Google Launches Summer of Code

chrisd writes "We're very happy to launch the Summer of Code today, and I thought Slashdot readers would be interested and might even help us spread the word (We have a flyer, even). The program is designed to give computer science, and other, students a stipend ($4500) while they learn to release and create open source software. We're working with a variety of Open Source software foundations and organizations and we hope to sign up around 200 developers. We hope the end result will be more open source developers! I'll be pleased to answer questions in the comment stream about this program. Thanks!"

Comments

Why just students?

[interstellar_donkey]

I think it's wonderful Google is doing something like this. Then again, I don't think Google has done much that could be considered wrong as of late. There are two good rules of business that so many modern industries seem to forget. 1) Make a good product, which so far Google seems to be doing well, and 2) Don't make it a hassle for your customers to do business with you. If only other tech companies followed those two simple rules, they probably would be faring much better. If the recording industry followed these rules, they would . . . well, that's not going to happen any time soon.

The one question I have is this: Why just students? Sure, it's always good to help out students (especially with money), but there are a lot of people out there who are doing this stuff on their own. You don't have to be in school to be trying to learn coding or work in open source (some of us do it as a hobby). This really isn't meant to be a complaint, it's a serious question, and I'm sure there is a good answer out there I just don't happen to know what it is.

Re:Why just students?

[natrius]

The one question I have is this: Why just students?

If you open it up to everyone, it's harder to tell if the person will get the intended benefit out of it: education. Experienced coders could participate just for the money. The program isn't supposed to be mainly about the money, it's just there to get college students' eyes on developing open source software as an option.

which is it?

[fiftyLou]

When exactly is the application deadline?

The "summer of code" page says June 24th. The pdf linked from there says June 14th.

('Course if those were reversed I could've made some smart assed comment about the extra 10 days accounting for Adobe's pdf reader to launch).

Just great

[Locke2005]

Our parents had the "Summer of Love", where they all flocked to San Francisco etc. to do drugs and have sex, and all we get is this lousy "Summer of Code", where we get to DO WORK on our summer vacation?!?

Re:Slashdot becomes a shill for google

[damiam]

A shill for Google? If any other company were putting up close to a million dollars in bounty money for open-source development, it'd be huge news. Hell, Novell offered $25000 in GNOME bounties a year ago and we got at least two separate /. stories about it. This is exactly the sort of news for nerds that /. exists to report (as are, incidently, both of the other Google stories on the FP). Should /. just start rejecting all stories pertaining to Google, just because Google is working on a lot of cool stuff?

Re:Direction

[chrisd]

We welcome those groups, but we had a limited amount of time to corral everyone. They can still join in. This is why we posted the mentorship faq on the site.

Man, the 2 minute posting restriction is killing me today.

Chris