This is an introductory presentation to GSoC 2021. This year there were a few specific changes to GSoC compared to the past years. Specifically, workload and the student stipend have been made half in 2021 compared to the previous years.

1. Summer of Code
Summer of Code 2021
2021
Pradeeban
Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.
Kathiravelu, Ph.D.
Dept of Biomedical Informatics,
Dept of Biomedical Informatics,
Emory University
Emory University

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

3. 3
I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER?
18+
18+
Students only!

4. 4
Why should I bother?

Code for your preferred
preferredopen
source project
projectfor 3 months.

And get paid!

5. 5
Stipends
Stipends
➢
Stipends
Stipends based on the location of your
based on the location of your
university/college/post-secondary
university/college/post-secondary
academic program.
academic program.
➢
From 1500 – 3300 $ in total.
From 1500 – 3300 $ in total.
➢
Half of previous years
Half of previous years
➢
18 hrs/week.
18 hrs/week.
Background Image: http://blog.echoenduring.com/2010/11/23/learning-about-design-from-angry-birds/

6. 6
Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Code for an open source organization for 3 months.

Not accepted twice or more in previous GSoCs as
a student.

Google coordinates and rewards you!
– Getting Accepted.
– 2 milestones (a.k.a., evaluations).
• First Evaluation. (45% of the stipend)
• Final Evaluation. (55% of the stipend)
– A completion certificate!

7. 7
Some statistics of 2019

201 Organizations
– 2,815 mentors and co-mentors.
– 2,066 from 72 countries, with an assigned student.

Registered
– 30,922 students, from 148 countries.

Accepted
– 1, 276 students/projects
• 148 countries. 6,586 universities.
 Completed successfully
– 1,134 students from 61 countries.

8. 8
Success Rate..
is pretty high!

Passed the final evaluations
– Success rate – 88.87%

9. 9
Why Google Summer of Code?

10. 10
What do you need?
♥

11. 11
Timeline (2021)

Jan 29th
– Feb 19th
: Organizations apply.

March 9th
: Accepted organizations announced.

March 29th
– April 13th
: Student application period.

May 3rd
: Slot requests due from organizations.

May 13th
: Student selections made by
organizations.

12. 12
Timeline..
After getting accepted

May 17th
: Accepted Students announced.
– Community Bonding Period Begins.

June 7th
– Aug 16th
: Coding Period.

July 12th
– July 16th
: First Evaluation.

Aug 16th
– Aug 23rd
: Student Final submission.

Students submit the final code and documentation.

Aug 23rd
– Aug 30th
: Final Evaluation.

Aug 31st
: Final Results Announced.

13. 13
Got some idea..

14. 14
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 communication channel.

15. 15
Technologies..

Version Control Systems
– git, mercurial, ..

Build Tools
– Maven, Ivy, Ant, ..

IDEs (Integrated Development Environments)
– IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, ..
– Microsoft Visual Studio ..

Issue Tracker
– Jira, Bugzilla, Trac, ..

16. 16

Mailing Lists
– Dev, User, Commit lists, sub-groups, ..

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Slack channels

Issue Tracker

Forums and wiki

Blogs

Skype, Personal Mails, gtalk, conference
calls, .. [with the mentors, if that is preferred.]
Communicating with the team..
and the mentor, over the Internet

17. 17
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.

Language/English

18. 18
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”.

19. 19
Mailing lists

Post only to the relevant list/channel.

Check the mail archives or channel logs first.

No [URGENT]/[IMPORTANT] tags.

No unnecessary attachments.

No Cross Posting.

Don't hijack threads.

Don't post off-topic.

20. 20
IRC/Slack Etiquettes

Join the relevant channels.

Be an observer first.

Refer to others using their irc/slack nick to get
attention.

But avoid misusing.

Especially no unnecessary @channel or @here.

Don't expect immediate replies; wait.

21. 21
Find a mentoring organization..

Have a look at the list of past GSoC.

201 Last year!

New Organizations.

40 – 50 expected for 2020.

Google as the mentoring organization.

Introduce GSoC to an organization (Sounds
Smart!).

22. 22
Find THE right project..

Go through the organizations' projects list.
– Check for the 2021 GSoC ideas from the potential
organizations.
– Refer to the organizations lists of 2020 and 2019
until the GSoC 2021 organizations are announced.

23. 23
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)

24. 24
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?

25. 25
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!

26. 26
Experience

Language
– Java, Python, Javascript, Go, 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.

27. 27
Opportunities..

Project that matches your previous work
experience.

Choose the right project.

Timezone Difference
– Use it effectively

Multiple Applications

Up to 3. But only one accepted per student.

Preferences!

28. 28
Shout!

Communicate early – but meaningfully.

Not necessary to send an email just to say ‘hi’.

Communicate often.

Ask questions.

Most importantly,
Answer others' questions!

Mentor is your friend!
(respect)

29. 29
Be Known..

Be heard!

Be visible!

Be responsive!

Be quick!

30. 30
Apply

Register as a student for GSoC.

Use the project's wiki for draft proposal
– if applicable.

Apply on Google's system.
– Can edit later, until the last minute!
– Get the mentors' opinions and improve.

Check often for the mentors' comments
– attend to them.

31. 31
Proposal
How to impress the mentors/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.

32. 32
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.

33. 33
Propose..

Timeline
– Finer details.
– Break up to periods of 3 - 4 days.
– Testing takes time.
– Don't be over-optimistic.
– Require 18 hours of work per week.

Links
– References and additional details.

34. 34
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.

35. 35
• e.g.: “At the end of my project, Niffler Metadata
Processing Pipeline will be 3 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
• summer classes, vacations, etc.

36. 36

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:

37. 37
After the submission..

Don't go invisible!
– Evaluation is still going on.. ;)

You may be asked to provide
– additional information.
• Bug fixes / pull requests.
• Demos and screenshots.

You may even start coding on your project!
– Especially if you didn't apply for multiple projects.

Be motivated.

38. 38
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.

39. 39
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.

40. 40
Coding..
Easiest task of all.. ;)

Commit often, if given committership.
– Send frequent pull requests (daily ?) otherwise.
– Meaningful Commit messages.

Get feedback from the mentor(s).

Keep the community/mentor updated
– Daily (?).

Plan for the mid and final evaluations early,
with the mentor.

41. 41
Conclude/Continue..

Final Submission.

Make a static web page to summarize your GSoC work.

Submit the link at the GSoC site.

Don’t miss any of the evaluations.

Both mentors and students need to submit evaluations.

All 3 of the evaluations!

Focus on becoming a committer in the organization
– if not already given committership.

Keep contributing.

42. 42
What else?

More FOSS?

Annual?

Stipend?

Student?

Country/Location?

43. 43
More Open Source
programs/contests..

OpenDaylight Internship

Season of KDE (SoK)

Outreachy

Rails Girls Summer of Code

44. 44
Some links.. ;)

GSoC home page

Google Open Source Blog on GSoC

Proposal [Pradeeban]

GSoC 2015 Emory BMI

GSoC 2014 Emory BMI

GSoC 2010 OMII-UK/OGSA-DAI

GSoC 2009 AbiWord

45. 45
Are you ready?

Have a look at the successful projects.
– Proposals available online - Wikis, blogs, ..
– Project ideas 2021
• Emory BMI
• caMicroscope

Apache Software Foundation
– More slots and more choices.
• Tomcat, Derby, Axis2, and more ..

Join the projects' mailing lists and channels.

For Example, Apache CXF

46. 46
For more Information ..

Join the GSoC mailing lists.

Join your local GSoC Google Group
– For e.g., Group for Sri Lankan students:
http://groups.google.com/group/gsoc-srilanka

Drop me a line. :)
– kk.pradeeban@gmail.com | kkpradeeban.blogspot.com
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.

47. 47
Questions?..
Questions?..

48. 48
Wish you all the best..
Wish you all the best..