COVID19 Update by Google
Students, Google has sent us a communication regarding GSoC and the actual health world situation, there a few questions to know, read them and understand accordingly:
- Is GSoC still happening? Yes
- Will there be any changes to the timeline? Yes
- What happens if students can't access the internet anymore? Internet access remains a requirement to participate.
Google Summer of Code is a program designed for remote participants to communicate via online methods through the entirety of the program. In this increasingly confusing and disruptive time we are hopeful that GSoC can be a way for students to become part of your communities and for mentors and students to find some comfort in being part of the open source community and helping others. With many people in various forms of lockdown, the mentor-student connection can be incredibly important for folks.
Adjustments to GSoC timeline
A couple of adjustments have been made to the GSoC timeline to hopefully make things easier for you. We understand that these next few weeks are going to be "very dynamic" and people are making adjustments to their lives daily.
3 weeks to review student proposals (from 2 weeks)
We have added an additional week to allow mentors and org admins to review all of the proposals and to also help them determine their own possible time commitment adjustments. Our experiences with mandated work from home is that there can be an unexpected adjustment, even for people used to primarily working from home.
Student proposal review period is now March 31-April 20.
Extended Community Bonding period to 4 weeks (from 3 weeks)
We have also extended the Community Bonding period to allow for more flexibility for the students and mentors. The 4 weeks should definitely be used to get the student familiar with your community per usual but it also will allow the mentor and student to make some adjustments as they need for their particular situation. For example, if the mentor and student agree, the student can start coding earlier than the new June 1st date.
We just made these adjustments and they should now be reflected in the official timeline. Currently we are working on updating all of the various documents that had dates listed to reflect the new date changes (it may take us a day or two to get to all of them).
Internet Access
We've heard several concerns about Internet access during the pandemic. Working Internet access remains a requirement to participate in the program, as you'll need it to communicate between mentors and students, access source code, etc.
We hope that countries around the world will make sure their Internet services stay strong as it will be an important means of communication most folks have while in lockdown/quarantine situations.
This year brings additional challenges as some internet access points (such as Internet cafes) may not be accessible. If you are not confident that you'll be able to maintain acceptable internet access during the program, this may not be the right year to participate.
Important Upcoming Dates
These dates reflect the shifted schedule.
Now - March 31 18:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
March 31 - April 20: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle (ie. how many you have committed mentors for). Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
April 21 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests)
April 22 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
April 22 - 30 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections)
April 30 - May 4: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility
May 4: Accepted GSoC 2020 students/projects are announced
May 4 - 31: Community Bonding Period
May 31: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
June 1: Coding begins
June 29 - July 3: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
July 27 - 31: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
August 24 -31: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
August 31 - September 7: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
September 8: Students passing GSoC 2020 are announced
March 31 - April 20: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle (ie. how many you have committed mentors for). Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
April 21 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests)
April 22 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
April 22 - 30 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections)
April 30 - May 4: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility
May 4: Accepted GSoC 2020 students/projects are announced
May 4 - 31: Community Bonding Period
May 31: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
June 1: Coding begins
June 29 - July 3: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
July 27 - 31: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
August 24 -31: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
August 31 - September 7: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
September 8: Students passing GSoC 2020 are announced
And if you want to apply to Liquid Galaxy project all our info and procedures are here.
Hurry up, we've delayed the video proof of knowledge one week due to Coronavirus issues.
