Summer of Code application guide

antarus

Updated March 9, 2009

1.  Applying as a student

Communication

Students interested in applying to do a project for Gentoo should join #gentoo-soc on irc.freenode.net and/or join the gentoo-soc mailing list. Announcements related to Gentoo's Summer of Code effort will be relayed to both places

2.  What interested students need to do

Get feedback on your idea

Students interested in applying to do a project for Gentoo should review the projects. You are free to apply for a project that is not on our list. In either case, once you have an idea of what you want to work on you should find someone to discuss it with it. The gentoo-soc mailing list, #gentoo-soc on irc.freenode.net or any of the listed mentors should be able to provide feedback.

Write a proposal

Students should author a proposal that attempts to convince Gentoo why their project should be chosen over other competing proposals. A few sentences is not sufficient in most cases to sway anyone.

  1. Objective - What problem does the project solve. This does not need to be a long section. Generally software tries to help make people more efficient, or foster communication, or entertain folks. Any proposed software should have a purpose and applicants should define that purpose here.
  2. Abstract - What does the project do; try to keep this section to one paragraph. It should not be an in depth analysis but is helpful when someone desires an overview of the project.
  3. Deliverables - What will the project consist of when it is finished? Source code, documentation, a build system, libraries, binaries; these should all be enumerated in your proposal. Without a concrete set of deliverables it is difficult to judge if a student finished their proposal. If it is difficult to judge if the proposal was finished, it is difficult to pay for the work as well.
  4. Timeline - When will the deliverables be done? This is very important for the mid-term evaluation as the mentor has to determine if a given student has made enough progress to award them money. A student should strive to make this as easy for the mentor as possible by providing a bar to be measured by and then meeting that bar. A student should be careful to make good judgements in time costs and if the student slips behind he/she should alert their mentor to this fact and explain why the estimates were wrong.
  5. Biography - The student should talk about themselves: where they are from what they like to study, what they do in their free time, etc. Part of this contest is to make new friends and learn about each other and this is an important part of that goal. This section should include things like previous jobs, internships, and any educational experience an applicant may have. This section is also intended to promote oneself and convince Gentoo that we should chose a given student over other applicants.