DECODING

GOOGLE

SUMMER

OF

CODE

TOPTALENT.IN

Index

1. What is GSoC?

2. Selection Process

3. Project Proposal

4. GSoC Experience 1

5. GSoC Experience 2

6. Sample Proposals

2

3

5

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7

9

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student

developers stipends to write code for various open source

software projects. They work with many open source, free

software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund

projects over a three month period.

Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together over

7,500 successful student participants from 97 countries and over

7,000 mentors from over 100 countries worldwide to produce over

50 million lines of code.

Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants

are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating

projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software

development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in

areas related to their academic pursuits.

In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify

and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is

created and released for the use and benefit of all.

How Google Summer of Code WorksWhat is

GSoC?

2

First of all, you should understand how Open Source

Software(OSS) works and how these OSS organisations

operate.Understanding correctly the GSoC program itself will go a

long way in ensuring that you get selected and do well in the program

as well.

Step 1.

Once you understand the in and out of the world of Open Source,

start with the list of accepted organisations in the past years and pick

one of them. The way you choose an organisation depends on a lot of

factors. e.g.

- Products/services that they build

- Projects that they are working on

- Programming languages they used to code

- Other tools, technologies and platforms they use for their products

Step 2.

Having selected an organisation, your next step would be to contact

the organisation telling them about yourself. Ways to contact the

organisations: Mailing lists, IRC etc. You will find this information from

their pages on the GSoC website.

Step 3.

Now that you have inputs from the developers of the organisation, you

can get started with getting yourself familiar with the codebase. These

applications/products usually have huge codebases and making

sense out of it may be pretty daunting at first.

Step 4.

Provided you manage to solve the bug or develop that feature, the

next step will be to commit your code to the Trunk/Central Repository.

Enter Version Control Systems(VCS) - go and learn the one your

organisation uses to maintain code repositories and track

contributions. The most common ones are Git, Mercurial, SVN etc.

How To Get Selected In GSoCSelection

Process

3

Step 5.

Next is the application period. As soon as Google announces the list

of the accepted organisations, start looking for the prospective project

ideas. Though Google allows you to submit your own original ideas as

well its better to choose from the list of the ideas provided by the

organisation itself as it shows the importance of that idea to that

organisation. However, if the idea is truly meaningful and has a

feasible implementation plan, there have been instances where

original ideas have been accepted as well.

Step 6.Now, once you have zeroed in on a project idea, start discussing the

ideas in detail with the mentors(prospective) and ask relevant

questions.You can even code a small part of the project, by doing that

you really improve your chances; as you gain the confidence of other

developers and mentors. Start writing the proposal as early as

possible.

The main idea behind having a ten-day window for the application

period is to let students and mentors discuss the ideas in as much

depth as possible,make sure that before submitting the proposal, you

get your proposal reviewedby your mentors as much as possible,

Though there is no particular way of writing a proposal (every

organisation has its own template), the main ingredients of a good

proposal are that it should address two kinds of audiences - one

which is completely familiar with the technical details of the

project(that would be your mentors and organisation devs) and the

second one is a neutral not-so-technical audience which is able to

understand the deliverables of the project(in most cases that would be

the user base).

How To Get Selected In GSoCSelection

Process

4

Introduction: Every software project should solve a problem. Before

offering the solution (your Google Summer of Code project), you

should first define the problem. Whats the current state of things?

Whats the issue you wish to solve and why? Then you should

conclude with a sentence or two about your solution. This is

somewhat like an elevator pitch.

Project goals: This section should again be short and to the point,

and it might be a good idea to format it like a list. You should propose

a clear list of deliverables, explaining exactly what you promise to do

and what you do not plan to do. Future developments can be

mentioned, but your promise for the three months of Google Summer

of Code term is what counts.

Implementation: This section can be longer and more detailed. You

should describe what you plan to do as a solution for the problem you

defined earlier. You dont need to provide a lot of technical details, but

you do need to show that you understand the technology and illustrate

key technical elements of your proposed solution in reasonable detail.

Timeline: This section is easily overlooked, yet its arguably more

important than the previous section. With the timeline you show that

you understand the problem, have a solution, and that you have

also broken it down into manageable bits and are have an actual plan

on how to approach it. With this section you set expectations, so dont

make promises you cant keep. A modest, realistic and detailed

timeline is much better than a timeline that promises to move

mountains. Mentors can spot unrealistic timelines.

About me: If youre done with the other sections this will be a piece of

cake. Just put down your contact information and write a few

sentences about you and why you think youre the best for this job.

Its ok to brag a little

Creating a Project ProposalProject

Proposal

5

Janani Padmanabhan shares her GSoC experience.

1. Can you describe the complete selection process?

Janani: The selection process for Google Summer of Code is a pretty

straight-forward one. Once the list of participating open source

organizations is out, we have to shortlist the organizations whose

purpose best matches with our interests, look into their functions and

source-codes, contact their active members and most importantly

come up with a project that is in line with their aim and of interest to

the active contributors. We then submit a detailed proposal which the

organization reviews and then proceeds to select the projects that are

of use to it. My detailed proposal can be viewed here.

2. What project are you working on currently?

Janani: My project is with SciPy, a Python package commonly used

for mathematical aspects of scientific computing applications. I aim to

improve the speed of spherical harmonic function, develop ellipsoidal

harmonic functions and to debug hyper-geometric function.

3. How much preparation did you put into this opportunity?

Janani: I took my own time to get acquainted with the mailing culture

and the code base of SciPy. It took 2 months to get acquainted with

the organizations, to understand the direction of its development and

also to learn and familiarize myself with version control systems like

git. Then my focus was to develop the proposal and refine it based on

the inputs from the prospective mentors and other active members.

4. Whats your advice to others looking for a similar opportunity?

Janani: Basically, we need interest and perseverance to make it

through. Open source coding, documentation and mailing etiquette is

not something we have in our formal curriculum but it is definitely a

window to the actual coding world out there. It also allows us to meet

some amazing people across the globe. So, GSoC or not, I would

advise all the Computer Science students to give it a try.

GSoC Experience - IGSoC

Experience

6

http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/public/google/gsoc2014/jennystone/5629499534213120

Dhananjay Sathe shares his GSoC experience.

How did you decide on your project and what prompted this

decision?

I have been an avid linux user and FOSS enthusiast since around

2003 when I first got Linux to boot up on my PC. Using it as a primary

OS made me familiar to all the communities, software and norms

involved in this kind of development.

It also made me aware of what problems one faces and what new

stuff could be done. I had this habit, perhaps out of frustration with

open source software back in those days, if my app crashed or lacked

some functionality I would try to debug it or try and add in the new

feature. Samba is a great and powerful tool to have but unfortunately

it has a 8500 line man page and can be quite intimidating to new

users. I found this a major issue in people around me on campus and

I thought samba Gtk was a great way to work on solving that issue. Of

course the required background knowledge of Gtk, python and a

decent idea of what samba was and how it works were the final things

that culminated in my app to Samba.org

What are the benefits of getting into GSoC and how does it help

further while applying for a job?

In one word HUGE! If done right, it is perhaps one of the worlds best

experiences for aspiring developers. It exposes you to some of the

best developers on the planet. You learn a lot more than you can think

possible. You get to deal with people from multiple time zones

and ideologies. You learn about code development practices, version

control, communication, the code base itself and numerous other

minor but very important skills required in the real world but

completely missing from the scope of formal academics.

The benefits show in you, you have much better ideas, practices and

experience than most of your contemporaries.

GSoC Experience - IIGSoC

Experience

7

Also the folks hiring you realize the value of it all. It gets much simpler

to get involved in new open source projects and further your passion

and skillset. You develop a ton of contacts and gain access to

information and opportunities you otherwise wouldnt know about

.Last but not the least, its a huge brownie point to have something

concerned with Google and Open Source on your CV.

How should one prepare if they want to land a GSoC project?

How was your journey and whats next?

Follow your passion for software development, learn something new

every week, hack it. The last point is most essential. People often try

reading books and learning a new language or toolkit for the sake of

it. Dont do that, learn the bare basics, get hold of the source, hack it

up and learn as you move ahead. Google has a great search engine

and project wikis have a goldmine of information, make the most of it.

Its never too late to start, but of course the earlier the better.

I had a blast during my two Summer of Code projects, it was great fun

and a lot of learning too. I gained a LOT from it. I will now be working

on the next generation of the internet and robotics cloud robotics at

ETH Zurich for my bachelors thesis on some exciting stuff with the

open source cloud engine. Its been one heck of a journey.

GSoC Experience - IIGSoC

Experience

8

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