Google Summer of Code Flocks Together

One of the great things about Google Summer of Code™ is that it's a great way to meet other Open Source-minded people. Not only do students get paired with their mentors, but students get to know each other, as do mentors and project administrators.

Last month, Leslie Hawthorn, Cat Allman, and I attended the Google Summer of Code Birds of a Feather session at Open Source Bridge, organized by Jonathan Leto. We had the pleasure of meeting with Google Summer of Code students, mentors, admins, and potential participants to discuss what works, what doesn't work, and ways the program could be improved. We got some great feedback, and best of all, we had the opportunity to interact face to face with participants instead of solely via email, mailing lists, or IRC! You can see a photo and read more about the meetup on Jonathan's blog post about the event.

Last week, the Open Source Programs Office outreach team met with more Google Summer of Code participants at our BoF session at OSCON. Our session extended late into the night with some really interesting discussions about how to help students succeed in computer science.

If you would like to know about upcoming Google Summer of Code meetups, please join our meetups mailing list - we'd love to meet you!

by Ellen Ko, Open Source Team