Summer of Code Student Application Deadline Looms

chrisd writes "Hi everyone, just wanted to do one last shake of the old tree...the Summer of Code student application deadline is coming up on the 26th. We've got some great applications but I'd love to see more. We're accepting 800 students this year into the program and we have 131 open source organizations who'd love to see you apply. Anyone can talk about open source but you could be coding some with some of the best developmers out there. Apply today." Just a note: the 26th is an extension of the previous deadline. If you thought you wouldn't have time, you now have until next Monday. Get crackin'.

Comments

Spellcheck Anyone?

[Jazzer_Techie]

you could be coding some with some of the best developmers out there

Is a developmer just a bunch of individual developers arranged into some sort of chain?

(Yes, I know a polymer is not a chain of polys. It's supposed to be funny. Leave me alone.)

Great Program!

[fv]

I have been participating as a mentor for the SoC program since it started, and I highly recommend it. It is a great way to get paid, gain valuable experience and a great resume booster, and write code which will be used by thousands or millions of people! Your can read about the successful creations of Nmap SoC students in 2005 and 2006.

This year I am involved with three projects which have been accepted for SoC this year:

• Nmap Security Scanner (SoC Ideas Page)
• UMIT (SoC Ideas Page). This is an Nmap graphical front end which started out as a student's Nmap-SoC project, and now he has been accepted by Google to run it as an independent SoC project!
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (SoC Ideas Page). I serve on the board of directors for this 501(c)3 nonprofit which aims to educate and influence policy makers and the public on technical issues.

And even if none of those projects float your boat, there are 128 others to choose from. Remember that you can apply for multiple projects, and doing so can (with sufficient care and detail for each application) be a good way to increase your odds.

-Fyodor
Insecure.Org

Re:Where is the bleeding edge?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Summer of Code is about little vignettes. Things that are well-defined and can be done and closed, leaving a nice taste in the mouth.

Something open-ended and nebulous like artificial consciousness is better suited for... postgrad work. Which students are also very welcome to apply for. As soon as they graduate :-)

Re:No Mythtv this year....

[am 2k]

The problem with SoC is that the participants are like (inexperienced) contractors to the project. All other devs on the projects are (usually) non-paid spare-time developer.

This means that the SoC students have to be treated differently, which some mentors didn't expect. Since they're inexperienced, they usually plan far more than they could ever achieve in the time frame, but some projects picked those first since they sounded best. They expected the students to complete their work after deadline, so they gave them a positive review, even though nothing was finished. Of course, nothing happend, since students are used to dropping everything after a course is done.

For example, take a look at the Haiku project's SoC ideas. They didn't participate last year, so they haven't learnt that lesson yet. Most of these projects are like a large master's thesis, some even more! That's ridiculous, there's no way any SoC student would be able to do that in the given time frame.

When students try to work on a project that's far above their head, you can expect that they constantly talk to their mentors about how to do it.