Every year Google holds a global competition which encourages students to write code for open source projects. Google even offers the students a stipend to write code all summer.
Google has announced that it will start accepting applications for the Summer of Code 2011 program.
How will Google Summer of Code 2011 work?
- The concept is simple. Through March, Google invited organizations to be part of Summer of Code program. Some of the major participating organizations are Apache, Mozilla, Melange, Wikimedia, Drupal and WordPress.
- Now in April, students have to register along with proposing a project for approval by a participating open source organization.
- Once the proposal is accepted, students can write code all summer from April to September. Hence the name Summer of Code.
Eligibility
- The age limit for participants is 18 years old or over.
- The students also need to be enrolled in a college program. If they are graduating in the summer they need to be enrolled in a college on 26th April 2011.
For complete details on Eligibility click here.
The Prize
- Other than boasting rights; the participant get a hefty cash prize if their projects are selected by Google.
- Also very often Google end up recruiting the participants who do well. This is not really a declared part of the prize but even Google admits it does hire from the program.
Last year, Google held a similar program for school kids who were under the age of 18. The program was called Google Code-in and Devils’ Workshop guest author, Gautam Gupta was ranked 5th.
If you are passionate about code and open-source do look up Google Summer of Code 2011 and start applying.