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Google Pumps $6 Million Into Summer of Code 2011

Posted by timothy on from the will-you-be-my-mentor-today dept.

darthcamaro writes "Google Summer of Code 2011 is now underway. Google is providing stipends for 1,116 students to mentor with 175 open source projects. In total, Google will be investing over $6 million dollars into Summer of Code 2011. There are a few project omissions this time around though. Neither Fedora nor Ubuntu have any students this year."

5 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Very generous stipend by Myji+Humoz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's really amazing how a drop in the bucket (for Google) can encourage so much innovation and foster so much enthusiasm in the next generation of programmers.

    The stipend averages out to $5376 per student, which will surely go a long way to paying for rent between semesters and then some.

    I'm fully aware that programming has lower fixed costs than say, recombinant organism research or semiconductor development, but I can't help but wonder how many STEM students we could encourage by redirecting just 1% of the U.S. national defense budget. The gains of such projects really isn't in the end result (though they're nice), but rather in the skills, connections, and confidence that the work inspires.

    --
    Signatures are the new names.
  2. 5 millions for the seti by bubulubugoth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't be nice if Google pumped 5 millions to keep the seti@home working for 2 years more? They pump 6 millions for a small and local event...

    --
    Â_Â
    1. Re:5 millions for the seti by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      I would like to see $5 million spent on stopping SETI@home and reclaiming all those wasted cycles around the world

  3. What's the point when maintainers ignore your work by gumpish · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Code written to allow per-workspace wallpaper in GNOME as part of a Summer of Code 2008 project:

    http://gsocblog.jsharpe.net/

    Result?

    Ignored by GNOME.

    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=543596

    Thanks, GNOME.
    Thanks, Søren Sandmann.

  4. We've tried several times... by pongo000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...to get onboard, but have been rejected each time. The amount of detail that Google requires for its application is just mind-boggling. More mind-boggling is the selection process that seems to favor established projects with large developer bases that really aren't in need of extra help. Good luck getting on the SoC bandwagon if you're a small (but established) open software project.