MARY RADOMILE: Welcome to Google Developers Live.
My name is Mary Radomile.
I'm here with the Google Open Source Programs Office.
And today we are meeting with Ian McDonald, who
is going to tell us a little bit about his experience
with Google Summer of Code as a student.
Welcome Ian.
IAN MCDONALD: Thank you.
MARY RADOMILE: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself
and the project that you worked on?
IAN MCDONALD: Yeah, so, like you said, my name is Ian MacDonald.
I'm a software engineer here at Google now.
And I graduated from McGill University.
The organization I work with is called Kernel.org,
which is the Linux Kernel Archive.
MARY RADOMILE: So tell us how you got involved with GSOC.
IAN MCDONALD: So when I was looking for jobs one summer
I went on Google and searched "software engineering jobs,"
and managed to find the Summer of Code website.
And I sort of went through all the materials
and figured out what it was all about,
and submitted a few applications,
and was accepted to be a student.
MARY RADOMILE: Great.
Now tell us a little bit about the application process itself.
How long did that take you?
Was it difficult?
IAN MCDONALD: So the application process for Summer of Code
is different from a lot of other internships.
It's very collaborative between student and mentor.
So you can submit your application many times
beforehand and get feedback from mentors,
which I think makes the applications stronger,
and let's you meet your mentors beforehand, get
to know them a little bit better,
decide if it's someone you want to work with for a summer.
And it also lets you get feedback
from the people who are going to be reviewing
the application, which I think is very helpful.
MARY RADOMILE: Absolutely.
And you said that you ended up working with Kernel--
IAN MCDONALD: Kernel.org.
Yeah.
MARY RADOMILE: Kernel.org Tell us about the project
that you worked on.
IAN MCDONALD: So I worked on a project which
was focused on analyzing HTTP access
logs across many different machines
and centralizing them into one location where we could
do real time analysis on them, and also look back at graphs
for things like answer questions about who's accessing
the website, what sort of things were they doing,
what does the traffic look like there?
MARY RADOMILE: Right.
Very cool.
And what about like a typical day as a GSOC student?
What is it like for you?
IAN MCDONALD: So it's pretty flexible, which is nice.
I'm a bit of a late riser, and so I would usually
work a few hours in the morning, a few in the afternoon,
and then later at night a bit more.
And it's nice to have time off in the afternoon to sort of go
and exercise is what I like to do.
And then I would usually work a little bit
later into the night just because it's quieter
and that's when I can focus better.
MARY RADOMILE: OK, great.
How did you interact with the organization
that you worked with, and how often?
Were they in different time zones or what
was your standard mode of communication?
IAN MCDONALD: So we were usually communicating
using a program called IRC, which is Internet Relay Chat,
and there were three other people who I was really
working closely with as a student.
And one of them lived in the Netherlands
actually, which was a little bit inconvenient.
We would have to talk a little bit in the morning more.
But the other two were in North America,
not in the same time zone.
And there are pretty responsive.
Usually if I sent a message to them
I would get a response within 30 minutes or so.
MARY RADOMILE: That's great.
Now, what about your project by the end of the term?
Are you still working with the organization now?
How have you been involved going forward?
IAN MCDONALD: So I'm not as involved now as I was certainly
when I was a student.
But I did do a bit of work on it.
I participated in Summer of Code as a student two times
and then as a mentor once.
MARY RADOMILE: Wonderful.
IAN MCDONALD: And I did a bit of work
on it in the school years between when I was a student.
So you know I was still involved a little bit, and obviously
enough to be a mentor at the end of all of that.
MARY RADOMILE: Great.
That's wonderful.
Now finally, is there any gotchas or things
that you'd recommend for other students who
are applying to be in Google Summer of Code,
and any tips or tricks that you can provide?
IAN MCDONALD: Yeah, so I guess the one
tip I would have is to get involved early.
Because especially when I was a mentor,
and you see the applications and the students who
are sort of engaged from the beginning,
and asking questions, and trying to learn about the project,
and also getting feedback from mentors,
those are the applications which are stronger.
MARY RADOMILE: OK, great.
Well, thank you so much.
And thank you all for coming and listening today.
My name is Mary Radomile and I'm here
with Open Source Programs Office.
We'll see you next time.