The continuing mission of the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) is to inspire social change by enabling the sharing of diverse stories through art, education and technology. One of the ways they pursue this goal is by offering classes to youth, such as their Digital Pathways: Open Source class. This program offers intensive media training for young people who want to learn skills related to careers in technology and the media arts.
Earlier this month the class was treated to lunch and a tour of Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA. During lunch, the students had a chance to sit down with members of the Open Source Programs Office and ask questions about working in open source. They talked with Junio C Hamano, maintainer of the GIT project, Ian Hickson, writer for the HTML5 spec, and Carol Smith, administrator for Google Summer of Code and Google Code-in.
The students range in age from 13 to 19 years old and most had never coded in any language before they started. If you know someone in the San Francisco Bay Area who wants to learn more about open source, this class is a great introduction. More photos and information about the class are available on the BAVC Digital Pathways: Open Source blog.
By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team; Photo by kingobie1
Student applications now being accepted for Google Summer of Code
Monday, March 28, 2011
Today marks the start of the 2011 Google Summer of Code student application period.
Google Summer of Code is a global program where university students are given a stipend to write code for open source projects over a three month period. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted students are paired with a mentor from the participating projects, gaining exposure to real-world software development and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
Google Summer of Code is a highly competitive program with a limited number of students being accepted. We are pleased to announce that this year we have enlarged the program so that we can accept as many as 150 additional students. We hope all interested students will apply!
Now it is time for the students to submit their proposals to the accepted mentoring organizations via the Google Summer of Code program website from today through Friday, April 8th 19:00 UTC. For the past 10 days students have had the opportunity to review the Ideas pages for this year’s 175 accepted projects and to research which projects they would like to contribute to for this year’s Google Summer of Code.
Every year we have thousands of students who apply for the Google Summer of Code program but due to the limited number of slots many students are not able to be a part of the program. The quality of your proposal is what will make you stand out from your peers. Students should consult the Google Summer of Code student manual for suggestions on how to write a proposal that will grab the attention of the mentoring organizations. Multiple proposals are allowed but we highly recommend focusing on quality over quantity. The mentoring organizations have many proposals to review, so it is important to follow each organization’s specific guidelines or templates and we advise you to submit your proposal early so you can receive timely feedback.
For more tips, see a list of some helpful dos and don’ts for successful student participation written by a group of experienced Google Summer of Code administrators, our user’s guide for the program site, Frequently Asked Questions and timeline. You can also stay up-to-date on all things Google Summer of Code on our Google Open Source blog, mailing lists or on IRC at #gsoc on Freenode.
Good luck students and remember to submit your proposals early–you only have until April 8!
By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs Office
Good luck students and remember to submit your proposals early–you only have until April 8!
By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs Office
The DOs and DON’Ts of Google Summer of Code: Student Edition
Friday, March 25, 2011
As Google Summer of Code mentoring organization administrators, we are the people who ensure Google Summer of Code runs smoothly within our organizations. Over the past 6 years, contributors to our four open-source projects (Gentoo, KDE, XMPP, and X.Org) have read more than 1,000 student applications and mentored hundreds of successful, and unsuccessful, students.
Based on our experience with Google Summer of Code, we’ve built cultural and community practices that strongly favor successful student projects, integration of code, and conversion of students to long-term contributors. We’ve also seen a lot of things go wrong—repeatedly. We’d like to share these tips and antipatterns with you to raise awareness and help students avoid the same mistakes when taking part in the program. For even more advice, check out the student guide.
Making Google Summer of Code the best possible program requires a commitment to excellence from participants at every level. In addition to committing to the program, you must also be thoroughly prepared.
In this post we’ve provided suggestions for students, and in later posts in this series we’ll cover mentors and admins. Whatever role you would like to play in Google Summer of Code or a similar program, read everything you can find so you know what you’re getting into. Good luck, and have fun in your endeavors.
By Donnie Berkholz, Lydia Pintscher, and Kevin Smith, Google Summer of Code Administrators for Gentoo & X.Org, KDE, and XMPP Standards Foundation respectively
Based on our experience with Google Summer of Code, we’ve built cultural and community practices that strongly favor successful student projects, integration of code, and conversion of students to long-term contributors. We’ve also seen a lot of things go wrong—repeatedly. We’d like to share these tips and antipatterns with you to raise awareness and help students avoid the same mistakes when taking part in the program. For even more advice, check out the student guide.
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Making Google Summer of Code the best possible program requires a commitment to excellence from participants at every level. In addition to committing to the program, you must also be thoroughly prepared.
In this post we’ve provided suggestions for students, and in later posts in this series we’ll cover mentors and admins. Whatever role you would like to play in Google Summer of Code or a similar program, read everything you can find so you know what you’re getting into. Good luck, and have fun in your endeavors.
By Donnie Berkholz, Lydia Pintscher, and Kevin Smith, Google Summer of Code Administrators for Gentoo & X.Org, KDE, and XMPP Standards Foundation respectively