd like to use for subscribing to the list in your message to us.