February isn’t yet done and depending on where you are there is still a definite winter chill in the air. The fact that it’s still winter isn’t stopping Google though from helping us to think of warmer days ahead. Today Google officially launched the kick off for their Google Summer of Code 2008 initiative.
I’ve been covering Summer of Code (SoC) since its inception in 2005 and I’ve seen it grow by leaps and bounds every year. In 2007 SoC had 900 students helping out over 130 open
source groups. The 2007 number was more than double the 410 projects spread across 41 different sponsoring organizations that Google helped out in 2005. In 2006 Google funded over 630 students.
Basically the way the program works is Google provides funding ($4500) to students to work on a given project for an open source group. Google also provides funding ($500) to the open source groups to help mentor the students. Across the numbers that Google has helped out over the last three years that’s a whole lot of green.
Applications for organizations open March 3 and
close March 12; for students, applications open March 24 and close March 31.
Coding will run from May 26 through August 18. For more information, see
the Google Summer of Code FAQ .
