About the Google Summer of Code from the GSoC web site: “GSoC is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. Google has worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 3,400 students and more than more than 3,000 mentors & co-mentors from nearly 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. 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. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.”

DSpace has participated in the GSoC since 2007 as a mentoring organization. This year the DuraSpace organization will participate in encouraging students to contribute open source ideas and code. Appropriate GSoC projects are collaborative efforts between those community members (preferably developers) and students (preferably computer science students or adepts) and the student application process is competitive.  Last year, DSpace received about 30 applications, of which only 4 projects were awarded by Google after being ranked according to the community’s interest in mentoring particular projects.

Deadline for applications is April 9, 2010. To find out more about DuraSpace GSoC events please visit:

http://www.fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/GSOC/

http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/show/google/gsoc2010/duraspace