This page is for students and mentors for the [http://code.google.com/soc/ Google "Summer of Code"] projects involving Python and mentored by the Python Software Foundation (PSF).

Discussion about any Python-related SoC topic should take place on [http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/soc2006 the soc2006 mailing list].

For information on last year's accepted projects, see ["SummerOfCode/2005"].

Students: How to submit a proposal

[http://code.google.com/soc/student_signup.html Apply through Google's online form.]

[http://code.google.com/soc/student_step1.html Submit an application.]

The Drupal folks have some good information for students on how you should write your application:

• [http://drupal.org/node/59963 Student requirements]

• [http://drupal.org/node/59037 HOWTO write an application]

Here is Google's [http://code.google.com/soc/studentfaq.html Student FAQ].

Tips on writing your proposal

Be detailed. Don't say "I want to improve Python's support of XYZ", because that's vague, making it difficult to assess the project's feasibility or the time required. What changes would you make to improve XYZ support?

Provide a rough timeline. How much time would each change take (a day, a week, six weeks)? What intermediate milestones will there be? (e.g. for a game, you might get an initial graphic display in week 1, write a parser for level definitions in week 2, write a level editor in weeks 3 and 4, etc.)

Get feedback. Post the proposal to a relevant mailing list and ask for comments. Post the proposal to your weblog and see what people think.

Describe your experience. Why are you a good person to work on this project? What skills/interests/knowledge do you have that are applicable?

Mentors: How to apply

The mentor's responsibility is to ensure the student makes progress. This could entail coaching them, providing motivation, making sure they aren't stuck, answering technical questions, or pointing the student to the proper resources. However, the mentor is not expected to do work for the student. In order to accomplish this, the mentor is expected to dedicate a couple of hours per week.

[http://code.google.com/soc/mentor_step1.html Apply through Google's online form.]

• [http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-April/063965.html Announcement made to Python-Dev]

• [http://code.google.com/soc/mentorfaq.html Mentor FAQ]

• Contact [mailto:nnorwitz@gmail.com Neal Norwitz]

  • If neither Neal nor Guido know you personally, please provide personal references of some sort.

Proposal ideas

The ideas on the following pages are just suggestions. You're free to invent your own ideas, and don't have to use these suggestions as starting points.

• ["SummerOfCode/PythonCore"]

• ["SummerOfCode/PythonLibraries"]

• ["SummerOfCode/Applications"]

• ["SummerOfCode/PythonWebSite"]

Related sponsors

While not sponsors themselves, the PyPy and Jython projects have many SoC sized tasks available. For PyPy, see [http://codespeak.net/pypy/dist/pypy/doc/independent-project-ideas.html] for some concrete suggestions.

Those interested in working in [http://www.djangoproject.com Django] may do so [http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/SummerOfCode2006 under the auspices of the Django group].

MoinMoin is also participating as their own organization, see [http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/GoogleSoc2006] for project ideas.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/ BBC Research] is also a mentor organisation for python projects using the [http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/Introduction.html Kamaelia] project for audio/video & multimedia/networking related projects, also for graphical construction of systems. Please see our [http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/SummerOfCode2006.html Summer of Code] page for more details. (There's some discussion on edu-sig which coincides with some of aims BTW, so if you're interested in python for schools, talk to us, we can't guarantee anything but you'll understand why we're interested if you chat to us!) The current list of ideas there that we're looking to mentor includes the following:

• "Trusted Communications" (trusted by the user)
• "Component bindings to AV codecs"
• "Modifications of Visual Graphline editors, Reapplication to Graphline Video Editting"
• "CSS-esque Styling and XML (?) Layout Definition of Pygame Applications"
• "Collaborative Sketching Server - A P2P Events Backplane Application"
• "Creation of an integrated bit torrent component"
• "OpenGL widget framework"
• "Hierarchical topology visualiser"
• "Hierarchical Introspector"
• "Distributed physics"
• "Primitives for graphical composition"

Accepted proposals

Note: if a project is listed as having two mentors, the first mentor listed is the primary mentor, and the second one is the back-up mentor.

• None yet.