Google Summer of Code 2015 @ the Python Software Foundation

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary students an opportunity to be paid for contributing to an open source project over a three month period. Since 2005, the Python Software Foundation has served as as an "umbrella organization" to a variety of python-related projects, as well as sponsoring projects related to the development of the Python language. It is our intention to apply as a mentoring organization again in 2015, and this page coordinates those efforts.

The 2015 PSF GSoC coordinator is TerriOda. (terri on Freenode IRC, terrioda at gmail.com)

The other org admins include James Lopeman (meflin on IRC) and Florian Fuchs (florianf on IRC), Kushal Das (kushal on IRC) and Stephen Turnbull (yaseppochi on IRC)

More org admins may be announced later. If you're interested in volunteering, contact Terri.

Mailing lists, IRC, and other ways to get in touch

• Before you get in touch, you might want to read...

  • The GSoC Student Guide, which includes a lot of really useful information and tips for prospective GSoC students, including a page on making first contact with prospective mentors.

  • The Python GSoC FAQ: SummerOfCode/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

• Mailing list: soc2015-general@python.org sign up here before posting

  • This mailing list is open to students, mentors and other interested community members
  • This is your first place to ask questions related to summer of code with Python!

• IRC: #python-gsoc on irc.freenode.net.

  • If you don't have an IRC client set up, you can use this link to open a web chat client

• Org admins:

  • 99.9% of the time, students should email soc2015-general@python.org with questions (it reaches more people so you get an answer faster)

  • Mentors and sub-org admins can email all the Python org admins all at once using the mail alias soc2015-general-owner(at)python.org to get more information about the program and get signed up.

Please note that Python has a Community Code of Conduct and mentors and students working with the PSF are asked to abide by it as members of the Python community.

2015 Application Template

The 2015 Summer of Code Application Template for the Python Software Foundation is here:

SummerOfCode/ApplicationTemplate2015

Please discuss the application with your prospective mentors, as they may prefer a slightly different template. They are also your greatest resource for making the best possible application, so ask for feedback and work with them if they suggest modifications! Remember, the best proposals are *collaborative* works between the student and mentors. This is not like a final exam!

Preparing for GSoC 2015

Please note the Dates and deadlines for 2015. There should be a complete list of Python sub-orgs around March 17th.

Students

All prospective students are required to have completed the following to pass final screening:

• Demonstrate to your prospective mentor(s) that you are able to complete the project you've proposed
• Blog for their GSoC project. You'll be required to do this every 2 weeks throughout the GSoC period, because it helps us share your progress with the broader community, and it also helps the org admins get a sense of how you're doing.
• Contribute at least one patch to the project(s) you're applying to work with

Here's 7 steps to help you get started:

1. Choose an organization to work with. Python has a lot of sub-projects (over 20 in 2014!), so this can be hard. See "How do I choose a project or a sub-org?" if you need help. You can try out the next steps with more than one org and make your decision once you get to know them, too!

2. Start communicating with the developers. Join the mailing list, IRC channel, or any other communication channels the developers use. Listen, get to know the people involved, and ask questions.

   • If you want to make the best first impression, DO NOT start emails with "Dear Sir." Python has many mentors who are female and/or prefer other forms of address. Try "Dear developers" or "Dear mentors" if you're sending a general email, or use whatever name they use on their email if you're addressing a specific person. Culturally speaking, first names or chosen nicknames are fine for most open source projects.

3. Set up your own development environment.

4. Find some beginner-friendly bugs and try to fix them. Many projects have these tagged as "easy" "bite-size" or "beginner-friendly"

   • Note that if you apply as a student with the PSF you will be asked to submit a code sample, generally code related to your project. A few fixed bugs with code accepted upstream will make your application look great!
   • Having trouble figuring out which bugs are beginner-friendly? Send an email to the project mailing list saying something like "Hi, I'm a student developer interested in getting some open source experience and I was wondering if anyone could suggest some bugs that are suitable for a beginner in this project?"

   • Some projects have beginner-friendly "bite-sized" bugs listed in the OpenHatch search engine, found here: http://openhatch.org/search/

5. Find bugs and report them. Hopefully you won't encounter too many, but it's always a good idea to get familiar with your project's bug reporting process.

6. Help with documentation. As a beginner in your project, you're going to see things that are confusing that more experienced developers may not notice. Take advantage of your beginner mindset and make sure to document anything you think is missing!

7. Help others. This is a great idea for a lot of reasons: explaining things can help you learn them better, demonstrating your skills as a good community member can make you more memorable when your mentors have to choose candidates, and being helpful makes your community a better place!

Not sure which projects will be participating in 2015? Well, neither are we! Many orgs won't decide until they can get commitment from mentors, and often mentors don't know their schedules until closer to the start of the GSoC period. But you can take a look at the list of organizations who participated in 2014 or previous years to get an idea of what projects might be participating. If you're interested in a Python-based project that hasn't participated in GSoC in the past, feel free to tell them to get in touch with Terri and the other org admins to learn more about participating in 2015. They can reach all the org admins at the following email alias: soc2015-general-owner(at)python.org

Some links:

• Python has a short Frequently Asked Questions lists that can be found in SummerOfCode/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

• Students may also wish to read the more comprehensive GSoC Student Guide, which includes a lot of tips about how to be awesome at GSoC.

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

Mentors

Interested in mentoring?

The GSoC Mentors guide can tell you a whole lot about what the job entails. This is based on information compiled from many experienced mentors!

You should also read SummerOfCode/Expectations.

To get signed up as an offical mentor, contact your sub-org admin. (You'll need to do more than just sign up in melange, and they'll have the information for you.)

If you're not involved with any sub-org participating in GSoC but would still like to volunteer, get in touch with the Python org admins at soc2015-general-owner(at)python.org. There are often projects looking for more mentors and we'd be happy to get you in touch with someone who needs help!

New Sub-orgs

If you're a python-based project who'd like to participate in GSoC but hasn't done this before...

In short, we ask for 3 things:

1. Your project needs to be a reasonably established python project.
2. You need at least 3 mentors (a sub-org admin plus 2 more) signed up for the whole summer.

3. You need to have a good ideas page available online. (Including well-described project ideas that can be completed during the GSoC period, as well as lots of "how to get started" information. See SummerOfCode/OrgIdeasPageTemplate for a starting template.)

Please get in touch with TerriOda and Python org admins at soc2015-general-owner(at)python.org.to learn more about what we need from you, what you can expect from us, and how to get involved.

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

Python 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 are still waiting for some sub-orgs to register enough mentors to participate with us; they will appear on this page as they finish the paperwork. New sub-orgs can apply up to March 16th.

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

Friends of the PSF

These organizations applied and got in to Google Summer of Code separately, but we've worked with them in the past and they're awesome! If you wish to work with one of these groups, you should apply to them directly.

Dates/Deadlines

Google's dates and deadlines for 2015.

Of note:

• Feb 20: Mentoring organization application deadline. (There should be a decent number of ideas on this page by then.)

• Mar 16: Deadline for new organizations wanting to be under the Python umbrella to have their mentors and ideas pages ready (Please contact TerriOda.) **

• Mar 27: Student application deadline.

• Apr 18: Python sub-orgs need to get their student picks to TerriOda **

• Apr 27: Accepted student proposals announced on the Google Summer of Code 2015 site.
• May 25: Students begin coding.
• Jul 1: Midterm evaluations due to Python **
• Jul 3: Midterms evaluations due to Google
• Aug 26: Final evaluations due to Python **
• Aug 28: Final evaluations due to Google

** These are Python-specific deadlines for mentors and sub-org admins. They're typically a few days before Google's official deadlines to allow Terri enough time to deal with any problems that might occur.

The time for all these deadlines is 1900UTC. See what time that is in other time zones.

More Information

• Python has a short Frequently Asked Questions lists that can be found in SummerOfCode/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

• The main GSoC website is http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015.

• Students may also wish to read the more comprehensive GSoC Student Guide, which includes a lot of tips about how to be awesome at GSoC.

• There is also a GSoC Mentors guide available which contains a lot of best practice information compiled from experienced mentors.