On 11/30/2011 01:48 AM, wikimediaindia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote: Glad I could help! Yes, it is a very big difference, comparing content creation and software development. It might be more useful to try to look at other *writing* projects or other similar projects for comparison, such as essay contests and Wiki Loves Monuments. Also, GSoC is a FULL-TIME project for participants; they work 40 hours/week for three months. So you might want to consider Google Code-In as another model to compare http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-code-in-are-you-in.html . Code-In asks for code, documentation, and other contributions in the form of smaller tasks. Similarly OpenHatch http://openhatch.org/blog/ has the goal of bringing new people into open source with bite-size tutorials and tasks. You've asked some huge questions. I shall answer them as well as I can. The answer is "both". http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCStudentGuide/ch007_finding-the-right-project/ and http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCStudentGuide/ch008_writing-a-proposal/ give more details. Basically, open source communities have basic ideas that they offer the students. Students applying for GSoC have to choose among 175 open source projects, which vary in population, codebase size, language, platform, etc., etc., and create proposals for the tasks they'll spend 3 months working on. The students, in applying to work with any project, have to write proposals detailing what they will do and how. The timeline from 2011: http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2011/ti… You probably also want to read http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/defining-a-project/ . The mentors who have written that manual have a lot of experience regarding encouraging students. Different projects have different processes for soliciting proposals and managing proposal submissions. This is a big and open question and many people are trying to figure it out. Some thoughts on this from the GSoC mentors' manual: http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/building-a-lifetime-contributor/ There are many factors; some of them are probably very long-term, and some of them are easier to affect. Experts Leslie Hawthorn and Mel Chua think we have to work in terms of engineering education -- Hawthorn is working on ensuring that kids around the ages of 11-14 know that they have the power to tinker with software, and Chua has done a lot of work on bringing open source work into the undergraduate computer science curriculum via http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/POSSE . I think it helps if a student has free time to contribute to open source even during the academic year. So, having to earn money via part-time jobs, or having family responsibilities (cooking, cleaning, caretaking, etc.), or having parents who don't understand and scorn this hobby ("you should be studying instead!" "why are you working for free?") decreases the likelihood of continued contribution. It helps a lot, I think, if students make personal connections, feel that their work is valued, can see that their work makes a difference, and can see a career path that open source contribution helps with. These are factors that Google Summer of Code and similar programs can help with. This is not a comprehensive list. There are people writing dissertations about this topic! :) I hesitate to get in the middle of an argument about another project, especially one I was not involved in and do not know very well. So please do not take what I say as implying anything about any other programs. Please read http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/what-makes-a-good-mentor/ and other parts of that instruction guide that give best practices for mentoring students in GSoC. Just to be clear: the Google Summer of Code project for MediaWiki aims to work on MediaWiki *as a whole* and is not restricted to projects that directly benefit the Wikimedia project or the Wikimedia Foundation. Mentors are very important. For MediaWiki's GSoC project, some are Wikimedia Foundation staff and some are not. You can see that here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2011 Mentors need to be people who know the part of the codebase that the student will be working on, who are eager to help the student achieve their goal, and who are kind and diligent. Sometimes the project's GSoC administrator (in this case, me) recruits mentors, and sometimes the mentors initiate the conversation to volunteer. Some people volunteer but are not suitable and thus the project's GSoC administrator must reject them. Different projects have different criteria for choosing their mentors and have different processes for orienting and starting them. Thank you. I'm glad I could help a little bit, but when it comes to encouraging specifically *student* participation, I know MediaWiki best. You are asking questions about GSoC in general that you might want to ask Carol Smith, who runs the Google Summer of Code program and Google Code-In, and who has access to lots of lessons learned. She is at <carols(a)google.com>om>. Other resources for you to check out: The GNOME Outreach Program for Women: https://live.gnome.org/GnomeWomen/OutreachProgram2011 Open Source at Oregon State University: http://osuosl.org/students Mel Chua on how to teach open source skills in college: http://opensource.com/education/11/4/diving-open-source-communities-student… best, -- Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation