Google Summer of Code Results

Nattfodd writes "Almost two months after the projects, deadline, partial (but fairly complete) results of Google Summer of Code are here. The completion rate of projects (and thus payment of the students) was approximately 90%, which would certainly qualify for a 'huge success' of the operation. Summer of Code paid more than 400 students of 49 countries to spend their summer helping open-source projects, 4500$ on completion. Now we just have to wait for the T-shirts..."

Comments

Nice idea, poor pay

[Anonymous Coward]

Its a nice thing for Google to try to do, but who were they really targeting at that pay range? A decent summer internship in CS pays 2-4 times that much.

Re:Nice idea, poor pay

[abscondment]

I'm doing a 6 month internship right now. I'll net $17,000. If it was only a summer thing, I'd be getting around $9,800. This is in addition to full benefits, and up to 7% of my pay matched when I purchase stock. Honestly, this isn't even with a tech company; they just pay IT interns really well.

So yes, 9k to 18k for a summer internship.

Re:Nice idea, poor pay

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you enjoy working on the helldesk for the next 40 years. Those users aren't going to get any smarter y'know.

These guys have a *major* flag on their CV now. They have some solid open source coding experience. They can go out a choose a job now. But I wouldn't mind betting some of them won't take the best paid option. Some projects out there are just interesting to work on. Once you're off the breadline, there is more to a good job than cash. I work for a university. I don't get the best pay, but I *love* my job. I frequently work weekends and long evening, because I want to. Becuase I'm paid to think about interesting questions and build neat things. I hope some of the google coders get the same chance.

How about a winter of code?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was sucessful. Lets follow it up with a winter of code, and give the OSS world a christmas present

Interesting Demographics

[mikesmind]

I scanned through the list and am intrigued by the demographics. I was surprised that there weren't a few more women. I always knew that programming was dominated by men, but I didn't realize it would be that far skewed. The shop I work in is primarily COBOL and we have a good percentage of women working here. Perhaps that skewed my perception.

Re:Interesting Demographics

[university chica]

I'm a senior in computer science at a university that has a total of 17000 students. I'm also the only female student in my graduating class. Conservatively, I'd say there are maybe 7 other female students in CS who've made it to their junior year. CS loses 99% of female students, and it's half way through the semester, so we may have lost a couple more. For a little perspective... there are over 100 guys in their junior or senior year. I don't understand it. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend their entire scholastic career surrounded by a collection of the geekiest men the university has to offer?

Google pays MCDONALD'S wages

[Work Account]

$4500 for a summer of work ->

Summer = 12 weeks

1 work week = 40 hours

Total = 480 hours per summer

BEFORE taxes, this is $9.30 / hour.

I can make more at McDonald's especially considering meals are discounted 75%.

Re:Google pays MCDONALD'S wages

[mrpotato]

You just had to complete a project during the summer. It doesn't mean you've worked 40 hours on it. You simply had to meet the deliverable. Some people got paid considerably more than 9.30$/hour, and have a much better experience to put on their CV than "flipped burgers for 4 months".

Hmmm, interesting projects

[totallygeek]

• Ivan Barrera A, Chile: Bandwidth Limiter For Apache - When a user starts downloading something, the data goes through the mod. If there is a bandwidth limit, then the mod will start "splitting" the data into smaller pieces. Then it will start sending each piece with a small delay (less than 1 sec) between each piece, thus, reducing the speed the user downloads. This is useful for small web-hosting servers with limited outbound bandwidth (i.e. ADSLs customers).

  I don't even have that limited of bandwidth and I would like to see this mod in production. Very needed code IMHO.

• csaba, Hungary - Fuse / BSD / Network mount via SSH

  This is what I have been waiting for since the dawn of time. Well, not that long, but I have always wondered when I would be able to mount remote file systems via secure shell.

What about a "Winter of Code"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Suggestions:

- Google Talk voice support for Linux;

- Google Earth for Linux;

- Google office suite for Linux, er, for web;

- Google Desktop for Linux;

Well, actually, this could be hard... differences among Linux versions, among desktop environments, yada, yada, yada...

So, first: what about a common installation utility to (humbly and initially) work only in Gnome, KDE and XFCE -- with specific plug-ins in each environment to carry out the lowly details?

DISCLAIMER: my personal opinions, not my employer's.

Re:Some got paid considerably LESS than $9.30/hour

[Cornflake917]

So the average GSoC participant worked on their project 40 hours a week? Can I see where you got these statistics please?

Even if you're right...

$9/hr is 75% (thats (9.00-5.15)/5.15*100% ) increase over minimum wage. Maybe to you that is "scant" more than minimum wage. But to someone who's never had a job or has only had minimum wage type jobs, it's not scant at all.

You say mathematics don't lie. However, I fail to see you actaully use any mathematics to prove your point.

Also it seems you left out a few obvious things like:

- Working at Walmart sucks ass.
- Working for one of the GSoC project might be fun and a good learning experience.
- The GSoC project will look good on your resume.
- Working at a fast food place or as a cashier won't get you coding experience.

Re:Other Results:

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I know for a fact that one of the participants's wife is now 4 months pregnant. Perhaps you are just projecting your own inadequacies.

Re:Man look at the names

[Anonymous Coward]

There are non-european descent names there.. when did that mean that european descent == american?