Over the past ten years, Google Summer of Code (GSoC) has given over 8,500 students a bridge into open source communities. GSoC alumni have played a large role in the program’s success by encouraging their fellow students to take part. Around the world, energetic students who have already participated in GSoC lead the way by hosting meet-up events that help others learn about the opportunities GSoC provides and get answers to their questions about the program. Who better than GSoC alumni to tell students what it’s really like spending the summer coding for open source projects?
Student applications for GSoC 2015 are open until March 27th, so the community has been spreading the word at school and beyond during the past few months. Here are just a few of the student-initiated events we’ve heard about recently.
Buea, Cameroon: 17 December 2014
Chris Nuvagda wanted to spread the word about GSoC after finishing his project, so he reached out to other GSoC alumni at the University of Buea to make it happen. Over 150 students attended the meet-up, with about 30% being women -- a number we’re happy to hear since only 10% of GSoC 2014 students were women and we’re trying to improve on that. The 5 presenters spoke about their experiences in GSoC and the benefits of it, gave advice on writing a great proposal, and shared what it’s like for women working in open source. Read more...
Delhi, India: 31 January 2015
Heena Mahour and Ayush Gupta hosted a meet-up for about 200 prospective students and open source enthusiasts. With help from others in their community, they organized a full-day event featuring 8 speakers. Students who previously participated with organizations like KDE, OWASP, and Mifos shared their experiences and answered questions from the audience. Technical topics were also discussed, including memory leaks and an introduction to version control systems. Read more...
Udine, Italy: 24 February 2015
Claudio Desideri spent GSoC 2014 coding for KDE and organized a meet-up for students at the University of Udine. With 80 attendees, there were just barely enough seats for everyone. Claudio shared his personal experiences but also learned that many students who might want to apply to GSoC fear being judged by potential mentors or failing out of the program. He helped reassure students that GSoC is an opportunity to grow and that they aren’t expected to already know everything. Read more...
Bangalore, India: 2 March 2015
With a desire to increase the participation of nearby colleges, especially among female students, Tejas Dharamsi and Rajath Kumar organized a GSoC meet-up at the Google Bangalore office. 102 students, including 44 women, from 11 colleges gathered to hear from the 6 speakers who shared details about the coding projects they worked on and gave practical advice for students applying to GSoC for the first time. The ending panel discussion gave attendees a chance to ask questions and offered students encouragement to apply for the program. Read more...
Kampala, Uganda: 12 March 2015
Organized by Kaweesi Joseph with help from OpenMRS, the organization he worked with during GSoC 2014, more than 110 students gathered for this meet-up. The 5 presenters discussed the benefits of contributing to open source, how students can participate in GSoC, and how OpenMRS is being used in Uganda. Read more...
We thank these GSoC alumni and many more who are spreading their enthusiasm for open source in their local communities. It’s because of local networking events like these that GSoC is able to have rich representation from all around the world. We look forward to welcoming some of these meet-up attendees into the upcoming Google Summer of Code 2015 -- don’t forget to apply before March 27th!
By Ashleigh Rentz, Open Source team, with thanks to everyone who allowed us to share their stories and photos here.
