GSoC 2022 accepted Contributors announced!

May is here and we’re pleased to announce the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) Contributors for 2022. Our 196 mentoring organizations have spent the last few weeks making the difficult decisions on which applicants they will be mentoring this year as GSoC Contributors.

Some notable results from this year’s application period:

• Over 4,000 applicants from 96 countries
• 5,155 proposals submitted
• 1,209 GSoC contributors accepted from 62 countries
• 1,882 mentors and organization administrators

For the next few weeks our GSoC 2022 Contributors will be actively engaging with their new open source community and learning the ins and outs of how their new community works. Mentors will help guide them through the documentation and processes the community uses as well as helping the GSoC Contributors with planning their milestones and projects for the summer. This Community Bonding period helps familiarize the GSoC Contributors with the languages and tools they will need to successfully complete their projects. Coding begins June 13th and for most folks will wrap up September 5th, however this year GSoC Contributors can request a longer coding period wrapping up their projects by mid November.

Thank you to all the applicants who reached out to our mentoring organizations to learn more about the work they do and for the time they spent crafting their project proposals. We hope you all learned more about open source and maybe even found a community you want to contribute to even outside of GSoC. Staying connected with the community or reaching out to other organizations is a great way to set the stage for future opportunities. Open source communities are always looking for new, excited contributors to bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. We hope you connect with an open source community or apply to a future GSoC.

There are many changes to this 18th year of GSoC and we are excited to see how our GSoC Contributors and mentoring organizations take advantage of these adjustments. A big thank you to all our mentors and organization administrators who make this program so special.

GSoC Contributors—have fun this summer and keep learning! Your mentors and community members have dozens and in some cases, hundreds of years of experience, let them share their knowledge with you and help you become awesome open source contributors!

By Stephanie Taylor, Google Open Source

Season of Docs announces participating organizations for 2022

Season of Docs provides support for open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. Together we raise awareness of open source, of docs, and of technical writing. 

For 2022, Season of Docs is pleased to announce that 31 organizations will be participating in the program! The list of participating organizations can be viewed on the website.

The project development phase now begins. Organizations and the technical writers they hire will work on their documentation projects from now until November 15th. For organizations who are still looking to hire a technical writer, the hiring deadline is May 16th.

How do I take part in Season of Docs as a technical writer?

Start by reading the technical writer guide and FAQs which give information about eligibility and choosing a project. Next, technical writers interested in working with accepted open source organizations can share their contact information via the Season of Docs GitHub repository; or they may submit a statement of interest directly to the organizations. We recommend technical writers reach out to organizations before submitting a statement of interest to discuss the project they’ll be working on and gain a better understanding of the organization. Technical writers do not need to submit a formal application through Season of Docs, so reach out to the organizations as soon as possible!

Will technical writers be paid while working with organizations accepted into Season of Docs?

Yes. Participating organizations will transfer funds directly to the technical writer via OpenCollective. Technical writers should review the organization's proposed project budgets and discuss their compensation and payment schedule with the organization before hiring. Check out our technical writer payment process guide for more details.

General Timeline

May 16	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 15	Organization administrators start reporting on their project status via monthly evaluations
November 15	Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation
December 14	Google publishes the 2022 Season of Docs case studies and aggregate project data
May 2, 2023	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys

See the full timeline for details.

Care to join us?

Explore the Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Review the timeline, check out the FAQ, and reach out to organizations now!

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at season-of-docs@google.com.

By Romina Vicente and Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office

Google Summer of Code 2022: Contributor applications now open

Contributor applications for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2022 are now open!

Google Summer of Code is a global, online program focused on bringing new contributors into open source software development. GSoC contributors work with an open source organization on a 12+ week programming project under the guidance of mentors. 

Since 2005, GSoC has welcomed new developers into the open source community every year. The GSoC program has brought over 18,000 contributors from 112 countries together, with over 17,000 mentors from 746 open source organizations.

For 2022, GSoC made significant changes to expand the reach and flexibility of the program. The following are the key changes:

• All newcomers and beginners to open source 18 years and older may now apply to GSoC

• GSoC now supports both medium sized projects (~175 hours) and large projects (~350 hours)

• Projects can be spread out over 10–22 weeks

We invite students, graduates, and folks at various stages of their career to check out Google Summer of Code. Now that applications are open, please keep a few helpful tips in mind:

• Read the program rules, FAQ, contributor guide, and advice for applying

• Review the list of mentoring organizations and use filters to sort by programming language and categories

• Narrow down your list to 2-4 organizations and review their ideas list

• Reach out to the organizations via their contact methods listed on the GSoC site

• Engage with your organization early and often

Contributors may register and submit project proposals on the GSoC site from now until Tuesday, April 19th at 18:00 UTC.

Best of luck to all our applicants!

Romina Vicente, Program Manager – Google Open Source