This page coordinates the Google Summer of Code projects involving Python under the umbrella of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) for 2014.

The Python Software Foundation serves as an "umbrella organization" to a variety of python-related projects, as well as sponsoring projects related to the development of the Python language.

The 2014 PSF GSoC coordinator is TerriOda (at gmail.com). Questions should be directed to the mailing lists unless you have something particularly private to discuss.

• For student questions please email soc2014-general@python.org (Subscribe here first)

• For mentor questions please email soc2014-general-owner@python.org

Prospective Students

If you are a student interested in working on core Python development or on a project that helps the Python community, we'd love to have you apply to the Python Software Foundation for this year's Google Summer of Code!

We're currently in the process of finding mentors and getting ideas pages set up, but if you want to get a head start, feel free to browse through the projects at the bottom of this page. Choose a project or projects that sound interesting to you, subscribe to their mailing list or join their IRC channel, and try to set up a development environment. Usually, jumping right in and trying to solve a few bugs is a good place to start and a way to make a good first impression!

Students should read SummerOfCode/Expectations to understand what is expected of accepted students.

Please read SummerOfCode/Application for help completing your application. Templates will be available once we have been officially accepted as a mentoring organization.

Have questions?

• For general Summer of Code questions:

  • We have a general discussion list for mentors and students soc2014-general@python.org. Sign up here!

  • We've set up an IRC channel: #python-gsoc on Freenode.

    • Please be patient when asking: many mentors are busy/asleep and may take a while to get back to you, so you may need to stay in the channel a while to get an answer. If you can't wait, try again at another time, or take your question to the mailing list.

    • Help using irc : http://freenode.net/using_the_network.shtml and http://www.irchelp.org

• For questions about a specific project, get in touch with the folk from that project. Scroll down for mailing list and IRC info for the projects currently listed.

For dates and deadlines, see the GSoC official website. (Scroll down past the calendar to just get a list of dates.)

Some dates of note:

• February 24, Mentoring organizations announced
• March 1, We expect to have the list of all the orgs under our umbrella listed here
• March 10, Student applications open
• March 21, Student application deadline

Prospective Mentors

Please read SummerOfCode/Expectations to understand what is expected of GSoC project mentors.

• If you know what project you'd like to work with, get in touch with their GSoC coordinator to get details on how to sign up with them directly.

• If you don't know what project you'd like to work with, get in touch with TerriOda and the other Python org admins at soc2014-general-owner@python.org to find out which projects need more mentoring support.

New mentors are always welcome, and we have a variety of experienced mentors who can help with questions you have about mentoring! If you're new or unsure about the time commitment, we can often have you be a "backup mentor" in your first year so that you're paired with someone who's done this before!

We've set up an IRC channel: #python-gsoc on Freenode. Stop by and to ask questions or help prospective students!

Prospective Projects

Please get in touch with TerriOda and the other Python org admins at soc2014-general-owner@python.org if you'd like to participate under the Python umbrella!

You will need:

1. At least 3 mentors willing to mentor students for your project. (If you're having trouble finding enough mentors, talk to Terri to get linked up with prospective mentors who don't have projects.)
2. An ideas page with clear project ideas for students to choose or use as a base to propose their own projects.

Alas, we don't have the resources to accept every project, but we try to support projects with a clear commitment to python!

If you're a python-related project that is hoping to apply as a separate mentoring organization (i.e. not under the python umbrella) we're also happy to link your ideas page here to help you advertise. Again, get in touch with TerriOda and the other Python org admins at soc2014-general-owner@python.org to make that happen, or edit this page yourself to add a link. (Use the Mailman entry below as a template).

Project Ideas

Ideas for projects and links to Python-related teams' idea pages will appear here once mentors have gotten in touch with TerriOda. (You can also check last year's page to find projects that might participate again.) We expect the 2014 page to be complete around March 1st. (Why March 1st? Google makes their decisions about mentoring orgs on Feb 25th, and usually some of the ones who were too small will join us after that date.)

If you are unsure if your favourite Python project will be participating, ask them and encourage them to sign up!

NOTE: Many of these organizations have also applied as separate mentoring organizations so they may not be under our umbrella for 2014. We're listing them here to help students find python projects, and we'll make sure it's clear which ones are under our umbrella and which ones are separate once mentoring organizations have been chosen by Google. Thanks for your patience!

Where should I start?

A great many students email wondering where to start because they feel overwhelmed by all the info on this page, so here's a summary of what you should do next:

1. Read through all the information on this page. We've tried to answer the most common questions and give you tips that will help increase your chances of success!

2. Choose a Python sub-org (above)
3. Look through their ideas page
4. If one or more of their ideas appeal to you, join their mailing list/irc channel and start following their instructions to get you development environment set up. (If not, propose your own project or try another sub-org.)
5. Start contributing!
   1. As you get set up, you may find parts of the documentation confusing. Suggesting fixes is a way to contribute!
   2. Many organizations have "easy" or "beginner-friendly" bugs you should try fixing to demonstrate that you're ready to work on a larger project.
   3. Help others! It shows what a great community member you can be.
6. Remember, if you get stuck at any step, you should ask the mentors and developers for your sub-org. Their mailing lists and IRC channels are listed above.

Or, for the more visually-oriented, here's a diagram: larger version

CategoryIdeas