Google Summer of Code/2015

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. OpenStreetMap has participated almost every year for a long time, and has again been accepted as a mentoring organization in 2015. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits.

More information about the project as a whole is available on the GSoC 2015 web site.

Time Line

The official timetable for Google Summer of Code is provided on the GSoC timeline page.

Potential Student Projects

Project Ideas

Please start with posting your ideas at Google_Summer_of_Code/2015/Project_Ideas, and starting a discussion on the OSM Developers Mailing List to seek views from the community. The idea is to find out from members if your idea is feasible in the timescales of Google Summer of Code. If you would prefer to 'sound out' someone about an idea first, please email ian.dees@gmail.com.

Project Proposal

Once you have a good idea for a project, you will need to turn your idea into a proposal for a project. We are proposing the following template for student proposals:

   * Name:
   * Emails:
   * Websites/blog/OSM user page:
   * List of Computer Languages known (please rate strength in the scale of 10):
   * Details of any previous computer programming projects you have been involved in.
   * Currently involved in?:
   * OSM Project proposal: (This is the main art of the application - describe what you propose to do, how you propose to do it, what you will need to learn to be able to do it).
   * Time Available to Work on Project:  (Remember GSoC is essentially a full-time commitment for the summer, but you may have exams or planned holidays that will need to be taken into account).
   * Schedule for project completion: (Identify the major milestones to completing the project - research, producing design documentation, first draft of code, code reviews, update code etc.).
   * Handling situations (in absence of mentor):
   * Hobbies/Interests: 

The important thing about your proposal is to demonstrate that you know what you want to do, have an understanding of the sort of issues that you will need to address to meet your targets, and that the project is achievable on the timescales of Google Summer of Code. We suggest that you include a schedule for completing your project, showing the major milestones and when you intend to achieve them - this will help convince yourself that you can do it, and convince us that you have thought about it. The sort of milestones could be:

• Produce functional specification (what are you going to achieve)
• Produce outline design (what computer language, libraries etc. will be used, how will the code be structured).
• Skeleton code structure produced.
• Functional code produced for testing.
• Testing Complete
• Documentation Complete

Different projects will have different balances of design and coding time.

Application

The window for students to submit their applications is between 16th March and 27th March as shown on the GSoC 2015 timeline. Applications are made via the Google Summer of Code web site (http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/submit/google/gsoc2015/), not directly to OpenStreetMap. Select OpenStreetMap as the mentoring organization you are applying to.

Please submit your proposal as early as possible as this will allow potential mentors the maximum time to review it and ask you questions to help us decide which proposals to choose.

If you have any difficulty in applying, please email ian.dees@gmail.com, and I will help.

Project Review & Mentor Assignment

Google will allocate OpenStreetMap a given number of student places and we must choose the successful applicants from everyone that submits proposals to OpenStreetMap.

Successful Applicants

The successful applicants will be matched to mentors and announced by Google. We will set up a small mailing list for students and mentors to discuss progress during the program.

We will be in touch very soon after the announcement to set this up and get the successful students and their mentors working together.

What to Expect

If OpenStreetMap is accepted for this year's Google Summer of Code, we will move this page and replace it with a different one to track the progress of the successful projects - see Google_Summer_of_Code/2015/AcceptedProjects.

Each project will have a wiki page describing the project and providing weekly project updates.

A summary of progress of all accepted projects will be sent to the Dev mailing list to keep other OpenStreetMap developers informed.

Potential Mentors

If you are prepared to act as a mentor on the program, please add your name and interests here.

Things To Do

To participate in the program, we will need to do the following (at least!):

• Make an application to Google for OSM to be a 'Mentoring Organization' ✔
• Produce a list of possible student projects - Google_Summer_of_Code/2015/Project_Ideas. ✔
• Identify the interview process for prospective students.
• Invite students to make proposals to participate in Google Summer of Code with OpenStreetMap. - This is really part of the GSoC application process, but if you know a student that would be interested, please point them to this page.
• Identify Mentors from the OSM community to look after the students.
• Choose which student proposals to accept, and match them to mentors.
• Get on and help them achieve their project goals! - see Accepted Projects.

OpenStreetMap's Application to GSoC

The proposed text of OSM's application can be seen at Google_Summer_of_Code/2015/Organisation_Application.