Google Summer of Code Status Update

Quick status update on the Google Summer of Code program for openSUSE. The deadline for student applications has passed, and yesterday was the “duplicate resolution” meeting for organizations that had a student that had been accepted to multiple organizations.

openSUSE has 9 slots. This isn’t 100% set in stone at the moment, but it’s pretty firm. Likewise, our top selections for those slots look very good, but they’re not set in stone. The final accepted proposals will be announced on Monday, April 20th. As soon as those are announced, we’ll post the news here as well.

The next step in the GSoC timeline is the community bonding period which will allow students to get up to speed with the organization, get prepared to work on their project, and get to know members of openSUSE and their mentors better. Please extend a warm welcome to our students during this time period.

While students are officially working with a single assigned mentor through the Summer of Code program, we can all be “unofficial” mentors and help students new to the project feel welcome and provide help if they need it.

At the same time, during this period students need to provide Google with their payment info and so forth so that Google can issue payments.

Coding begins officially on May 23rd.

The “midterm” begins on July 6th. We should make sure that students have plenty of feedback going into the midterm period and there are no surprises when we give evaluations.

The midterm evaluation is due on July 13th at 19:00 UTC. For the full timeline, see the Summer of Code site. We’ll try to always provide updates via openSUSE News and the openSUSE Announce mailing list, but it’s also up to students and mentors to be familiar with the timeline and to read the appropriate Google mailing lists!