Google Summer of Code 2015

[Anthony Sorace]

Things are getting started for this summer. The org application period is open, closing tomorrow, and I'm working through the application and supporting documentation. A few things to note:

• As always, the most important part of the application is the ideas page. This year's is at:

http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/gsoc-2015-ideas/index.html

I've just started updating it, and there's plenty to do. If you have an idea you'd be possibly willing to mentor or backup-mentor, *please* add it here. Provide enough detail that an interested student could get a decent idea of the scope of the project and what's involved. The more relevant information you can provide, the better. If the info for that project gets larger than a paragraph, it probably makes sense to create a wiki page dedicated to the idea; see the idea "Replace language for wikifs" for a good example of that. If the wiki is a challenge, email me what the entry should be and I'll take care of it.

In the GSoC feedback sessions every year, this page is always the main thing used to separate various otherwise-promising orgs out. Take a look.

• If you travel in circles with students, start telling them about the program and why they should want to work with us. You might point them at our Student Expectations, at
http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/GSoC_Student_Expectations/index.html
I'll be reviewing those, but I don't expect significant changes.

• If you're an established community member, consider whether you'd be interested in mentoring. Take a look at our Mentor's Expectations at
http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/GSoC_Mentor_Expectations/index.html
and feel free to ask me or anyone else who's participated in the past questions - I'm sure everyone would be willing to talk.

• Prior-year mentors, it would be particularly helpful if you could take a look at those two previous pages and let me know (via the plan9-gsoc group preferably, or off-list) if you think anything needs changing. I think these expectations (which are more or less the same as the past 2-3 years, with small refinements) have served us pretty well, but would obviously be interested in other opinions.

• Also, if you're not on them and would like to contribute actively, the two Google Groups cc'd on this mail are worth joining. The mentor's list is for mentors, backup mentors, and similar folks helping out; the other list is for anyone interested in helping out or following along on the GSoC-specific discussions more closely.

Let me know if you have any other questions. If you have real-time questions, I'm in #plan9 and #plan9-gsoc most of the time.
Anthony