Accepted Contributor Advice

  1. The Community Bonding period sets the tone for your summer - use it wisely!
    • Contact your mentors right away, get to know them and their expectations, grasp the project goals, and use the 3 week Community Bonding Period to your advantage to become familiar with the existing code base.
    • Complete all your administrative tasks including setting up your Payoneer account, getting your computer set up with your org's environment, read documentation, etc. so you can focus on coding during the official coding period.
  2. Communication is key to success in GSoC.
    • Take ownership of the project you're working on. Be proactive in setting up weekly syncs, come up with discussion points ahead of time, communicate your ideas and progress in a clear, concise way.
  3. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
    • This experience is meant to be a collaborative effort and it's critical to the success of the project and your contribution that honesty, trust, and transparency exist to foster that collaboration.
  4. Be kind and respect your peers.
    • Open source is a family so help everybody out, respect them and their time (pay attention to different time zones!), and be understanding of varying knowledge levels.
  5. Make a schedule.
    • Break up your project into weekly tasks you can complete over the course of the GSoC program. Talk through this plan with your mentor and keep your mentor updated with any foreseen changes in the timeline. If your schedule changes be sure to contact your mentor so adjustments can be made earlier rather than later.
  6. Explore existing code before you begin coding.
    • Explore all the code from the platform where you are going to participate: libraries, apis, etc. Many things will already be developed and will help you in your development, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
  7. Be consistent with your work and learn time management.
    • Be consistent with your schedule and contribute every week so you don't lose focus. Reserve enough time not just for coding, but also for testing, writing documentation, code reviews, etc.
  8. Document your progress
    • Keep track of your progress and ask for feedback from your mentor and the community.