[9fans] Plan 9 and Google's Summer of Code

[9fans] Plan 9 and Google's Summer of Code

[a]

Folks:
	The window for mentor organizations to apply for Google's
Summer of Code 2016 opens on Monday, February 8th, and we'll
be applying again. As in the past several years, I'll be submitting an
application for us to participate as an "umbrella organization", and
we'll happily accept applications for projects relating to Plan 9,
Inferno, Plan 9 from User Space, or any of the related technolgoies.
Erik has volunteered to again serve as our backup org admin.

	There have been some changes to the program this year, but
for the most part it's as you remember: college & university students
18 and over are invited to apply to a list of mentoring organizations
and, if selected, paired with a mentor to work on a specific project.
The most significant change from previous years is probably that
students may only participate a maximum of 3 times (as students;
you're welcome to talk to us about being a mentor!). For a full
rundown on the program, check out Google's Summer of Code site[1].

	I've started the process of updating the wiki information, but
it's not all there yet; feel free to help out. In particular, as always,
we need to make sure our Ideas page is in good shape by the
time the application period ends — this is usually the main factor
determining which orgs get selected; please take a look[2].

	If you'd be interested in being a mentor, co-mentor, or
backup mentor, please either speak up here or drop me a line. If you
have specific ideas you'd like to work on, please add them to the
Ideas page on the wiki, or pass them along and I'll fill them in. If you
would like to mentor but don't have a specific project idea, that's
cool to; just let me know. If you're in contact with students, please
start getting them thinking about spending their summer with us.

	If you have any questions about the program or how to
participate, feel free to ask here, drop me a line, or come find me on
IRC (irc.freenote.net, anth in #plan9, #inferno, and #plan9-gsoc).
We've also got a GSoC-specific mailing list I'd encourage you to
sign up for, or browse discussions from previous years[3].

	Google has produced a lot of material to help both mentors
and students better understand the program and increase their
odds of acceptance and success. If you're interested in reading
more, I suggest starting with their SoC manuals[4].

Your friendly neighborhood org admin,
Anthony

-----
[1] https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/

[2] The web interface to the wiki is currently down, but you can get
at it via the Acme interface. The page is GSoC-2016-ideas.

[3] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/plan9-gsoc

[4] https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/resources/manual