Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
What a nice idea Yaron :)
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025, 7:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
-- WikiWorks · MediaWiki Consulting · http://wikiworks.com _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
Yes, I think Wikimedia should think about it at least once
On Mon, 3 Mar, 2025, 9:33 am Samuel Klein, meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
What a nice idea Yaron :)
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025, 7:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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Love these ideas, and will be sharing with some friends still in uni. Thanks Yaron! Also would know how Dennis manages to never make a mistake, I would love that super power!
Have a great day all.
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 9:06 PM saurav gupta gsaurav641@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, I think Wikimedia should think about it at least once
On Mon, 3 Mar, 2025, 9:33 am Samuel Klein, meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
What a nice idea Yaron :)
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025, 7:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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Hello Yaron,
Thanks for the input and suggestions!
For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey.
In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy https://www.outreachy.org/ internship program that officially kicks off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the application period for interns but the mentors and project https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/ application period is still open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays.
Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through June 2026.
If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
-- WikiWorks · MediaWiki Consulting · http://wikiworks.com _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
Hi Deb,
I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Yaron’s suggestion. From what I understand, Yaron was specifically referring to candidates who are *eligible only for GSoC* and were interested in contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation through that program.
You mentioned three official ways to contribute to Wikimedia in a paid capacity:
1.
*Outreachy Internship* – The issue with Outreachy is its strict eligibility criteria, which focus on underrepresented groups in the tech industry. Many contributors do not fit into this category, making them ineligible to participate. 2.
*Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology Software Engineering Internship* – While this is a great initiative, it requires full-time commitment during academic terms, making it inaccessible for many students who would otherwise participate in GSoC. Additionally, the sheer volume of applications often leaves many candidates without feedback (I applied myself with a referral but never received a response—not complaining, just sharing my experience). In contrast, GSoC allows contributors to learn and grow, regardless of whether they ultimately receive an internship offer. 3.
*GSoC* – This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is not participating in GSoC. This leaves a gap for students who are ineligible for both Outreachy and the Wikimedia internship, making it harder for them to engage in Wikimedia projects.
What Yaron seemed to be suggesting (or at least what I understood) is that this gap could be filled by *allowing more technical projects to be funded through Wikimedia Rapid Grants *by hosting Wikimedia's own Summer of Contribution. Historically, Rapid Grants have been conservative when it comes to funding technical projects, mainly due to concerns about their long-term sustainability. However, I believe that many contributors who wanted to participate in GSoC this year would be interested in this opportunity. While I’m sure there are internal considerations I’m unaware of, it seems like a potential solution that could benefit many contributors—if given the necessary approval and support.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Best, Abhishek
On Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM Deb Tankersley dtankersley@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello Yaron,
Thanks for the input and suggestions!
For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey.
In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy https://www.outreachy.org/ internship program that officially kicks off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the application period for interns but the mentors and project https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/ application period is still open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays.
Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through June 2026.
If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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As a former two-time GSoC mentor who has firsthand seen the life-changing experience it gives to bright students, I only have this quote to offer:
"An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." —O. A. Battista, 1946
+1 on Abhishek's proposal.
khush rehna, Jeffrey
On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 7:09 AM Abhishek Bhardwaj < abhishek02bhardwaj.er@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Deb,
I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Yaron’s suggestion. From what I understand, Yaron was specifically referring to candidates who are *eligible only for GSoC* and were interested in contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation through that program.
You mentioned three official ways to contribute to Wikimedia in a paid capacity:
*Outreachy Internship* – The issue with Outreachy is its strict eligibility criteria, which focus on underrepresented groups in the tech industry. Many contributors do not fit into this category, making them ineligible to participate. 2.
*Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology Software Engineering Internship* – While this is a great initiative, it requires full-time commitment during academic terms, making it inaccessible for many students who would otherwise participate in GSoC. Additionally, the sheer volume of applications often leaves many candidates without feedback (I applied myself with a referral but never received a response—not complaining, just sharing my experience). In contrast, GSoC allows contributors to learn and grow, regardless of whether they ultimately receive an internship offer. 3.
*GSoC* – This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is not participating in GSoC. This leaves a gap for students who are ineligible for both Outreachy and the Wikimedia internship, making it harder for them to engage in Wikimedia projects.
What Yaron seemed to be suggesting (or at least what I understood) is that this gap could be filled by *allowing more technical projects to be funded through Wikimedia Rapid Grants *by hosting Wikimedia's own Summer of Contribution. Historically, Rapid Grants have been conservative when it comes to funding technical projects, mainly due to concerns about their long-term sustainability. However, I believe that many contributors who wanted to participate in GSoC this year would be interested in this opportunity. While I’m sure there are internal considerations I’m unaware of, it seems like a potential solution that could benefit many contributors—if given the necessary approval and support.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Best, Abhishek
On Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM Deb Tankersley dtankersley@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello Yaron,
Thanks for the input and suggestions!
For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey.
In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy https://www.outreachy.org/ internship program that officially kicks off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the application period for interns but the mentors and project https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/ application period is still open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays.
Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through June 2026.
If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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Is the GSoC mainly for people who are already into programming or very technical only or you can learn from scratch
On Thu, 06 Mar 2025, 20:17 Jeffrey Wang, j@mywikis.com wrote:
As a former two-time GSoC mentor who has firsthand seen the life-changing experience it gives to bright students, I only have this quote to offer:
"An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." —O. A. Battista, 1946
+1 on Abhishek's proposal.
khush rehna, Jeffrey
On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 7:09 AM Abhishek Bhardwaj < abhishek02bhardwaj.er@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Deb,
I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Yaron’s suggestion. From what I understand, Yaron was specifically referring to candidates who are *eligible only for GSoC* and were interested in contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation through that program.
You mentioned three official ways to contribute to Wikimedia in a paid capacity:
*Outreachy Internship* – The issue with Outreachy is its strict eligibility criteria, which focus on underrepresented groups in the tech industry. Many contributors do not fit into this category, making them ineligible to participate. 2.
*Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology Software Engineering Internship* – While this is a great initiative, it requires full-time commitment during academic terms, making it inaccessible for many students who would otherwise participate in GSoC. Additionally, the sheer volume of applications often leaves many candidates without feedback (I applied myself with a referral but never received a response—not complaining, just sharing my experience). In contrast, GSoC allows contributors to learn and grow, regardless of whether they ultimately receive an internship offer. 3.
*GSoC* – This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is not participating in GSoC. This leaves a gap for students who are ineligible for both Outreachy and the Wikimedia internship, making it harder for them to engage in Wikimedia projects.
What Yaron seemed to be suggesting (or at least what I understood) is that this gap could be filled by *allowing more technical projects to be funded through Wikimedia Rapid Grants *by hosting Wikimedia's own Summer of Contribution. Historically, Rapid Grants have been conservative when it comes to funding technical projects, mainly due to concerns about their long-term sustainability. However, I believe that many contributors who wanted to participate in GSoC this year would be interested in this opportunity. While I’m sure there are internal considerations I’m unaware of, it seems like a potential solution that could benefit many contributors—if given the necessary approval and support.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Best, Abhishek
On Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM Deb Tankersley dtankersley@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello Yaron,
Thanks for the input and suggestions!
For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey.
In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy https://www.outreachy.org/ internship program that officially kicks off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the application period for interns but the mentors and project https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/ application period is still open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays.
Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through June 2026.
If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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On Fri, 2025-03-07 at 18:49 +0200, Beatrice Kaseke wrote:
Is the GSoC mainly for people who are already into programming or very technical only or you can learn from scratch
Hi, please refer to the "Information for Participants" links on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_programs and follow the corresponding links on the subpage(s) for more information.
Thanks a lot! andre
Thanks
On Fri, 07 Mar 2025, 20:03 Andre Klapper, aklapper@wikimedia.org wrote:
On Fri, 2025-03-07 at 18:49 +0200, Beatrice Kaseke wrote:
Is the GSoC mainly for people who are already into programming or very technical only or you can learn from scratch
Hi, please refer to the "Information for Participants" links on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_programs and follow the corresponding links on the subpage(s) for more information.
Thanks a lot! andre
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Hello and thanks to everyone for chiming in here.
We know how much these internships mean to people, and that they have great value as a chance to give new people exposure to our projects and professional opportunities within our technical work. This is why we support so many internship programs throughout the year. That said, organizing new internships and technical grant programs takes a lot of planning along with programmatic and budget support inside the WMF. So unfortunately, spinning up a brand new program isn’t feasible at this time. Beyond that, we will do our best to ensure that Wikimedia participates in GSOC next year.
Thank you,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 8:09 AM Abhishek Bhardwaj < abhishek02bhardwaj.er@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Deb,
I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Yaron’s suggestion. From what I understand, Yaron was specifically referring to candidates who are *eligible only for GSoC* and were interested in contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation through that program.
You mentioned three official ways to contribute to Wikimedia in a paid capacity:
*Outreachy Internship* – The issue with Outreachy is its strict eligibility criteria, which focus on underrepresented groups in the tech industry. Many contributors do not fit into this category, making them ineligible to participate. 2.
*Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology Software Engineering Internship* – While this is a great initiative, it requires full-time commitment during academic terms, making it inaccessible for many students who would otherwise participate in GSoC. Additionally, the sheer volume of applications often leaves many candidates without feedback (I applied myself with a referral but never received a response—not complaining, just sharing my experience). In contrast, GSoC allows contributors to learn and grow, regardless of whether they ultimately receive an internship offer. 3.
*GSoC* – This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is not participating in GSoC. This leaves a gap for students who are ineligible for both Outreachy and the Wikimedia internship, making it harder for them to engage in Wikimedia projects.
What Yaron seemed to be suggesting (or at least what I understood) is that this gap could be filled by *allowing more technical projects to be funded through Wikimedia Rapid Grants *by hosting Wikimedia's own Summer of Contribution. Historically, Rapid Grants have been conservative when it comes to funding technical projects, mainly due to concerns about their long-term sustainability. However, I believe that many contributors who wanted to participate in GSoC this year would be interested in this opportunity. While I’m sure there are internal considerations I’m unaware of, it seems like a potential solution that could benefit many contributors—if given the necessary approval and support.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Best, Abhishek
On Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM Deb Tankersley dtankersley@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello Yaron,
Thanks for the input and suggestions!
For many years, the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with several externally hosted open source internship programs including Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreachy, and more. We have also conducted a Wikimedia Foundation Product & Technology (P&T) Software Engineering Internship Program - it started in 2023 and the current 2025 cohort is in full swing right now. Over the last three years, in the WMF P&T Internship Program, we've sponsored 17 interns on their technical journey.
In regards to this year's GSoC program, we have already contacted all the prospective Wikimedia mentors that had signed up to see if they'd be interested in moving their projects to the Outreachy https://www.outreachy.org/ internship program that officially kicks off in June 2025. Unfortunately, Outreachy has already closed the application period for interns but the mentors and project https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/ application period is still open until March 7th, 2025. Looking at this from a financial standpoint, both GSoC and Outreachy pay their accepted interns a stipend for their 3 months of work, but the Outreachy stipend actually pays more to their interns - $7,000 - vs the $3,000 that GSoC pays.
Outreachy runs two internship programs per year, June - August and December - March. The second program for Outreachy 2025 will have sign ups for mentors and interns starting sometime in the early fall. The next round of the Wikimedia Product & Technology Internship program will kick off in late 2025 with the expectation of the program running from February through June 2026.
If you have a specific project that doesn't fit into any of these programs, please let us know and we'll see if we can solve it.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 8:47 PM Yaron Koren yaron57@gmail.com wrote:
Deb - thanks for explaining what happened. We all make mistakes (except for this Dennis guy, I suppose!), and it's at least good to know that Google have not suddenly changed their minds about the Wikimedia Foundation.
However, perhaps something can be salvaged from this. There have been various organization-specific mentorship programs that have been directly inspired by the Google Summer of Code; here are some of them:
https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/ https://www.x.org/wiki/XorgEVoC/ https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/
What about having a "Wikimedia Summer of Code" or some such this summer? It could more or less match what GSoC does, with the same timeframe(s), same country-specific stipends, etc. Like these other org-specific programs, it would piggyback on the GSoC concept, so that potential students will already know what to expect.
Wikimedia has a big advantage over most other organizations that might wish to do similar things, in that it already has a funding mechanism that could be repurposed for this: the Rapid Grants program, whose $5,000 limit is larger than all but the largest possible GSoC stipends. So in a sense, nothing (as far as I know) would need to change officially: it would just be a matter of putting up a wiki page telling potential mentors that they need to apply via a Rapid Grant, as opposed to the GSoC website. (Of course, it would be good for anyone handling the Rapid Grant applications to know to expect a spate of technology-related ones!)
There have already been some great Wikimedia project ideas this year, and (as with every year) there are students who are excited to specifically work on Wikipedia- and Wikimedia-related projects. It would be a shame to give up on these projects, and also potentially to lose momentum for upcoming years, if the funding potential is there.
And yes, I'm aware of Outreachy, which as far as I know is still happening, but it doesn't allow most of the people who would potentially be applying for GSoC, so I don't see it as a real substitute. Others may, however.
Any thoughts?
-Yaron
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