I’ve been writing about the Google Summer of Code since 2005 when the program debuted. It’s a program that I’ve seen grow and excel every year since.
The Summer of Code is an effort to bring students into the open source world, matching them up with mentoring open source organizations. The students work on a project with the open source group, helping both the project as well as themselves.
Google chips in $5,550 per student, with $5,000 going to the student and $500 going to the mentoring organization. For 2011, Google has announced that 1,116 students that will be participating in the program, helping out 175 mentoring organizations.
So, doing the math, in terms of dollars, Google’s Summer of Code 2011 effort will inject $6.14 million ($5,500×1,116 = $6,138,000) in the open source ecosystem.
To the best of my knowledge the 2011 tally represents the largest amount ever that Google has provided as part of the Summer of Code. It represents a tremendous investment in technologies that go far beyond Google’s walls and end up helping nearly ever corner of the open source world.