This is an archive of all broadcast emails sent to Mentors and Org Admins.
August 22, 2018: GSoC 2018: Thank you for being a mentor & Final Wrap Up notes
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you for being a GSoC 2018 Mentor or Org Admin! Your dedication and commitment to bringing new contributors into the open source community is greatly appreciated. We applaud you for your awesome efforts this season.
By now all of your students have received their pass/fail emails and the announcement blog post is up.
Blog Posts
We want to hear from you! Tell us about your GSoC experience in a wrap-up post that we may feature on the Google Open Source Blog. Posts can include organization and project descriptions, interesting stories/anecdotes or anything else you'd like to tell the world about. Please send draft blog posts (don't forget to include pictures and logos!) to gsoc-support@google.com and Josh will work with you to get your article posted.
Or if you have a cool, inspiring story you just want us to be aware of please send it along to us at gsoc-support@google.com (we like to hear your success stories!).
Mentor Certificates
We will be sending Mentor and Org Admin digital certificates of appreciation in the next few days to all of you.
Tshirts
We are trying something new this year to get your GSoC 2018 t-shirts to you. All GSoC mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will receive an email from Shumsky (GoogleOpenSource@shumsky.com), our t-shirt fulfillment partner this year, by Tuesday, August 28th. The email will have a link to the GSoC 2018 t-shirt website with your redemption code. Use the redemption code on the website to select the t-shirt size and the shipping address you wish your t-shirt to be sent to.
If you don't want a t-shirt you can ignore the emails from Shumsky. Some of you selected you did not want promo items when you first registered but in previous years quite a few people changed their minds or didn't realize exactly what selecting ‘no promo items' meant so we are giving you the option to select your t-shirt (or not).
If you want a t-shirt to commemorate your hard work mentoring students in GSoC 2018 you must use the redemption code from Shumsky and choose your t-shirt size and supply your shipping address on the designated t-shirt site before September 10, 2018. The t-shirt site will be closed September 10th, and you will not be able to request a t-shirt once the site is locked down.
Please contact Shumsky directly at GoogleOpenSource@shumsky.com with any shipping inquiries, the Google Open Source team can not help with the shipments.
Mentor Summit
The GSoC Mentor Summit is only 7 weeks away and we have had a huge response from folks wishing to attend! If you have been selected by your org please register as soon as you can. Right now 145 organizations and 274 mentors have registered for this year's Summit. The registration deadline is September 5th for the designated mentors from each org, but with the huge waitlist we are trying to get folks off the waitlist as soon as possible so they can get visas, etc. so please register this week if you are a designated attendee for your org. Thanks.
If you are not a designated attendee you can add your name to the waitlist and we will randomly start drawing names from August 24 - ~September 15 as we see how much space is available or folks cancel. Remember, waitlist folks are responsible for their own travel costs to the event.
Org Payments
By September 30th we will deposit the mentor and travel stipends to into the Payoneer accounts of organizations that successfully completed their Payoneer registration and tax forms. Email gsoc-support@google.com with any payment questions.
Thank you all again for spending over 4 months working with this year's GSoC students and helping them become better open source contributors!
Important Dates
- August 28: Mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will be sent an email link and redemption code by our shipping partner, Shumsky, to select their tshirt size and supply their shipping address for shipment
- September 5: Deadline to register for Mentor Summit and book hotel at Aloft Santa Clara hotel
- September 10: Deadline to redeem your GSoC t-shirt redemption code on GSoC Shumsky site
- Early October: T-shirts are shipped
- October 12-14: Mentor Summit
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Feel free to reach out to our team at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
August 14, 2018: GSoC 2018: Final Evaluation of your student is due by Aug 21 16:00 UTC
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you for all of your hard work this summer! We're in the final stretch of GSoC 2018.
You can now visit your dashboard on the GSoC program site to submit your Final Evaluation of your student. Be sure to submit the Evaluation before Tuesday, August 21st at 16:00 UTC.
Please make sure to validate the target of the URL the student has supplied to their work product for GSoC 2018 (which you will see in the evaluation form). Make sure it meets your requirements as well as those mentioned in the Work Product Submission Guidelines. The URL supplied by the student will be public on the GSoC site - please ensure it represents your project and your student's work accordingly.
OSPO is gathering good work examples for students in future GSoC programs. Was your student's link particularly great (i.e had all of the relevant information in an organized and clear fashion)? If so, we'd kindly ask that you paste the URL into this 1 question form. This is not required, just a helpful thing for students in future GSoC programs :)
Mentor Summit
This is the final reminder to sign up for the GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit! We only have space for 325 attendees maximum for the GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit. Right now there are almost 250 attendees. If your org is sending people to the Summit be sure they sign up ASAP. We will turn off registration once we hit our maximum number.
September 5th is also the deadline to book your hotel room. We strongly suggest you do this ASAP as rooms are filling up quickly - do not book a room until you have been confirmed by your org admins that you are one of the designated attendees for your org and you have registered for the Mentor Summit.
We have a lengthy wait list and we will be taking more people off the list September 5th after 16:00 UTC if there is space available.
Important Dates
- August 14-21: Mentors submit Final Evaluation of their Student
- August 21 16:00 UTC: Deadline for submission of Mentor's Final Evaluation of their Student
- August 22: Successful GSoC 2018 students are announced
- August 27: Students who pass final evaluation receive their final payment
- Late August: Mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will be sent an email link to select their tshirt size and supply their shipping address for shipment
- September 5: Deadline to register for Mentor Summit and book hotels
- September: T-shirts are shipped
- October 12-14: Mentor Summit
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please reach out to our team at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
July 31, 2018: GSoC 2018 Important Notes for final weeks of program
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you for being an integral part of the GSoC 2018 program.
Next week students will begin submitting their Final Evaluations for GSoC 2018 (starting Monday, August 6). We have encouraged students to reach out to you to share a preview of their submission URL and let you verify it meets Google's and your requirements before they submit. Students can not edit their evaluations once they have submitted them — it's in their best interest to have you review the link first. Students must submit their Final Evaluations (with the submission URL) before Tuesday, August 14 at 16:00 UTC.
Mentor Final Evaluations (of students) Start Tuesday, August 14th at 16:01 UTC
Mentors are responsible for validating the target of the URL (provided in the evaluation), making sure it points to the GSoC 2018 work product, and meets the other requirements. Mentors will use this information as part of their pass/fail decision. The deadline for Mentors to submit Final Evaluations is Tuesday, August 21st at 16:00 UTC.
You can preview the final evaluation questions here.
Tips for communicating with your Student these last couple of weeks
It is very important to keep communicating with your students and encourage them to remain involved with your community. The orgs that have been most successful in keeping their GSoC students as long term contributors to their project have encouraged their students to become maintainers on their projects and make it clear they have ownership of a particular area of the project. Encourage the students to stay invested in the work they have done over the GSoC period.
Be sure to read the Mentor Guide section on Building a Lifetime Contributor for more tips.
Mentor Summit
Your org is not sending anyone to the Mentor Summit?
If your organization is not sending anyone to the 2018 GSoC Mentor Summit, an Org Admin needs to complete this short form as soon as they know they will not be sending anyone so we can make note of it and take some people off the already very long wait list.
Current Mentor Summit registrations
As of today, 62 organizations have registered sending at least 1 mentor to the Summit to represent their organization. We haven't heard from 144 orgs as to whether they are sending any delegates yet. Be sure to talk to your organization if you wish to be one of their designated delegates for the Summit.
Remember that you should not register for the Mentor Summit until you have been told by the Org Admin that you are one of the designated mentors. If you would like to add yourself to the wait list you can do that now and then if you are later chosen by your Org Admins to be a designated attendee you can contact us and we will delete your wait list entry and you can register as a designated attendee at that point.
Wednesday, September 5th is the deadline to Register for the Summit and to make your hotel reservation at one of our designated hotels.
Read the GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit website for many more details about the weekend. Please note events at the Google campus will begin at 6pm on Friday, October 12th.
We will send more details about the event to registered Mentor Summit attendees in late August.
Payoneer (Info for Org Admins)
Just a reminder to all Org Admins to please review the GSoC 2018 Org Payment Information for more details on how we are distributing the mentor summit and org stipends this year. The short version - if your org participated in 2017 as a GSoC org and accepted payments from us then you already have a Payoneer account and you don't have to do anything - the funds will show up in your org's account in mid September. If you are a new org then you should have received an email with a token link from Google earlier this month for you to set up your Payoneer account (you must use that link to set up the Payoneer account).
If your org does not want to accept any funds from Google please email us at gsoc-support@google.com.
Important Dates
- August 6 at 16:00 UTC: Student Final Evaluation period starts
- August 6-14: Students submit their Final Evaluation which includes:
- link to their work product (code) and
- their Final Evaluation of their Mentor
- August 14 16:00 UTC: Deadline for Students to submit their Final Evaluation
- August 14-21: Mentors submit Final Evaluation of their Student
- August 21 16:00 UTC: Deadline for submission of Mentor's Final Evaluation of their Student
- August 22: Successful GSoC 2018 students are announced
- August 27: Students who pass final evaluation receive their final payment
- Late August: Mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will be sent an email link to select their tshirt size and supply their shipping address for shipment
- September 5: Deadline to register for Mentor Summit (and book hotels)
- September: T-shirts are shipped
- October 12-14: Mentor Summit
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please reach out to our team at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
Thanks again for being GSoC 2018 Mentors and Org Admins!
July 23, 2018: GSoC Mentor Summit Updates
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Hi all,
If you tried to access the GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit website earlier today the link wasn't working properly but we have fixed it - sorry about that.
Website
https://sites.google.com/view/gsoc-mentorsummit-2018/home
Deciding which hotel to stay at
And one thing to keep in mind, if you are selected as one of the 2 designated mentors from your Org to come to the Mentor Summit you get to choose which hotel you stay at - Sheraton Sunnyvale and Aloft Santa Clara. Please do not book your hotel until you know you are one of your org's designated representatives.
Location of new site for GSoC Mentor Summit
We will be in a brand new Google building that is literally across the street from the back parking lot of the Sheraton (so you don't have to cross any crazy traffic to get there by foot like in previous years, you cross a side street with basically no traffic between the Sheraton and the Google building). It's about a 5 minute walk from the door of the Sheraton to the door of the building we will be in for our events this year. So if you want to avoid any shuttles you will want to book your hotel room at the Sheraton.
GSoC Survey
Thank you to all of you who have already filled out the survey, we've started skimming through the comments and there is some great stuff in there - thank you! We have about 180 responses so far and are hoping to have close to 500 by July 30th to have more solid metrics about the program. Thanks in advance!
GSoC Survey: https://goo.gl/forms/vq078g1aJrnORfHr1
Important Dates
- August 6-14: Students submit their work product (code) and a final evaluation of their Mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors evaluate Students on their final work submissions
- August 22: Successful GSoC 2018 students are announced
- Late August: Mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will be sent an email link to select their tshirt size and supply their shipping address for shipment
- September 5: Deadline to register for hotels for Mentor Summit
- September: T-shirts are shipped
- October 12-14: Mentor Summit
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
As always, please reach out to our team at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
July 23, 2018: The 2018 Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Hello Mentors and Org Admins!
The GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit is less than 3 months away! Read below for all the details.
Event Dates
Friday, October 12 - Sunday, October 14
Location
- Conference: Google Campus in Sunnyvale, California
- Hotels: Sheraton Sunnyvale and Aloft Santa Clara
Website
https://sites.google.com/view/gsoc-mentorsummit-2018/home
Purpose
As a way to say thank you and to continue to keep GSoC evolving we hold an annual summit at the end of each summer. We bring two mentors from each participating organization to the Googleplex in Northern California for a weekend to talk about GSoC, the greater FOSS community, what can be done to make the program better, how to keep students involved in their communities post-GSoC, and many other topics. It's also a fun way to meet up with other mentors and org admins across the GSoC universe.
If you've attended a GSoC Mentor Summit in the past, you'll notice the event will run a bit differently this year. Expect the "unconference" portion of the summit to be shorter, with more scheduled talks and tracks to choose from. Stay tuned for more information!
Who can come?
Two* Mentors or Org Admins are invited from each GSoC 2018 organization. It is up to the Organization Administrators and your community to decide on which two people will be attending (but they must be 2018 Mentors with assigned student projects or a 2018 Organization Administrator).
Where can I find more information?
Please visit the Mentor Summit website for information about the plan for the weekend, hotels, shuttle schedules, local information, instructions for requesting visa letters and more. We'll be adding more information to the site as the date gets closer, so make sure to check back often!
How do I get reimbursed for travel expenses?
Each organization will receive $2200* from Google to cover the costs of travel to the Mentor Summit. Org Admins are responsible for re-distributing the funds to their delegates. Talk to your Org Admin to find out what receipts they may require for reimbursement.
* What if we miss an evaluation?
Organizations that miss an evaluation during the program will only be able to send one delegate and will only receive $1100 in travel funding. Any organizations missing two or more evaluations will not be able to send any delegates to the summit and will not receive any travel funding.
Waitlist
Many orgs wish to send more than two delegates to the Mentor Summit at their own expense. If your organization has more than two delegates that wish to attend the Mentor Summit, please have them put their name on the waitlist. As we get closer to the event we will contact any additional people that we can accommodate. Google will cover the two hotel nights, but no other additional funds will be provided. Please do not book a hotel room until Google admins have contacted you directly about an open space.
Sign Up Here!
If your Org has decided that you should attend the Mentor Summit please complete all 3 of these steps before September 5th, preferably at the same time. (The sooner the better to guarantee you a hotel room.)
- Please complete the Mentor Summit Registration form as soon as you are sure you know you will be able to attend.
Book your hotel room before September 5. We encourage you to book as soon as you know you will be attending to guarantee your room. You get to choose which hotel you wish to stay at.
To book your room, use these GSoC specific hotel registration links:
Sheraton Sunnyvale or Aloft Santa Clara
When booking your hotel you will need to supply a credit card number for incidentals and extra nights. You will not be charged for the nights of October 12 and 13.
Read the GSoC 2018 Mentor Summit website for many more details about the weekend.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com. We look forward to seeing you in October!
July 19, 2018: GSoC Student Work Submission Guidelines and Final Evaluations
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
With 2.5 weeks left for students to complete their GSoC 2018 projects we want to remind you about the requirements for the final evaluation that we have already shared with the students.
As part of their final evaluations, students will provide a single URL to the code they produced. Then, as part of their final evaluation of the student, mentors will validate the target of the URL (provided in the evaluation), making sure it points to the GSoC 2018 work product. Mentors will also make sure the code compiles and there is adequate documentation provided for the work the student has completed.
Please read the Student Work Product Submission Guidelines now to help your student find the best option for their situation. It is very important that you work with your student and let them know exactly what you expect from them in their submission well before August 14th. Ideally you will work with your student over the next 2+ weeks and they will be prepared to send you the link to their work when the final eval period opens August 6th or on the 7th. This will give you time to validate the target of their URL and let them know if you want them to make any changes, etc. before they have to make their final submission in the system by August 14th.
Don't forget to encourage your students to spend some time on code cleanup, documentation, testing and other best practices.
Important Dates
- August 6-14: Students submit their work product (code) and a final evaluation of their Mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors evaluate Students on their final work submissions
- August 22: Successful GSoC 2018 students are announced
- Late August: Mentors with an assigned project and all Org Admins will be sent an email link to select their tshirt size and supply their shipping address for shipment
- September: T-shirts are shipped
- October 12-14: Mentor Summit (more details coming in late July)
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
As always, please reach out to our team at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
July 9, 2018: GSoC 2018: 2nd Evaluations now open and due by Friday at 16:00 UTC
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you all for being mentors and org admins for GSoC 2018.
It's hard to believe we are ⅔ of the way through GSoC 2018 already! It is now time for one mentor for each student project to complete an evaluation of their student before Friday, July 13th at 16:00 UTC. If you haven't done so already, go to your dashboard on the GSoC program site and complete your evaluation of your student before July 13th at 16:00 UTC. We encourage you to complete the evaluations ASAP so you don't forget to do it - it should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.
Quick reminder that only 1 mentor can submit an evaluation for a student. If there are multiple mentors for a single student project you should decide in advance which mentor will complete the evaluation.
If there is a disagreement between multiple mentors on whether a student should pass or not you should bring your Org Admin into the conversation to make the final decision. Once the Friday, July 13th 16:00 UTC deadline to submit your evaluation passes you can not change the fail to a pass or vice versa.
Important Dates
- July 9-13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 13th 16:00 UTC: Second Evaluation Deadline (for both mentors and students)
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
July 5, 2018: GSoC 2018: 2nd Evaluations open July 9-13 16:00 UTC
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
IMPORTANT DEADLINE for ALL MENTORS: 2nd Evaluations open July 9 and are DUE before July 13, 16:00 UTC
Also remember that you are evaluating your students on their work done (and submitted for mentors to be able to review) between June 11th and July 9th at 16:00 UTC. Any work they submit after July 9th at 16:00 UTC will not be considered for the 2nd evaluation.
Important Dates
- June 15th 16:00 UTC: First Evaluation Deadline (for both mentors and students)
- July 9-13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
- Early October: Packages with t-shirts and stickers are shipped to students who pass the program
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
June 11, 2018: GSoC 2018: Time to submit your evaluations of your Students (deadline June 15th 16:00 UTC)
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you all for being mentors and org admins for GSoC 2018!
One mentor for each student project must complete an evaluation of their student before Friday, June 15th at 16:00 UTC. If you haven't done so already, go to your dashboard on the GSoC program site and complete your evaluation of your student before June 15th at 16:00 UTC. We encourage you to complete the evaluations ASAP so you don't forget to do it - it should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.
If your org misses an evaluation your org will lose $1100 of the mentor summit travel stipend and one less person will be able to attend the summit.
Org Admins -- we encourage you to verify all evaluations for your org's student projects are complete 48 hours before the deadline, giving you time to contact the mentors directly if they have outstanding evaluations. Org Admins can complete the evaluation if needed.
To fail or not to fail?
Every year we tell organizations and mentors to fail students who are not doing their work. Often people will want to give the student the benefit of the doubt that they will improve - this rarely happens. 13 years of experience has taught us if you are considering failing a student then you probably should.
Google Summer of Code requires students to write quality code for the open source organizations they are working with while meeting their scheduled milestones. Students should not receive a stipend for being good proposal writers and nice people. They must also produce quality code that lives up to the expectations of your community. If they don't, they should be failed. Period.
In the evaluation there is a section where you can leave feedback directly for the student that they will see after the evaluation deadline passes. This is the place to say what they did well and also why you failed them (what they should have been doing - example: communicating with the mentor/community and meeting their scheduled milestones, etc.).
Failing students is expected and encouraged (when appropriate)
Each year, when Google admins are considering the Org Applications we look at the pass/fail status of an org's previous GSoC experience(s). We expect to see some failures from orgs who have participated several times. Orgs who never fail anyone make us wonder if they are being too lenient with their students. Failing a student can be a good thing for the student. It can teach them the importance of deadlines, responsibilities, and also not over-committing or overselling their skills. Many students have said they failed their first GSoC and then reapplied the next year and succeeded, because they learned from where they went wrong.
When deciding whether to pass or fail your student you should be considering the actual code produced and their involvement in the community. It is your responsibility to your organization, to all of the other students participating in GSoC, to yourself, and to Google, to evaluate the student on the quality of their code contributions they have produced during these first 4 weeks of the program. Things happen and students get sick or have other issues pop up that don't allow them to work as much on GSoC as they planned. This happens. But just like with a job, if you don't do your work and meet the requirements of your job you are let go. Students that aren't meeting their deadlines and producing quality code should be failed.
The mentors list has had several productive discussions about whether failing is appropriate in certain circumstances. You can find them in the archive. Also be sure to check out the "Evaluations" chapter of the Mentor Guide.
Only 1 mentor can submit an evaluation for a student. If there are multiple mentors for a single student project you should decide in advance which mentor will complete the evaluation.
Important Dates
- June 15th 16:00 UTC: First Evaluation Deadline (for both mentors and students)
- July 9-13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
June 7, 2018: GSoC First Evaluation Information - Evals Open June 11-15
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
We hope you are enjoying working with your students during these first few weeks of coding.
Below is important information regarding your required First Evaluation of your student(s) - please read everything very carefully.
**IMPORTANT DEADLINE for ALL MENTORS: First Evaluations open June 11 and are DUE before June 15, 16:00 UTC **
This first evaluation is a required part of your participation in GSoC 2018 and should take you about 10 minutes to complete. If you do not complete the first evaluation of each of your students by June 15 at 16:00 UTC, your organization will automatically lose $1100 of the mentor travel stipend for the mentor summit. There are no exceptions. Missed evaluations also contribute to our decision on whether to accept an organization in future years of GSoC.
Starting at 16:00 UTC on June 11th you can go to your dashboard on the GSoC program site to complete the first evaluation. Just click on the "Complete Evaluation" button and fill out the form. You must complete the entire evaluation form at once — you can not submit a partially completed evaluation and you can not edit the evaluation once it has been submitted. You must submit your first evaluation by June 15th at 16:00 UTC.
Can't submit the Evaluation between June 11-15?
If you know you will be unable to complete the evaluation of your student between June 11 - June 15 at 16:00 UTC, please ask the other mentor working with your student to complete the form. Your Org Admin can also fill out the form on your behalf. If you have the Org Admin complete the form be sure to provide them the answers (link to questions below) so they can fill out the form for you when the evaluation period opens.
Only one Mentor can complete an evaluation for a student
If there are multiple mentors working with a student you will need to decide which of you will be filling out the first evaluation of the student. Only one mentor can complete the evaluation. Once the evaluation has been submitted it can not be edited, so be sure you both agree on the outcome (pass versus fail) and who will be filling out the form ahead of time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I have multiple students?
If you are a Mentor for multiple students then you will see all of the First Evaluations that need to be completed in your Dashboard. From there you can click on the name of the student you wish to complete an evaluation for.
Can I see the evaluation questions in advance?
Yes, you can view the evaluation questions now.
Should I fail my student?
This is a very common question and you can check out some of the threads on the GSoC Mentors list (from last year and 2016) that discuss this as well as the "Evaluations" chapter of the Mentor Guide.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
May 7, 2018: GSoC 2018: Removing an Inactive Student before coding begins
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Removing Inactive students
If you have a student that has not been actively involved in the community bonding period now is the time to let us know and we can remove them from the program.
Please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com with the name of the student and your org name before May 14th and we will send them an email telling them they have been removed from the program.
Future Emails for Mentors and Org Admins
This is the last email some of you will receive from Google for GSoC 2018. Starting May 15th we will only send emails to mentors with an assigned student project in the system and to all org admins.
Important Upcoming Dates
- May 14: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 9-13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14-21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
If you haven't done so already, please read the Mentor Guide and the Roles and Responsibilities doc to help you navigate the next few months of GSoC.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
April 26, 2018: GSoC 2018: Community Bonding and FAQs from Mentors
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Please read the Mentor Guide and the Roles and Responsibilities doc to help you navigate the next few months of GSoC. We've also prepared answers to some common FAQs below.
If you haven't already contacted your student please do so as soon as possible. Early communication and engagement with your student will help build a strong relationship for the rest of the program. Reach out to your student now and welcome them into your community.
Some Recent FAQs
What am I supposed to be doing during the Community Bonding period?
The Community Bonding period is intended to help get students ready to start contributing to your organization at full speed starting May 14th. Be sure to read the last email we sent, (always available in the email archive) where we go into more detail about how you and your student can take full advantage of this stage of GSoC.
If a student does not participate in community bonding, you have the option of removing them from the program before coding starts.
Can my student start coding now, before the official coding period starts?
Yes, your student can start coding if they wish.
Some students may have already talked to you about a planned vacation/week of unavailability, etc. You are welcome to get them started early to make up for that time.
How many hours a week should my student be working on their GSoC project?
Your student should consider this to be a full time commitment and allocating about 30 hours a week to the project (some weeks may be more, some less). If your student is planning to only work on their project part-time for 20 hours a week during the whole program then your project is too easy and you should work with the student to add more to the project.
My student is dropping out of GSoC, what do I do?
Please instruct your student to officially withdraw from the program by visiting their dashboard on the GSoC site and pressing the withdraw button on their profile page. Unfortunately it is too late to add another student to replace that student slot.
My student is asking me about changing dates on their CPT/Acceptance letter, what does that mean?
Some students that are on student visas to the USA require CPT (Curricular Practical Training) letters to be able to participate in GSoC under the restrictions on their visas. Some students didn't research in advance what their visas allow them to do (or not do). Unfortunately, this means that there will likely be a few students who will have to drop out because the official CPT letters from Google can only indicate the official coding dates of May 14-August 6. Some students may not be allowed to work during part of that time because of their visa restrictions which means they can not participate in GSoC.
Upcoming Important Dates
- April 23 - May 13: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11 - 15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 9 - 13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6 - 14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14 - 21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
Thank you all for helping bring new contributors into the open source community this summer!
Please email Google Administrators at gsoc-support@google.com if you have any questions.
April 17, 2018: GSoC 2018: Next Steps for all Mentors and Org Admins
TO: Org Admins
Thank you for being a Mentor or Org Admin for GSoC 2018! We value your commitment to helping students learn about and participate in open source development. You are the reason this program has continued to grow and evolve since 2005. Thank you!
This email is long, but it contains a lot of important information. Please read everything carefully.
Accepted Students Announcement
GSoC 2018 accepted students will be announced on Monday, April 23rd at 16:00 UTC on the GSoC program site. At that time, emails will be sent to all students (both accepted and rejected). It may take a few hours for the thousands of emails to be sent out. Emails will also be sent to all of the mentors assigned to a project.
Do NOT pre-announce the results in any fashion before the information is publicly visible on the GSoC website. Once it is visible (after 16:01 UTC on April 23rd) you are welcome to send out tweets, publish blog posts, etc.
Congrats, you are a mentor -- now it's time to mentor!
Google Summer of Code works best when the student and mentor work together closely. GSoC is not a "code for hire" program. The student is not there to do exactly what you tell them to do or to fend for themselves and figure out everything on their own. Check-ins should be regular -- at least weekly. If you planned less frequent check-ins please adjust your plan. If you're not willing or able to commit the time, please inform your org so they can replace you.
Proactive, productive communication early on (i.e over the next couple of weeks) is the key to setting up the partnership that leads to a successful student project. Successful relationships lead to successful students who often become long term contributors to your project and open source.
What do I do now?
- Please read the Roles and Responsibilities to make sure you understand what is expected of you over the next 4 months but also what you should expect from your students. We rely on you to help enforce the program rules and to keep your student on track for success.
- If you haven't looked at the GSoC Mentor Guide recently, please (at least) read the Communication and Mentoring sections.
- Watch the 5 minute YouTube video: "Being a Great GSoC Mentor". It contains helpful information about the program and how to participate successfully at each step in GSoC.
The Community Bonding Period
As part of the student's acceptance into GSoC they are expected to actively participate in the Community Bonding period (April 23 - May 13). The Community Bonding period is intended to help get students ready to start contributing to your organization at full speed starting May 14th.
Community Bonding activities may involve:
- Becoming familiar with the community practices and processes. (This often involves a mix of observation and participation.)
- Participating on Mailing Lists / IRC / etc. (Not just lurking.)
- Setting up their development environment.
- Small (or large) patches/bug fixes. (These do not need to be directly related to their GSoC project.)
- Participating in code reviews for others. (Even someone who isn't familiar with the project can contribute by pointing out potential inefficiencies, bad error handling, etc.)
- Working with their mentor and other org members on refining their project plan. This might include finalizing deadlines and milestones, adding more detail, figuring out potential issues, etc.
- If the student is already familiar with the organization, they could be helping others get involved in the community.
- Reading (and updating!) documentation they will need to understand to complete their project.
- Reporting or replicating bugs.
Active means active. Students have committed to the program schedule, and we would like you to hold them to it. There is no single standard, as every org is different, every student has different time constraints, and there are many different ways to interact. Some students may require coaxing and encouragement in order to get them to actively participate.
If you do not see regular public interaction from the student, you should strongly encourage it. Public interaction is important -- it is a key principle of open source -- work happens where everyone can see it. Similarly, all work done by the students should be shared in a publicly available repository.
The past thirteen years of GSoC have demonstrated that students who don't interact early and often are much more likely to fail later. Often they just disappear. We don't want you to waste your time on students who don't care about the project/organization and don't even attempt to show interest during the first few weeks of the program. Small contributions early on are a very positive signal.
Students who do not participate in community bonding may be removed from the program.
Changes to a Student's Accepted Project
You and your student can decide to change the project from what was originally proposed but you both need to agree on the change. Neither the mentor nor the student should feel pressured into making large project changes. Be fair to your students -- set them up for success. In return they should also be flexible to change the scope of the project (within reason) if the org finds it necessary.
Last year we had students who were upset because they felt they couldn't tell their mentor "no". Many took on more than they could handle. In some of these cases the new project was completely different from what had been originally proposed and many students did not have the appropriate background knowledge or skills to complete it.
Students are able to edit their project title and abstract until coding officially begins May 14th.
Students will not receive any of their stipend until after they successfully pass their first evaluation in the middle of June.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com
April 15, 2018: GSoC 2018: Final Hours to Select GSoC students
TO: Org Admins
The deadline for Org Admins to enter their organization's student selections is in less than 36 hours - Tuesday, April 17th at 16:00 UTC.
This email is being sent to all Org Admins to check and make sure their selections are in order before the deadline.
Right now there are 41 organizations that have not entered any of their student selections and there are many others that have only entered selections for a handful of their given slots.
Org Admins must go to their dashboard and select the student proposals their org would like to make into 2018 student projects based on the slots allocated to their org.
At least one mentor must be assigned to each project. You can not select a project without assigning at least one of your mentors to the project.
You can add or change mentors to a project until May 15th. But ideally you will have already identified the primary mentor for the project when students are announced on April 23rd. This way the student can get to know their mentor at the very start of the community bonding period.
We would much rather you select only the excellent proposals rather than fill student slots for the sake of filling all slots allocated to your org.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com
April 10, 2018: GSoC 2018: Student Project Selection
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Slot allocations have been granted to each organization and are now visible in each OA's dashboard.
It's now time to make the final decisions on which student projects your org will accept using your slot allocations and which mentors will help guide the students on their summer projects.
As of right now 35% of the student slots we allocated have already been assigned to student projects by OAs.
Student Project Selection
Tuesday, April 17th at 16:00 UTC: Deadline for OAs to submit their student selections
- Org Admins must go to their dashboard and select the student proposals your org would like to make your 2018 student projects based on the slots allocated to your org.
- At least one mentor must be assigned to each project. You can not select a project without assigning at least one of your mentors to the project.
- You can add or change mentors to a project until May 14th. But ideally you will have already identified the primary mentor for the project when students are announced on April 23rd. This way the student can get to know their mentor at the very start of the community bonding period.
- Remember the sooner you make your selections the sooner you lock in your student selection. If you know there is a student or two that your org has to have we encourage you to go ahead and select them now rather than risk another org "taking" that student (assuming the student applied to multiple orgs which 29.5% of students this year did).
Read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more information.
Conflict Resolution
If you try to accept a student that has already been accepted by another organization, you will see a notice to that effect. Contact info for that org's admins will be displayed so you can ask if they would be willing to release the student. They can choose a different student for that slot.
Google does not get involved in these decisions. It is up to the organization that first chose the student to decide how they wish to proceed. Do not ask the student, as this will leak the information that they are accepted before the decision is finalized.
Adding more Mentors
Many orgs were waiting to see how many slots they would receive so they can decide which student projects they will be selecting and thus which mentors will be mentoring those specific student projects. This is fine, but please be sure to invite the additional mentors you may need in the next couple of weeks.
Program Administrators 2nd Review
Google Program Admins are doing an additional review of the student's eligibility for the program once you have all locked in your students on April 17th. There is a very small possibility that one of the students you selected will be found ineligible for the program during the second review. If this is the case Google will give you the opportunity to fill that student slot with another student before April 23rd.
You may wish to think about whether there is another student proposal that would be your "backup" student project should one of the students you selected be ineligible or withdraw from the program before the April 23rd announcement.
Why would a student be rejected at this point? 5200 proof of enrollment forms were reviewed in a very short period of team by multiple people and it is possible an ineligible student was not discovered in the initial review and upon closer review it is discovered. Last year there were only a few students (out of 1300+) where this was an issue.
Communication Reminders leading up to Accepted Students Announcement
Do not tell students that they have been accepted into the program before the public announcement on April 23rd after 16:00 UTC. Decisions are not official until it is on the website and emails are sent.
On April 23rd after 16:00 UTC -
- OA's will receive a confirmation email for each student that they have accepted. For large orgs this will be a lot of emails - we apologize in advance.
- Mentors with accepted projects will receive an email letting them know they are a mentor for the project.
- Students will receive an email letting them know which org they were accepted with or if rejected they will receive a rejection email.
Upcoming Important Dates
- April 10 - 17 16:00 UTC: Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
- April 17 - April 23: Google Program Admins perform additional review of student eligibility
- April 23: Accepted GSoC 2018 students/projects are announced
- April 23 - May 14: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com
April 8, 2018: 11 hours to submit GSoC Slot requests
TO: Org Admins
As of right now 43 of the 212 organizations have not submitted their slot requests. This is a reminder for all Org Admins to look at their dashboard and make sure that one of the Org Admins from your Org has submitted your request before tomorrow's deadline (in 11 hours - 16:00 UTC Monday, April 9th).
Slot Requests, Slot Allotment and Project Selection
- Deadline for OAs to submit their slot requests: Monday, April 9th at 16:00 UTC.
- Google will release slot allotments on Tuesday, April 10th. OA's will see the slots in their dashboard.
- Deadline for OAs to select projects (students) / assign mentors: Tuesday, April 17th at 16:00 UTC.
Slot Requests
Deadline: Monday, April 9th at 16:00 UTC.
Org Admins must request a minimum and maximum number of project slots for their organization based on good proposals received and available mentors - both of these should be met when deciding on your numbers. Also remember that good mentors are vital to this process- just getting a person to agree to be a mentor does not make a good mentor. Just like when selecting students quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. Find mentors familiar with the project they would be mentoring and who want to mentor, don't make someone be a mentor, that only results in a disaster for everyone.
Slot request numbers are used to help Google allocate slots. Orgs may receive less than their requested minimum. New orgs will likely only receive a couple of slots, no matter how many they request.
There is a 1:1 mapping between projects and students. A student may only complete one GSoC project per year. Slots should only be requested for projects which you think are likely to succeed. Do not plan to accept "okay" proposals just to have more students working with your org this year.
And remember, students are applying to work on the proposed project - it's not cool to accept a student and then tell them we don't want you working on that project we want you to do this completely different project. Students don't feel like they can say no and usually when an org tries to do this it results in failure for the student and the org. You want a student to be excited about the project they are working on and forcing something completely new on them is inconsiderate. If you were planning to do this and have asked for student slots with this scenario in mind stop and go back and reduce your slot request numbers.
Read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more information.
Student Eligibility
Deadline: Monday, April 9th at 16:00 UTC.
April 9th is also the deadline for students to have any re-submitted proof of enrollment documents reviewed. Students have been informed of this and have all been sent multiple reminder emails to correct their form before the deadline, many have ignored the reminders or simply aren't eligible and thus don't have valid proof of enrollments they can supply. Students without valid proof of enrollment documents will not be eligible to participate. There will be no exceptions. Any students who did not submit an acceptable proof of enrollment before the April 9th deadline will disappear from your list of student projects you can accept on April 10th.
Every year we have mentors ask us to reconsider and to give the student another chance. Students have literally received 3 direct emails about their forms not being okay and reminders to fix them before the deadline on April 9th. If they choose to ignore the emails and reminders there isn't anything to be done. We have to do this because it's clear there are some students applying who are not actual students and this is a requirement to participate in GSoC 2018 so we have to enforce the rules.
Upcoming Important Dates
- April 9, 16:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (OAs enter requests)
- April 10, 16:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
- April 10 - 17 16:00 UTC: Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
- April 17 - April 23: Google Program Admins perform additional review of student eligibility
- April 23: Accepted GSoC 2018 students/projects are announced
- April 23 - May 14: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com
March 24, 2018: Final PDF review and Slot Allocation
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
The student submission period is nearly over - you can expect a lot of proposals coming in over these last 2.5 days - we're already at record numbers of students registering for GSoC! We know you are all quite busy responding to students and giving them feedback on their draft proposals. In the next phase of GSoC, you select which of these proposals you choose for GSoC projects.
Reviewing Final PDF Proposals: March 27-April 8
The deadline for students to submit their Final PDF proposal is Tuesday, March 27 at 16:00 UTC. Students without Final PDF proposals cannot be accepted, and there will be no exceptions.
After March 27 at 16:00 UTC, org members will be able to see the Final PDFs submitted by students.
March 27 16:00 UTC is also the deadline for students to submit a proof of enrollment in an eligible university program. Students who fail to do this are ineligible for GSoC this year. We will be reviewing the forms and students will have a chance to resubmit if there are any problems.
Your decision about whether or not to select a student should be based on the Final PDF proposal. You will also be able to reference the draft proposal -- but should not make your decision based on it. A draft proposal is intended to be used to view the comment thread and maybe see how the student interacted with you and responded to comments, etc. Do not use it to let the student make more changes after the deadline. That is not fair to all the other applicants.
Want to Mentor?
If you are interested in being a mentor for a given proposal then you can clickthe purple "Want to Mentor" button to help your Org Admin know that you are interested. This is particularly helpful for the org admins when determining if they have enough mentors for their slot requests.
Slots Request - deadline April 9 16:00 UTC (Org Admin responsibility)
- Org Admins will request a minimum and maximum number of project slots.
- Slots should only be requested for projects where there is at least one confirmed mentor and where the student has a good chance of succeeding.
- Do not accept "okay" proposals.
- Do not request more slots than you have mentors for - if we grant you the slots you request and you can't use all of them you have essentially taken away these slots from other orgs that could have used them and also taken away the opportunity for that number of students to participate in GSoC 2018.
- New orgs will likely only receive 1-2 slots, no matter how many they request.
- Mentors should be mentoring 1 project generally. In rare cases a mentor can mentor 2 projects.
April 9th is also the deadline for students to have any re-submitted proof of enrollment forms approved. Note that students with invalid forms will not appear in your list of student projects you can choose from starting April 10th (when slots are announced).
All Org Admins should read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more detailed information.
Upcoming Important Dates
- March 27 - April 8: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. 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 9, 16:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (OAs enter requests)
- April 10, 16:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
- April 10 - 17 16:00 UTC: Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
- April 17 - April 23: Google Program Admins perform additional review of student eligibility
- April 23: Accepted GSoC 2018 students/projects are announced
- April 23 - May 14: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 9 - 13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14 - August 21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
- August 21: Students passing GSoC 2018 are announced
If you haven't done so already, be sure to read the Roles and Responsibilities to understand what is expected of you and of students during the program.
Please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com with any questions.
March 7, 2018: Tips on Reviewing Student Proposals
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Thank you for registering to be a GSoC 2018 mentor or organization administrator! We have many new mentors and organizations (44!) this year so we wanted to go through some important details to help you understand the process for the next few months.
[Action Required] Please take the time to do the following:
- Reach out to your organization administrator to learn more about what is expected of you this year as a mentor.
- Read the Google Summer of Code mentor guide and the Roles and Responsibilities doc.
- Watch the 5 minute YouTube video: "Being a Great GSoC Mentor". The video was shot with GSoC veteran Org Admins and Mentors. It contains helpful information about the program and how to participate successfully at each step in GSoC.
Student Proposals
Student Proposal Submission period: March 12-27
Starting next week students will be able to submit their proposals via the program website. Each student may submit up to 3 proposals to the program. This is a change from last year when we allowed 5 proposals. They can submit multiple proposals to the same organization for different projects if they wish.
Historically, the students with the best proposals reach out to the orgs early to receive feedback before submitting their final proposal - those students who have already been reaching out to you are likely to be among your best student options this year.
To encourage more students to seek feedback on their proposals, draft proposals are part of the official proposal workflow. Be sure to refresh your dashboard periodically so that you can see when new drafts are ready to review. You will not receive an email. We are encouraging the use of Google Docs for proposals as this will allow you to comment directly on the proposal.
Over the next few weeks you will be interacting with dozens and in some cases hundreds of students interested in working with your project. We know many of you may become overwhelmed and some students can be impatient, so you may want to have an auto-responder or some sort of canned response to let students know you are looking at their proposals but it could take X days to receive a response.
Post Student Proposal Period: March 27 - April 8
Students must submit their final proposal as a PDF through the website. It will be visible to mentors/org admins after the deadline for student applications (March 27 16:00 UTC). You should make your decisions on which students to accept based on the contents of the final PDF proposal and your interactions with the student.
Students can delete their proposals after the submission period and you will not receive an email of the deletion. If a proposal disappears from your list, it is likely because they deleted it.
Working with Students
All student projects must have at least one mentor assigned. We strongly encourage assigning a second mentor as a backup mentor or co-mentor. A mentor should not be the primary mentor for more than one or two students maximum. Mentoring can be a lot of work and we don't want anyone to burn out and become frustrated with the program.
GSoC 2018 Dates and Deadlines
- Now - March 12: Proactive students will reach out to you and ask questions about your ideas list and receive feedback from your org so they can start crafting their project proposals. Org Admins should be inviting mentors.
- March 12 - March 27 16:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
- March 27 - April 8: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. 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 9, 16:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (OAs enter requests)
- April 10, 16:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
- April 10 - 17 16:00 UTC: Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
- April 17 - April 23: Google Program Admins perform additional review of student eligibility
- April 23: Accepted GSoC 2018 students/projects are announced
- April 23 - May 14: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 9 - 13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14 - August 21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
- August 21: Students passing GSoC 2018 are announced
Mentors Mailing List
If you want to be included on the GSoC mentors mailing list be sure to opt in on your User Profile page. You can always opt out once you have been added by unsubscribing using the link on any of the emails.
Email Archive
To see all emails sent to mentors and org admins visit the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive that will continue to be updated throughout the program.
Contact Us
Please use the gsoc-support@google.com email address for questions so that anyone on our team can answer your question for you.
February 16, 2018: Thanks for being a part of GSoC 2018 - welcome!
TO: Mentors and Org Admins
Welcome to the biggest GSoC program ever with 212 open source organizations participating in GSoC 2018 and we expect to accept more students than ever before too. And a special welcome to 41 organizations participating in GSoC for the first time!
As you have probably noticed many proactive, excited students have already started reaching out to your orgs to discuss project ideas - this is a very good thing!
We want to give you a quick overview of the next few months and address some of the common questions you may have these first few weeks of the program.
Important Info for 2018
- There are 3 evaluation periods where mentors are required to complete an evaluation of their student. After the first 4 weeks of coding, after 8 weeks of coding and then at the end (after 12 weeks of coding). The evaluation forms are relatively short with multiple choice questions and a couple of free form responses to give your student feedback (which hopefully is being done weekly already by the mentor).
- Students can only be accepted into GSoC 2 times. Google Admins will do a sanity check on all accepted students once you select your students in early April so you do not need to be concerned about this.
- UNIVERSITIES: If you are a university, we expect you to select students outside of your program. Selecting students from your university is okay (1-2 students tops) but if all of the students you select are from your university then you likely won't be accepted into GSoC again.
- Students can only submit 3 proposals. After discussions at the Mentor Summit last year we have decided to implement this for 2018 (last year we allowed 5). This should eliminate many of the low quality proposals.
- We allow 13-17 year olds to be mentors for GSoC as long as they have parental consent to be a part of the program. An additional form is required. We will send the form to the student once they have registered.
Inviting Mentors to your Organization
Organization Administrators should be reaching out to mentors and sending them invitations to be a part of their organization now. The mentor will then click the link in the email they receive to create their account.
GSoC Mentor-invite Mailing List
For those that have opted into the GSoC mentor mailing list (available on your profile page) we will bulk add you to the list on February 26. Then we will add additional folks who opt in about once a week throughout the program period. You can remove yourself through the groups interface at any time. You can also update your settings to receive a daily digest of emails and other options. This generally is not a very high traffic list but there will be more questions over the next two months on this list than probably later in the program.
The GSoC mentor mailing list is a great way to ask questions of other org admins and mentors and to get their feedback and help.
Important Upcoming Dates
- Now - March 12: Proactive students will reach out to you and ask questions about your ideas list and receive feedback from your org so they can start crafting their project proposals. Org Admins should be inviting mentors.
- March 12 - March 27 16:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
- March 27 - April 8: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. 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 9, 16:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (OAs enter requests)
- April 10, 16:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
- April 10 - 17 16:00 UTC: Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
- April 17 - April 23: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility
- April 23: Accepted GSoC 2018 students/projects are announced
- April 23 - May 14: Community Bonding Period
- May 13: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
- May 14: Coding begins
- June 11-15: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- July 9 - 13: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
- August 6-14: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
- August 14 - August 21: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
- August 21: Students passing GSoC 2018 are announced
Organization Payments
Complete details regarding GSoC 2018 payments will be sent out in April to Org Admins. In the meantime, please note that Google will pay each organization after final evaluations are submitted.
- Orgs who participated in 2017: do not need to create a new Payoneer account (if your banking details changed, please update them through your Payoneer dashboard).
- Orgs new to GSoC or not yet signed up with Payoneer: we will send you an invitation in late April to create your account - do not go and create your own account now.
Quick Glossary
Proposal: A document which describes the project the student wants to work on for your organization. Should include a timeline containing clear milestones and specific deliverables.
Slot: Google will grant each org a certain number of project "slots" based on requests and history with GSoC. Each slot can hold one student/project.
Project: Once a student has been selected and projects are announced, their proposal becomes a project for the remainder of the program.
More Information
If you have not yet read the Roles and Responsibilities page created with the help of GSoC Org admins and mentors, we highly encourage you to read this and share it with your prospective mentors - it will help everyone understand what is expected of them over the next 6 months. You may also want to check out the Mentor Guide, which contains important information for both Mentors and Org Admins at each stage of the program.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
If you have any questions please contact us at gsoc-support@google.com
February 12, 2018: GSoC 2018: Welcome Org Admins!
TO: Org Admins
This year will be our biggest program ever! We have 212 open source organizations accepted to participate in GSoC 2018 and we expect to accept more students than ever before. An extra special welcome to the 41 organizations participating in GSoC for the first time!
Be Prepared for Student Inquiries!
Over the next month, you'll be meeting potential students. Be prepared and responsive! Students who engage with their organization early (and often) are more likely to be accepted and then succeed. We encourage you to get to know the students and help them get to know you! Please continue to flesh out your ideas lists and documentation over the next few weeks.
What is Expected of Org Admins
- Ensure that your organization's profile page is complete and accurate.
- Keep your Project Ideas List up to date and easy to access.
- Some Orgs currently have ideas lists that are buried two or three clicks underneath the provided link. We strongly encourage you to make the ideas front and center on the page the link points to.
- Make sure your logo looks good on the site. A logo that contains the organization name in readable letters is suggested. You may also need to tweak the aspect ratio.
- Verify the short description makes sense on the main organizations list. This is very important for grabbing attention quickly. Look at other organizations for examples.
- Ensure that the "Application Instructions" for students is thorough and complete.
- Communicate with prospective students about possible project ideas. Mentors should be helping too.
- Invite mentors to your org (see more below). Make sure you have enough mentors to handle the amount of students showing interest.
Inviting Mentors to your Org
Org Admins should now be sending potential mentors invitations to be a part of their organization. The mentor will need to click the link in the email they receive to accept the invitation and create their account. All mentors must be invited by an Org Admin.
Email Archive
All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2018 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.
More emails coming very soon
We will send another (longer) email on Friday once you have had time to invite more mentors to your org. We want them to receive (and read it) too. We know we send a lot of emails, but we try to keep them focused on the important stuff -- please read them carefully.
Contact Us
Please use the gsoc-support@google.com for questions so that anyone on our team can assist you.