Is it Summer of Love this summer? For Google it is. Someone at Google has found the love and decided to offer the Google Summer of Code to students who wish to write Open Source code in addition to partying and going to the beach. The Google Summer of Code project offers student programmers a stipend of $4500 to complete an Open Source project in relation to some “established prominent open source organizations” who mentor the program by the end of summer.
The Google Summer of Code project is open to 200 participants who have their applications accepted. The students will get $500 for startup costs and the mentoring organizations will receive $500 for the costs of overseeing the projects as well.
If you happen to be an evil-doer from a nation on the US State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism, don’t hold your breath about being accepted as Google is off-limits to you. The same holds true for Google employees, interns and contractors as well.
Why is Google doing this? According to Google, “Google believes that there are more Open Source Developers out in the world waiting to be discovered and that this program might help reveal who they are.” They go on to say, “By pairing applicants up with the proven wisdom and experience of established prominent open source organizations, we hope to make great software happen.”
So, Google has found the love this summer and wishes to spread that love among a group of upcoming developers. If you’d like to get in on the love check out: Google Summer of Code
