Google Summer of Code

What is it?

The [[[Summer of Code 2007|2007]], 2008, 2009 and again in 2010.

We are planning to apply for participation in 2011 again. The application period for mentoring organizations starts on February 2011, with the list of accepted organizations to be published on March 18. Until then, we won't know whether or not we will be part of GSoC 2011.

Project Ideas

We have only just started collecting project ideas for GSoC 2011. Below is a list of projects that weren't accepted in the past. Still, we feel that they would add useful functionality to Geeklog. We may pick them up again in the future:

• Add Support for Dynamic Feeds with Access Control
• New modules for our Spam filter
• Core Notification Service
• more (mostly unfinished) ideas: GSoC Brainstorming (for your inspiration)

We are also willing to accept new ideas from students. In that case, please check that what you're proposing is not already available (e.g. with some existing add-on) or has been rejected in the past.

Notes for Students

We have collected some information for students here. Please take a moment to read them. Thanks.

Recommended reading

Google provides an extensive FAQ. There's also a very informative Advice for Students page. We recommend reading those first.

Required skills

Students interested in any of the above projects should have reasonable experience with PHP and some basic SQL knowledge. Being able to set up your own LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) would probably help but isn't a prerequisite.

Geeklog uses Mercurial for revision control (aka version control aka source code management). Students should have a basic grasp of revision control - we can help you with the specifics of Using Mercurial.

What we expect from our students during the course of the Summer.

Background information

Geeklog (current version: 1.7.1) is the software you may have seen running websites such as Groklaw.

Contact

Important: Please note that while we encourage you to send a draft proposal to one of the addresses below first, in the end you must submit your proposal through the official Summer of Code website. Only applications submitted through the website can be considered! Google provides detailed instructions - please follow them.

We suggest that you join our Development Mailing List, introduce yourself and the project(s) you are interested in. This list is the best place for any questions or discussions related to the projects and their development.

Or you can hop on our IRC channel, #geeklog at irc.freenode.net and talk to us directly (some patience required - not everyone may be online there all the time).

If you need a more private communication channel, you can also email us at

contact-us(AT)lists.geeklog.net

or use this web form. This is a private mailing list which is read only by the GSoC mentors.

Application Template

When applying for a project with Geeklog, please use this application template, i.e. please answer the following questions.

• Please tell us something about yourself (experience, interests, why you are applying for this project).
• Please include contact information (an email address, at the very least), as we won't have access to the contact information that you entered as part of your application.
• Please explain, in your own words, what the project is about and what the goals are.
• Then, please provide a (rough) schedule for your project: The order in which you plan to implement features and an estimate how long it will take and when they will be finished. Don't forget to factor some time for tests and documentation into your plans.
• If there are any periods during the Summer where you will not be able to work on your project (e.g. due to exams or planned vacations), then please also include this information.
• We would like to ask GSoC applicants to submit a patch for Geeklog as part of your application. You can find our project tracker here: http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/. Try looking for issues that are tagged "beginner" (but feel free to tackle any other issue). This will give us an opportunity to see your coding skills in practice.

Feel free to deviate from this exact list - just make sure to answer all the questions.

Thank you!

Further Reading

• Getting Started with Geeklog development
• The Summer of Code topic on geeklog.net provides coverage of our previous participation in the Google Summer of Code.