Nilesh, I wasn't a GSoC applicant, but I just finished my OPW internship. For me, I got in touch with mentor on the project I was interested in and discussed with him. After getting an idea of what I wanted to do, I created a proposal page (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Chot/OPW/Proposal). Mine is pretty sparse and not the best example of a good proposal. The more details you can provide, the better the application will be, especially with the number of candidates that Wikimedia has been getting. Then you can ask the community for feedback; a good alternative to this email list is through your talk page or irc. I would say apply when you have a polished idea and have established a working relationship with your would-be mentor(s) since you'll be working closely with them. In any case, the important thing isn't *when* you apply, it's that you get involved. The mentorship programs are a gateway to get people engaged in the community so don't be shy about participating and asking questions. Everyone, for the most part, is really nice and knowledgable. Also, here are the launch pages for both the programs: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_for_Women Keep an eye on these pages since they tend to change with important information. Good luck with your application! Teresa aka terrrydactyl On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 11:14 PM, Nilesh Chakraborty <nilesh(a)nileshc.com>wrote;wrote:

On 04/23/2013 02:36 PM, Quim Gil wrote: It's not critical. But of course it would also be nice to have some MediaWiki examples. Matt Flaschen

On 04/22/2013 01:14 PM, Nilesh Chakraborty wrote: Good question. Your evaluation will be done based on your GSoC application. Apply to the GSoC website as soon as you have the basics of you project right. This will get you officially under our radar. Note that you can edit your submitted application until the deadline. The GSoC mentors and myself as org admin will do our best helping you polishing your proposal. However, the real deal is to get community interest, feedback and help. This is why we also ask candidates to share your plans in a wiki page linked from a Bugzilla report and a post in Wikitech-l. After this there should be only two channels of discussion: 1. Details about your skills, availability etc are discussed directly with you via email. 2. Technical discussion happens in the related Bugzilla report. Not obvious at all. Thank you for asking. -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil