CAT ALLMAN: Hi, this is Cat Allman with Google's Open
Source Programs Office.
I'm here today with my colleague, Carol Smith.
Carol manages our Google Summer of Code program.
And we're here today for the second
of our interviews about that program.
Specifically, we're here today to talk
about applying as a mentoring organization.
So Carol, what the heck is a mentoring organization anyway?
CAROL SMITH: So mentoring organizations, at a minimum,
are organizations which have already released code
under an OSI-approved license and have
at least two contributors in their community who
would like to participate in the program as mentors and org
admins.
CAT ALLMAN: And can a school be a mentoring organization?
CAROL SMITH: They can.
We've had universities participate in the past,
again, assuming that they've released code
under an OSI-approved license and they
have at least two contributors would like to participate.
But they should keep in mind that if they
have any requirements from their university,
in terms of their time, that they should make sure
that they can balance those two things.
CAT ALLMAN: And can a company be a mentoring organization?
CAROL SMITH: They can.
We're a little bit more restrictive about which
companies we accept.
Again, they have to meet the requirements of having already
released code under an OSI-approved license, which
may or may not be the case for some companies.
But yes, they're still welcome to apply.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
Why would an organization or a free and open source software
project want to participate?
CAROL SMITH: For a couple reasons.
One is because they might get code
that they might not have otherwise
been able to create from the student developers who
participate in the program.
And also, we've heard from organizations
that they get recognized on a wider, broader
international open source stage.
CAT ALLMAN: All right.
How much of a time commitment is it?
CAROL SMITH: For mentors, it tends
to be about five hours a week.
But it will really depend on how the organization's code
base is, what sorts of projects they have the students working
on, and how they treat and work with developers.
So we just try to give that as a general guideline.
CAT ALLMAN: And what about the org admin role?
What's involved in being the org admin for the project?
CAROL SMITH: Quite a few things.
One is submitting the application
to participate in the program, but also they
need to be able to manage the entire scope of participating
in Google Summer of Code.
So making sure that the mentors are submitting
their evaluations on time during the program,
making sure that the students are on track,
making sure the projects are all on track.
And also submitting all the forms and all the things
that are required by Google as well.
CAT ALLMAN: Related to that, Google
uses the Melange software that we've
developed to run the program.
Is that optional, or do projects have to work with Melange?
CAROL SMITH: They have to use Melange,
and anything that they do outside of Melange
isn't recognized by Google as part of the program.
And so they're still welcome to do that,
but they need to duplicate that effort within our project.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
All-important question, when is the application period?
CAROL SMITH: So applications are open right now, which is great.
And the application deadline is next week, on Friday,
February 14, at 1900 UTC, which if you're
on the West Coast of the US, is 11:00 AM.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
What about the application itself, are there any gotchas,
or where can they get help?
CAROL SMITH: So if they would like to just get some general
guidelines on how to submit their application,
I would direct them into our website,
which is google-melange.com.
And on that site we have a pretty extensive FAQ,
which has information about their ideas pages
and also about participating as a mentoring organization
generally.
And then within the FAQ, we also have linked a mentor and org
admin manual, which is actually written by mentors and org
admins who have participated in the past
and intended for exactly these kinds of people who would like
to participate in the program.
If they still have questions that they haven't gotten
answered, or they'd like help with our application,
we also have a general discussion mailing list
that they can ask their specific question on.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
Is there a single, most common mistake
that orgs should look out for?
CAROL SMITH: Yeah, one of the most common mistakes
is not spending enough time on your ideas page.
As part of the application to be a mentoring organization,
we ask all the applicants to submit
what's called an "ideas page."
Which is essentially just a list of the projects
that they think students might like
to work on during the summer time.
But we want them to make sure that they've really
thought about what that project is going to look like,
how much of a time commitment it's going to be,
whether they have the potential mentors to mentor that project,
and really what the difficulty level is.
So if anything, I would recommend that organizations
spend most of their time on making
sure their ideas page is really high quality.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
If an org has applied and been rejected in the past,
is it a waste of time for them to apply again?
CAROL SMITH: Absolutely not.
Having been rejected in the past has no bearing
on what decisions we make in any given year of applications.
But if they've gotten feedback on what
was wrong with our application or why they were rejected
in the past, I'd recommend that they definitely
integrate that and change those things for this year's
application.
CAT ALLMAN: Great.
Have I forgotten to ask you anything
that you get asked a lot online?
CAROL SMITH: No, but we always have
lots of students who are interested in volunteering
for open source projects.
So if they are even thinking about applying for GSoC,
they can definitely start talking
to students and potential applicants
now, if they'd like to.
CAT ALLMAN: Fantastic.
Well, thank you very much, Carol.
And thank you all for joining us.
If you have an open source project,
and you're considering applying, we certainly hope you do.
And happy GSoc.