…and, I am a GSoCer!
May 20th, 2022, 11:30 pm IST. I am at GSoC 2022 homepage and repeatedly clicking refresh refresh refresh!
and unlike the guys above, my site did load and the next thing I remember was quite close to...
Oh, Yesss..my proposal got selected in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2022 and I will be working on building ‘kubebot’ with ‘SCoRe Lab’ the Sustainable Computing Research Lab.
Hi there,
I am Priyanshu and as mentioned, this year I am working as a contributor in GSoC. It was almost a year and a half back when I first wrote my ‘Hello World’ code, then Machine Learning, then competitive programming, then open source, then Kubernetes, and then and then and then…and now, GSoC!
It has been an insanely amazing journey so far (and I am just getting started 😉). So even if you are not a techie but a curious pod who wants to know what the fuss is all about when it comes to GSoC, Open Source, Cloud Computing, and whatnot, here I am going to help you to debug all these terms one by one.
So let’s begin...
Okay Okay Okay...But what IS GSoC??
Alright then, so even if your life is remotely around software engineering, there is a pretty good possibility that you might have heard ofthis word 👉 GSoC! Now I understand that many of you are overwhelmed by the word ‘GSoC’ (short for Google Summer of Code) or any other words which you might hear from your peers, seniors, or in your institute’s webmail. No worries, I am going to break down each and everything to you in layman's terms. So you have never even seen a computer (and reading this blog on your mobile 😅) you will understand everything going on here and why GSoC and Open Source are so COOL!
I am going to discuss some things that I believe every person who wants to become a programmer or even just wants to explore this amazing world of software needs to know. So, before we begin, let me just quickly jot down what is in the store for ya’ll...
- What is Open Source
- What is GSoC?
- Why apply? Who can apply? How to apply?
- How to write a good proposal and how to make it better?
Let’s begin then, shall we?
So first off...
What is Open Source?
Okay, even if you don’t know what software is..think about the browser where you are reading this or the mobile app or any other app for that matter or Facebook or photoshop or MS office or your computer’s operating system be it windows, ubuntu or mac, etc. So these ‘things’ can be generalized as software. Now, what is software? So the software is a collection of computer code developed to serve a particular purpose.
No, aliens didn't develop these codes, humans did! or better yet, programmers or developers did. Now some of those developers thought that since their software is their creation, why should they share it with somebody else? and that makes total sense (🤑)
But some of the other programmers thought that: Hey! why don’t I make my software’s code visible to everyone so that everyone can see it and can also Contribute to making it even better?
That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? So progressively, when other people make contributions to make this software better, eventually it will be one heck of software, wouldn’t it?
And this is exactly what is called “Open Source”. As in, the source code of the program or software is open to everyone and everyone can make their contribution by suggesting and building the software a little better. So basically open source community is a great place where much focus is concentrated on building great software by collaboration.
you might wanna create a branch from here and come back to this point after finish reading this blog and read a bit about ‘git’ and ‘github’
What is GSoC?
Now, this is where GSoC comes into play. Many organizations support open source. To encourage such activities, organizations and contributors, Google started funding a program where organizations and developers all across the world can come together, and put in their ideas, projects, and proposals to develop a strong open source community. During GSoC, contributors work with an open source organization on a 3-month programming project during the summer break.
GSoC provides a strategized, collaborative, mentored opportunity to new developers to participate in several projects and work on building some cool stuff and learn A TON along the way. Oh, trust me, it’s absolutely okay if you don’t have much knowledge, to begin with, but I assure you, you will get to learn SO MUCH in a really short period, and one thing I can guarantee you...YOU WILL LOVE IT !!!
So having a fair idea about what is GSoC, let’s move on to the next part.
Why apply? Who can apply? How to apply?
Why?
- Instead of wandering clueless on the vast internet to find a place to start working on open source projects, you will be able to find the best of them as per your expertise (beginner and novice) under one roof 👉GSoC.
- You will find these fantastic people called ‘Mentors’ who are always there, throughout your journey of the project to help you in anything in case you feel stuck.
- It’s the best and most hassle-free platform to join an open-source community and interact with the best minds in the world.
- Did I mention the money? Oh Yes! you will also be getting a handsome stipend for your contributions, in US Dollars!
- If your resume is, let’s say 1/5 star. Adding GSoC will make it 7/5 stars.
- You will get to learn A LOT, in little time, and you will love it (unlike your semester classes)
- GSoC often serves as a gateway for many students into the open source community and production-grade software development in general.
- How many more reasons do you want ??
Who?
Oooh, this is something exciting. Up to 2021, only anyone who is a student, be it Bachelor, Masters, Ph.D., Engineering, Arts, Commerce, etc was eligible.
But since 2022, anybody, literally anybody can apply.
(of course, there are still some restrictions, go read them in GSoC 2023 eligibility)
How?
Okay, so hang on with me. I am gonna comprehensively explain this so you will understand everything without having to read a lot.
So here goes...
- First off, 100s of ‘Organizations’ (or orgs, in short) submit their ‘Projects’ to Google Summer of Code. This is where the Orgs apply (interesting, isn’t it)
- Google then sorts the projects and org and announces the orgs whose projects get selected.
- People who wish to contribute start to go on the list of projects made public on GSoC’s website of that particular year. They go through the projects, understand what is desired of the project, talk to the mentors and start to finalize which project/org they want to work with.
- People then start building a proposal for the project they wish to apply to. There are at most 3 proposals you can submit.
- Selected proposals are announced and after that, the amazing journey of GSoC begins.
How to write a good proposal and how to make it better?
From the previous section, I believe you understood the flow of things in GSoC and you must have realized, that your ticket to get into GSoC is nothing other than the ‘Proposal’. Of course, you would already get some good advice along the way up to the point where you will actually start writing a proposal, but I wish to give some pointers to make it even better.
- Start off by filtering the orgs. This way, you won’t be squandering between 100s of orgs and will stay true to the tech where you want to work in. For me, it was clear that I want to work in Kubernetes, so I filtered accordingly. Sometimes an org is not specific to any tech, in that case, simply goes through its projects. Maintain an excel sheet, it will help you in keeping track of the orgs and their projects (and in the future).
- The next step is to go through their projects and find whichever ones you find interesting. Keep a list of them and start discussing that project with their mentors. The discussion channels, slack, or gitter channel links are mentioned along with the project’s details. Connect with the mentors and people of the org, discuss the project, give your ideas and try to figure out what actually is needed to be done there. If you want to get ahead of yourself, start contributing already. It will be great that you will get in the eyes of the community beforehand.
- Start making the proposal. By this point, you would have gotten a fair enough idea of what you are going to do in the project. Discuss as much as possible with the community members. And submit a draft proposal to the mentors as early as possible. They might help you in pointing out where you can improve your proposal and you can improve your proposal.
- Following these steps, you will finally submit a maximum of 3 proposals.
Well, that’s it for introducing and sharing this amazing news with you folks. I will be writing more blogs as my journey of GSoC goes on. I am extremely excited and looking forward to working on my project. More about my project and tech in the next blog.
Till then...Adios!
PS:
Connect with me on:
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/priyanshuraj400/
Github: github.com/priyanshuraj400
Twitter: twitter.com/priyanshuraj400
