Interested in GSoC as Student

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lasal Jaywardena

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Nov 14, 2020, 12:43:36 AM11/14/20
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Hello,

I am Lasal Jayawardena from IIT. I am interested in undertaking a project in GSoC, but this my first time, and the whole experience is new to me.

I am planning to apply for next year(2021), so if someone could assist me in this process it would be of great help.  Thank you!

Regards,
Lasal Jayawardena.

Shazin Sadakath

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Nov 14, 2020, 1:50:06 AM11/14/20
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Hi Lasal,

It is nice to hear from you. I worked in Google Summer of Code 2010 for Open Source Project OpenMRS. 
I was one of the only 2 students who got selected from IIT that year. I would like to share my experiences so that it will benefit everyone here.

  1. You need to find an Open Source project that interests you and you are passionate about.
  2. You need to find a Tech Stack you are comfortable with or are willing to learn.
  3. Once you do the above two you can join that Open Source project's developer mailing list, introduce yourself and start communicating which is key (Join IRC channels, Slack, etc. as well).
  4. Checkout the Open Source code base and go through their coding conventions/standards page and familiarize yourself.
  5. Look for that Open source project's Introductory Tickets or Small issues/enhancements which you can do and submit for review. This will familiarize yourself with project members, the tech stack and domain.
  6. Basically you need to start contributing to Open source projects even before you get into GSoC which is one of the goals of this.
  7. Once the Open source projects announce their projects and mentors for GSoC 2021, you need to go through the requirements and find one that interests you.
  8. Then you need to build your project proposal which should contain an Abstract, Problem Statement, Project Plan, Wireframes, Detailed Changes (better if you can go down to the class, method level changes you will be doing), etc. which you are expecting to do. You can refer my proposal as a baseline and work on it and improve https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/Refine+Module+Administration+Project. You can contact mentors via developer mailing list or any other means and ask questions further clarify things to refine your project proposal.
  9. Stay in touch with the team members of the Open source project throughout, do work for them etc. throughout the timeline of the GSoC.
  10. Most importantly make friends, learn and continue contributing to Open source whether you get selected or not for GSoC. This will help you in the long run.
This is not a totally exhaustive set of instructions and can be modified/updated by other people's views and opinions. 

Regards,
Shazin

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lasal Jaywardena

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Nov 16, 2020, 9:12:55 AM11/16/20
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Thank you for your prompt reply Shazin.

It's nice that you are from IIT too.  I read your project proposal to OpenMRS and I noticed that you had a background in web technologies.
Currently, I also come from a similar background and I also have some knowledge in Python. Could you recommend some open source projects that would be suitable for me to work on? Thank you very much for your help Shazin !!! 

Regards,
Lasal Jayawardena. 

Harsha Siriwardena

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Nov 16, 2020, 11:11:17 AM11/16/20
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Not sure about the new soc platform, earlier it used to have a browsable web portal to search by programming languages, tech stacks. But you can check from the below link, yeah for Python there's a lot: https://www.google-melange.com/archive/gsoc/2015 
Also here is a good read from our old gold soc alumnus :) https://kkpradeeban.blogspot.com/2019/03/gsoc-google-summer-of-code-frequently.html
You gotta read a lot / research alone to get through this bro. And if you do it right it's well worth the effort which will open many doors in your career.

Thank you,
Harsha


Chamika Weerasinghe

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Nov 16, 2020, 4:03:52 PM11/16/20
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Hi,

I think this has the browsable archives https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/archive/. These archives have the ability to search by category. If you are interested in Web, filter the organizations by Web category and go through the technologies they use within their organizations. Also, try to find organizations that have selected in consecutive 2,3 years. There is a good chance of getting them selected in 2021. Good luck!!!

Best Regards,
Chamika



Pradeeban Kathiravelu

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Nov 16, 2020, 4:10:50 PM11/16/20
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It is nice to see our GSoC-Sri Lanka group getting back in action. :)

Please note there are some changes in GSoC 2021. The most important change is, the workload and the stipend, both are going to be half this time, adopting for the COVID-19 days. That means, there could be more projects, some of them new.

The email from Stephanie given below.

Good luck to potential students, and also make sure to spread the word among your peers.

We are always here to help.

Thank you.
Regards,
Pradeeban.
----------------------------------------

Hello GSoC Mentors and Org Admins,

We are pleased to announce Google Summer of Code 2021, the 17th consecutive year of the program!

As many of you might have heard if you attended the Mentor Summit a couple of weeks ago (or chatted with someone who did) we are making a few changes for the 2021 program. We’ve spent a lot of time evaluating the GSoC program and have been looking at where we can make some changes to help meet the #1 goal of GSoC - bring new, diverse contributors into your communities that stay in your communities after their GSoC program ends. And with the challenges of the pandemic and the strains it has put on everyone’s time (students, mentors and org admins alike) we are looking to provide more flexibility in 2021.

What are the changes for 2021 from 2020?

  1. Smaller project size - all students participating in the 2021 program will be working on a 175 hour project (instead of a 350 hr project). This change will also result in a few other changes including the student stipend being cut in half. 
  • Currently we are missing out on many wonderful students who could never commit to such a huge project and time commitment but would be great contributors to your community. This is a significant change as we now are no longer strongly encouraging students to focus only on GSoC over their summer. Students have many other responsibilities especially during the pandemic that make it hard for them to spend 30 hours a week on a project. 
  • We realize this is going to require all of you to think about smaller projects and update your project ideas which is why we wanted to give you 3+ months to start talking it through with your communities.
  • The mentor stipends will be adjusted to $400 per student mentored. In feedback from the mentor summit it was pointed out that the effort from mentors will not be half as much even though the project size is cut in half so we adjusted from $250 to $400.
  1. Shortened coding period - the coding period will be 10 weeks with a lot more flexibility for the mentor and student to decide together how they want to spread the work out over the summer. Some folks may choose to stick to a 17-18 hour a week schedule with their students, others may factor in a couple of breaks during the program (for student and mentor) and some may have students focus 30 hours a week on their project so they wrap up in 6 weeks. This also makes it a lot easier for students with finals or other commitments (weddings, etc.) to adjust their schedules.
  2. 2 evaluations  (instead of 3) - There will be an evaluation after 5 weeks and the final evaluation will take place after the 10th week. We are also no longer requiring students complete their first evaluation (though we encourage them to do so), so if a student doesn’t complete the first evaluation they will not automatically be removed from the program. They are still required to complete the final evaluation.

  3. Eligibility requirements - In 2020 there are many ways students are learning and we want to acknowledge that so we will be allowing students who are 18 years old AND currently enrolled (or accepted into) a post-secondary academic program as of May 17, 2021 or have graduated from a post-secondary academic program between December 1, 2020 and May 17, 2021 to apply to the GSoC program.

  • What this means is that now the program will be open to folks participating in a variety of different academic programs, not just accredited university programs. This includes licensed coding camps, community colleges, and many other programs that may not be accredited yet but are post-secondary academic programs. 

These changes were made to help find more diverse students who we hope will stay involved in your communities after their GSoC ends. We look forward to these changes and will definitely be getting feedback from all of you as the 2021 program goes on to see what is working and what we should consider adjusting for any possible future program. 

The program announcement, timeline, marketing materials (slide deck, flyers), FAQs, and short videos with tips for mentors and students are all available. You'll also notice the 2020 program has now been archived.

Organizations -- If you would like to apply for the 2021 program please start thinking about the ~175 hr projects you would like students to work on and also reach out to your community members to ask if they would like to be mentors for the program. Having a thorough and well thought out list of Project Ideas is the most important part of your application. 

Encourage other open source orgs to apply -- Please also consider encouraging other open source projects to apply and be a first time GSoC org - we’re hoping to accept more orgs in 2021 than ever before with a good number of them being first time orgs. When orgs apply they can put your org down as a reference.

Please note that Org applications will open on January 29th

We are looking forward to another exciting year of GSoC!

For any questions about the programs please email us at gsoc-sup...@google.com

Best,

Stephanie Taylor

GSoC Program Lead





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Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher,
Emory University,
Atlanta, GA, USA.

Blog: [Llovizna] kkpradeeban.blogspot.com
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/kpradeeban
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