[9fans] GSoC 2012

[Anthony Sorace <a@9srv.net>]

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Folks:
	The fine folks over at Google's Open Source Programs
Office have announced the 2012 edition of Summer of
Code. I intend to submit an application for Plan 9 to again
participate. I'd like your help in making this year a success.

	We had one major problem last year. Between Google's
decision to focus on bringing in a larger number of smaller
organizations and our own group's tendency to be pretty
hands-off on marketing, we got an abysmal showing in the
student application process. We got very few applications
(7, from memory), and only 3 of those (at best) were viable.
We were given two slots for student projects.

	This is bad for a few reasons. Obviously it means we
don't get as many people exposed to our code and our
community, we don't get as much work done, and we don't
have the opportunity to create new contributors, which is
the fundamental point of GSoC. It also makes our numbers
pretty vulnerable when, as happened last year, one
student goes silent at midterms and never resurfaces.

	This year, I'd like to make an explicit call for help from
our community in getting the word out. I know we have
several members who're attached to higher education
institutions; that's really the best route here. It's likely that
your school provides several ways of getting this program
in front of students; It'd be wonderful if you could look into
those. I've spoken to a few of you individually, but I'm sure
there are several more I'm not aware of.

	If you'd like help in terms of written text, presentation
outlines, whatever, just let me know. There's a good
collection of such things that folks have done for GSoC in
the past, and I'm happy to point you at relevant ones of
those or help you create more specific things. Just let me
know what you need. A good place to start is the FAQ[0].

	In the mean time, I'll be going through the wiki and
giving it a good scrubbing, moving the 2011 pages out of
the way and preparing for 2012. I'd encourage anyone
who's got some free time to take a look at that, as well.
And, of course, we'll need projects! Think about what
would make a good summer-sized project for a student.
And if you're at all interested in Plan 9's participation in
GSoC, I'd suggest joining the Google group for the
topic[1], where most of the discussion in the summer
goes on.

	Aside from that one major issue, last year went well. I
was able to get good feedback from a few people during
the application process, mentors signed up without
hassle, reviews of student applications were done well
and promptly. I'd like to thank everyone who's participated
so far, and I hope you'll sign up again once that's open.

Anthony

[0]	http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2012/faqs
[1]	http://groups.google.com/group/plan9-gsoc

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