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Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

google-opensource.blogspot.com

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Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#2
This is a great organization. I've been a gsoc student 2 years ago and learned a lot from my project and earned a decent wage. Google pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for Open Source contributions done by these students.

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#3
post #2

This is a great organization. I've been a gsoc student 2 years ago and learned a lot from my project and earned a decent wage. Google pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for Open Source contributions done by these students.

What was the project about ? Was it a new project or an already existing one ? Also, based on what were you qualified for the program ?

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#4
post #2

This is a great organization. I've been a gsoc student 2 years ago and learned a lot from my project and earned a decent wage. Google pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for Open Source contributions done by these students.

I think the total budget is of the order of several million dollars.

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#6
I love GSOC and I really, really wish that more companies would do something similar. It is a GREAT way to get much-needed improvements in open-source software, teach a student some real, in-the-trenches skills that will be used throughout his career (and hopefully kicking off a meaningful career in OSS and diverting from the dark path of corporate .NET/Java jockey), and get an amazing amount of development value per dollar.

The real question is, "why is Google the only company that does something like this?" Though it doesn't fit exactly the same way I could even see a similar mentorship program as part of Y Combinator or other startup incubators. There's really no excuse for companies like Red Hat, Yahoo, Canonical and others that are heavily dependent on OSS not to do this.

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#7
post #2

This is a great organization. I've been a gsoc student 2 years ago and learned a lot from my project and earned a decent wage. Google pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for Open Source contributions done by these students.

I think the total budget is of the order of several million dollars.

It's worth noting that GSOC has become really expansive in the last couple of years, approving 988 projects last year alone. While that kind of expansiveness is great, I don't think it should be held as a prerequisite -- even if companies only did 10 or 20 sponsorships like this every summer it would have a really good impact.

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#8

I love GSOC and I really, really wish that more companies would do something similar. It is a GREAT way to get much-needed improvements in open-source software, teach a student some real, in-the-trenches skills that will be used throughout his career (and hopefully kicking off a meaningful career in OSS and diverting from the dark path of corporate .NET/Java jockey), and get an amazing amount of development value per…

I completely agree with you on the merits of the program. Why don't more companies do it on the scale of GSOC? Organizing it must take multiple full-time people. It'd be great to see more programs where students get paid for their work but I want to point out that it's not the only way companies and students are both benefiting from collaboration.

I'm at Portland State and we've got a solid six-month capstone program in computer science where local companies, including several in open source, are working with student teams. I know electrical/computer has a similar program with a more hardware focus. It's not that GSOC is the only program where companies work with students, only the most visible.

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#9
This is an awesome program. I did it last year, and having it on my otherwise empty resume really helped in the internship hunt this year (I don't know if they used my GSoC evaluations or anything during the process, but I ended up landing a Google internship!).

Re: Google Summer of Code 2012 is on

#10
post #9

This is an awesome program. I did it last year, and having it on my otherwise empty resume really helped in the internship hunt this year (I don't know if they used my GSoC evaluations or anything during the process, but I ended up landing a Google internship!).

Echoing rileya, GSoC was the shimmering star on my resume when I applied for my first internship two summers ago.

Mine wasn't at Google, but at a startup that decided to keep me on and just got acquired, so it all worked out pretty well!

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