Basic Skill to learn before even Thinking of GSoC

[Sidharth Bansal]

Hello friends,
I just wanted to know, what should be the skills and programming
languages one should learn in order to start to contribute and how
much experience according to you should be minimum for absolute
starters.

[Shantanu Tushar Jha]

hi,

min basic skills = patience, perseverance, good communication, eager to learn and i-can-get-it-done attitude
min programming langs = familiarity with any *one* programming language

cheers,

--
Shantanu Tushar    (UTC +0530)
http://www.shantanutushar.com

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[Amit Saha]

Hello Sidharth:

I haven't ever participated in GSoC before -- but I have been
participating in few Open Source projects from time to time. And I
hope I am not wrong to say that skills required for participating in
GSoC is essentially the same that you would need to participate in a
Open Source project. Here is what I would think can help you if you
haven't participated in a Open Source project ever (if you have, you
will see the redundancy between what you already know and I what I
shall be writing here):

- First point is to know which programming language you are most
comfortable with AND looking to gain further skills in? The GSoC
organization you apply to should ideally be using that language as the
major language

- Among the projects that use this language(s), is there any that you
already use and like it? Chances are that you will best invest in
that project -- because you like it and you are familiar with it.

- Now, go to the project website, go the section for "Developers",
check out the source code from the code repository and try to
build/configure it yourself. Normally, a lot of software we use are
installed directly from the package manager -- but if you want to
contribute to a project, you will need to know how to build/install
the software yourself.

- Sign up for the mailing lists - the developers ones' that is. Ask
Questions. Be Polite, humble, and ready to spend a lot of time to
fix/learn something yourself before you ask (See:
http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html)

- Learn more about the version control that the project uses --
Subversion, Mercurial, Git or Bazaar.

- Have fun. Learning is the only goal and should be the only goal when
you get into Open Source.

I hope they help.

Good Luck.

-Amit

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[Mohammad Hoda]

thanks amit . very helpfull

[ankit goel]

Thanx.. i am relieved.. i am familiar with java and c++. I thought i was not qualified enough.

[Sidharth Bansal]

Thanks Amit for your well explained reply. This answers almost 90% of my questions.

[Shahzad Saeed]

Thanks for great reply Amit.
But sometimes you can see that people who are good at coding were also unable to succeed in GSoC. There are some soft skill people need to have succeed. They are
•  *Ability to get help from the internet:*
• *Behaving and communicating well with the entire community:  *
• *Ability to ask the right question at the right time:*
You can checkout the below given thread for complete instructions.
(http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-discuss/browse_thread/thread/95b1514e1f22555f)

REGARDS
--
Shahzad Saeed
Blog: www.TechandProject.com
Author of "Definitive Guide to Google Summer of Code" ebook (Everything students need to know):
www.GSoCguide.com

[ajay kulkarni]

Hello, I'm a fresher like you. There are certain skills that you are expected to possess. Such skills are :
•  Ability to get help from the internet:
It is really important for ‘Summer of Code’ student to get answers for their queries from the internet. You are not working in a school environment where you would get each and every answer. As there are many resources available on the  internet you should be capable to search and hunt for the answers on your own.

• Behaving and communicating well with the entire community: 
On the communication channels you will find different kinds of people. Sometimes, these people might use offensive words in the post. However, you should not
bother about them. Instead look out for those people who communicate and behave well with others.  

While seeking a reply from the community, don’t expect that every time people will give you a nice feedback. There  are students who can even leave a negative
feedback. So, you must accept the feedback as it is and learn from it. Comments received from the communication channels aren't targeting the developer personally. It is helpful to improve the project in general. This is the way open source programs are dealt with.

• Ability to ask the right question at the right time:
 If you have any doubts, then it is advisable to interact with other students or ask your mentor and clear those doubts. It is important to clear all the difficulties you face while going through the documentations and other helpful resources. You need to be smart enough to ask the right question and at the right time
Needless to say, you should know at least one programming languages and i-can-do-it attitude :) :) I hope that it helped to you

[Carol Smith]

Hi there,

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:47 PM, ajay kulkarni <anku....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello, I'm a fresher like you. There are certain skills that you are expected to possess. Such skills are :
•  Ability to get help from the internet:
It is really important for ‘Summer of Code’ student to get answers for their queries from the internet. You are not working in a school environment where you would get each and every answer. As there are many resources available on the  internet you should be capable to search and hunt for the answers on your own.

• Behaving and communicating well with the entire community: 
On the communication channels you will find different kinds of people. Sometimes, these people might use offensive words in the post. However, you should not
bother about them. Instead look out for those people who communicate and behave well with others.  

While seeking a reply from the community, don’t expect that every time people will give you a nice feedback. There  are students who can even leave a negative
feedback. So, you must accept the feedback as it is and learn from it. Comments received from the communication channels aren't targeting the developer personally. It is helpful to improve the project in general. This is the way open source programs are dealt with.

• Ability to ask the right question at the right time:
 If you have any doubts, then it is advisable to interact with other students or ask your mentor and clear those doubts. It is important to clear all the difficulties you face while going through the documentations and other helpful resources. You need to be smart enough to ask the right question and at the right time
Needless to say, you should know at least one programming languages and i-can-do-it attitude :) :) I hope that it helped to you

Just another friendly reminder that I appreciate all the discussion on the list of how to succeed at GSoC, but all this advice comes from non-Googlers. If you would like direct advice please read the student [1] and mentor manuals [2] we wrote and published for all of you.

[1] - http://www.booki.cc/gsocstudentguide/

[2] - http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/

Thanks,
Carol