Is there an easy manner to attract students to contribute to free software ? GSoC is a good example. What about trying to extend this experience through the academic year. In this slide there are couple of ideas about how to do that. The project is not yet born and needs to be further investigated.

1. Training Tomorrow's Engineers
by Contributing to Today's Free Software
Albert Cohen
October 26, 2011
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2. Outline
Two experiences with complementary objectives
1 A freshman course on computing systems based on Android
Running for 4 years as INF422 at École Polytechnique CS/CE10x
http: // www. enseignement. polytechnique. fr/ informatique/ INF422
→ Looking for partners to improve the concept and the tools
2 Preliminary initiative for a Libre Semester of Code ( SoC )
In the starting blocks at IRILL CS/CE49x
→ The topic of this talk
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3. Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
Huge success, for students and for projects
Since 2005
$5000 stipend from Google
More than 4500 students and 3000 mentors from 100 countries
Diverse projects: recent developments, . . . , core FSF projects like gcc
code research testing document
outreach training translation user interface
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4. Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
Mentor from
the project
Three-way matchmaking
Student FLOSS project
Interest from
someone
at Google
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5. Libre Semester of Code ( SoC )
Mentor from
the project
Four-way matchmaking
University
Student FLOSS project with labeled
curriculum
Interest from
a sponsoring
company
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6. CS/CE Students Contributing to FLOSS projects
FLOSS projects draft the subjects
Describe tasks of the SoC project
Identify mentors (from the project)
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7. CS/CE Students Contributing to FLOSS projects
FLOSS projects draft the subjects
Two oerings (non-exclusive)
1 Full-time scheme: summer or spring internship
Similar to GSoC
Over a 3 months period
Required for projects needing special technical skills or experience
2 Part-time scheme: substitution for a course
Over a 4 to 5 months period, less than 15h per week
Needs a realistic assessment of the eort (about half of an internship)
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8. CS/CE Students Contributing to FLOSS projects
FLOSS projects draft the subjects
Two oerings (non-exclusive)
Be confronted to collaborative development practices
Patch preparation, documentation, testing
Distributed and remote work
Experience of a large code base
Experience of a development project's culture
Peer review
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9. CS/CE Students Contributing to FLOSS projects
FLOSS projects draft the subjects
Two oerings (non-exclusive)
Be confronted to collaborative development practices
Integrate into the curriculum
Validate ECTS credits (e.g., 24 or 12 depending on the scheme)
Explicit the knowledge and competences acquired
Comply with internship requirements and regulations
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10. The Student's Perspective
Implementation
Guidelines established by the SoC ; lightweight curriculum labeling
Customization possible
Involvement of professors from the University/School
Start small: a few Master programs in France
On-the-y matchmaking scenario
1 Students apply and are selected locally
2 Selected applications are directly proposed to the mentors
3 The SoC validates the applications
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11. The Project's Perspective
Denition of the SoC project
Which prerequisites?
Who is helping, mentoring, tutoring?
A lonesome geek in the basement for 3 months?
Implementation and publicity
Identication of the mentor
Submission of the SoC project on a dedicated portal
Coordination between the mentor and the sponsor to select the applications
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12. The Sponsor's Perspective
Motivations
Companies interested in fostering RD activity in FLOSS projects
Mutualization of development eorts
Way to detect talents
Way to establish closer links with a project's community
Not directly drafting the subject!
Implementation
Guidelines established with the SoC ; informal agreement
Compatibility with local employment regulation
Guidelines for the nancial support
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13. The University's Perspective
Implementation
Communicate the university's expectations regarding the assessment of the
diculties, risks of failure and evaluation
Involvement of the professors: selecting the local students, monitoring the
internships
Leverage local initiatives
Learn from and adapt to the local practices and experience
Oer more exposure and support
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14. From the GSoC to the SoC
GSoC is ne: no need to compete
Independent, non-prot organization preferable
Curriculum integration
Representativity of the selected FLOSS projects
Compatibility with internship or course requirements
Legal aspects regarding nancial retribution
Many projects and companies deserve to be in touch with the best students
Diversity of the FLOSS development and education initiatives is always good
Research potential on the SoC model itself
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15. Potpourri of Diculties
Feasibility of the part-time scheme?
Custom arrangement with every university?
Grading issues: characterize risk of failure independently of the student's skills
How to dene success criteria with the sponsor?
Promote the student's contributions, community recognition
French labor law for internships
Legal implementation may depend on the origin of the funds
Encourage professor's involvement in the drafting, tutoring or evaluation?
Next step European implementation: grow within EIT ICT Labs?
GSoC students are highly skilled; what to expect from more novice
contributors?
Schools who make money through internships (indirectly, taxe
d'apprentissage) may see the SoC as a nancial loss
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16. How to move on?
Support
Initiative supported by IRILL and System@tic cluster's GTLL (special
interest group on FLOSS)
Former GSoC students and mentors interested in participating to the rst
experiment
Need coordination with project-led initiatives (e.g., Mozilla drumbeat)
Need help from would-be mentors, professors and sponsors!
Questions
In which time frame?
With which information system?
Financial involvment of academic partners?
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17. QA
Thank you
Questions?
Contact
Albert Cohen: http://www-rocq.inria.fr/~acohen
email: mailto:Albert.Cohen@inria.fr
Olivier Berger: http://identi.ca/oberger
email: mailto:Olivier.Berger@it-sudparis.eu
blog: http://www-public.it-sudparis.eu/~berger_o/weblog
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