The document outlines details about the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2012 program, highlighting its structure, timelines, and requirements for participants. It emphasizes the importance of communication, project selection, and mentorship, while also providing guidelines for submitting proposals. The document aims to prepare students for successful participation and contribution to open source projects during the coding period.

1. Summer of Code 2012
Kathiravelu Pradeeban
AbiWord

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

3. Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
 Code for your preferred open source
organization for 3 months.
 University students of age 18 and more.
 Google coordinates and rewards you!
– 3 milestones.
• Getting Accepted.
• Mid-Evaluations.
• Final Evaluations.
– A certificate, an awesome t-shirt, and gifts!
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– {500, 2250, 2250} USD.

4. Some statistics of 2011
 175 Organizations
– 2096 mentors and co-mentors.
 Submitted
– 3,731 students, from 97 countries.
– 5,651 proposals.
 Accepted
– 1115 students/projects
• 68 countries.
• 595 universities. 4

5. Success Rate..
is pretty high!
 Passed the mid evaluations
– Success rate up to mid – 90%+
 Passed the final evaluations
– Success rate – 88%
5

6. Why Google Summer of Code?
6

7. What do you need?
♥
7

8. Timeline (2012)

Feb 4th : Program Announced.
th th

Feb 27 – March 9 : Organizations apply.
th

March 16 : List of Accepted Organizations.

March 17th – 25th : Students discussing project
ideas.

March 26th – April 6th : Students application
period.
8

9. Timeline..
After getting accepted

April 23rd : Accepted Students announced.
– Community Bonding Period Begins.
st

May 21 : Coding Begins.
th rd

July 9 – July 13 : Mid Evaluations.

Aug 13rd : Suggested Pencils Down.
– Tests, Documentation improvements, etc.
9

10. Timeline..
Concluding

Aug 20th : Firm Pencils Down.
– Stop Work!
th

Aug 24 : Final Evaluation Deadline.
th

Aug 29 : Final Results.

Aug 31st : Begin Code Submission to Google.
10

11. 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 channel.
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12. Technologies..
 Version Control Systems
– SVN, CVS, GIT, Mercurial, ..
 Build Tools
– Ant, Maven, ..
 IDEs (Integrated Development Environments)
– IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, ..
– Microsoft Visual Studio, Anjuta, ..
 Issue Tracker
– Bugzilla, Jira, Trac, .. 12

13. Communicating with the team..
and the mentor, over the Internet
 Mailing Lists
– Dev, User, Commit lists, sub-groups, ..
 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
 Issue Tracker
 Forums and wiki
 Blogs
 Skype, Personal Mails, gtalk, conference
calls, .. [with the mentors, if that is preferred.] 13

14. 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.
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 Language/English

15. 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”.
15

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

17. IRC Etiquettes
 Be an observer first.
 Refer to others using their irc nick.
 Don't expect immediate replies; wait.
 Don't post bulk of text into irc.
– Post error logs to http://pastebin.com/ or
http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and share the url instead.
17

18. Find a mentoring organization..
 Have a look at the list of GSoC2011.
 175 Last year!
 New Organizations.
 Google as the mentoring organization.
 Introduce GSoC to an organization (Sounds
Smart!).
18

19. Find THE right project..
 Go through the organizations' projects list.
– Some organizations publish pretty soon.
– Refer to the projects list of 2011 of the
organizations till the GSoC 2012 is announced.
• AbiWord
• PhpMyAdmin
• Kubuntu
• DocBook Wiki
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20. 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)
20

21. 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? 21

22. 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!
22

23. Experience
 Language
– Java, 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. 23

24. Opportunities..
 Project that matches your previous work
experience.
 Choose the right project.
 Timezone Difference
– Use it effectively
– e.g., For Sri Lanka,GMT + 0530.
 Multiple Applications (20!)
 Preferences! 24

25. Shout!
 Communicate early.
 Communicate often.
 Ask questions.
 Most importantly,
Answer others' questions!
 Mentor is your friend!
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(respect)

26. Be Known..
 Be heard!
 Be visible!
 Be responsive!
 Be quick!
26

27. Apply
 Register as a student for GSoC.
 Use the project's wiki for draft proposal
– if applicable.
 Apply on Google's melange.
– Can edit later, till the last minute!
– Get the mentors' opinions and improve.
 Check often for the mentors' comments
– attend to them. 27

28. 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. 28

29. 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.
29

30. Propose..
 Timeline
– Finer details.
– Break upto periods of 3 - 4 days.
– Testing takes time.
– Don't be over-optimistic.
– Some organizations require considerable work
hrs/week (40 ?).
 Links
– References and additional details. 30

31. 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. 31

32. • 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
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• summer classes, vacations, etc.

33.  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:
33

34. After the submission..
 Don't go invisible!
– Evaluation is still going on.. ;)
 You may be asked to provide
– additional information.
• Patches.
• Screenshots.
 Start coding on your project.
– only if you didn't apply for multiple projects.
 Be motivated. 34

35. 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.
35

36. 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.
36

37. Coding..
Easiest task of all.. ;)
 Commit often, if given committership.
– Send daily patches otherwise.
– Meaningful Commit messages.
 Get feedback from the mentor(s).
 Keep the community updated
– Daily (?).
 Plan for the mid and final evaluations early,
with the mentor.
37

38. Conclude/Continue..
 Pencils Down Date
 Firm Pencils Down Date
– GSoC Coding ends here.
 Get a tarball of all the diff files to submit to
Google.
 Focus on becoming a committer
– if not already given committership.
 Keep contributing. 38

39. What else?
 More FOSS?
 Annual?
 Stipend?
 Student?
 Country/Location?
39

40. More Open Source
programs/contests..
 OpenOffice.org Internship
 Ubiquiti RouterStation UI/Firmware
 Wesnoth Summer Art Scholarship
 Umit Summer of Code (USoC)
 Season of KDE (SoK)
 The OpenMRS Internship Program (OIP)
 Joomla! Student Outreach Program
 Ruby Summer of Code
 Fedora Summer Coding
– http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_Coding_2010
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– https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2011

41. Some links.. ;)
 GSoC-2011 FAQ
 GSoC-2011 Accepted Organizations
 GSoC Student Guide
 Google Open Source Blog on GSoC
 Proposal [Pradeeban] - GSoC 2009 AbiWord
 Proposal [Pradeeban] -
GSoC 2010 OMII-UK/OGSA-DAI
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42. Are you ready?
 Have a look at the successful projects.
– Proposals available online - Wikis, blogs, ..
 Apache Software Foundation
– More slots and more choices.
• Tomcat, Derby, Axis2, and more ..
 Join the projects' mailing lists and IRC.
– AbiWord
• abiword-dev@abisource.com
• abiword-user@abisource.com
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• #abiword at irc.gnome.org

43. For more Information ..
 Join your local GSoC Google Group
– For e.g., Group for Sri Lankan students:
http://groups.google.com/group/gsoc-srilanka
 Local GSoC IRC channel
– For e.g., Sri Lanka - #gsoc-lk at irc.freenode.net.
 Drop me a line. ;)
– kk.pradeeban@gmail.com | kkpradeeban.blogspot.com
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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.

44. Questions?..
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45. Wish you all the best..
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