openSUSE Project Accepted to Google Summer of Code 2009

Once again, the openSUSE Project will be participating in Google’s Summer of Code program! openSUSE was one of the 150 mentoring organizations accepted this year, and we’re excited to have the chance to work with students on projects to improve the openSUSE distribution and its tools.

Mentoring

Now it’s time to start signing up Mentors for the openSUSE Project. Mentors review the student applications and score them, work with students during the Google Summer of Code, and evaluate students performance.

We’re looking for committed mentors who will work with students closely and provide guidance not only on the project they’re working on, but also help them integrate with the overall project and teach them how to work within an open source project.

If you’re interested in mentoring with the openSUSE Project, sign up before March 23rd.

You’ll need to create a site-wide user profile and send a request to become a mentor (or send me a note with your user ID).

Students

Working with the Google Summer of Code is a great way to earn cash over the summer while doing something rewarding and interesting, and contributing to the open source community. Students who complete the Summer of Code will earn $4,500 if they complete the program in good standing. (See the Google FAQ for the payment schedule.)

The student deadline for Google Summer of Code is Friday, April 3rd. See the FAQ for the full scoop.

We’re looking for students who can work on existing ideas or bring their own. If you have a great idea that fits within the openSUSE Project, please apply!

If your proposal is accepted, expect to do a great deal of work over the summer. The time commitment is substantial, and we’re aiming for 100% completion of projects this year.

Ideas

There’s still time to submit ideas on the openSUSE wiki. Preferably, these will be from students or mentors who will work on the ideas – but that’s not a requirement. If you have a great idea, feel free to put it up.

If you have questions about participating in the Google Summer of Code in general, check out the #gsoc channel on Freenode. If you have questions specific to the openSUSE Project, email zonker@opensuse.org or ask on the openSUSE Project (opensuse-project@opensuse.org) mailing list.