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Page: GSoC Application Guide
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14 GSoC Application Guide
Joshua Rosenfeld edited this page 2018-02-02 16:17:26 -05:00
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How to Apply

Send your application starting March 27, 2018. Before you apply, review the following:

  • Can you join? Check out Google’s FAQ and see if you’re eligible for the GSoC. Also make careful note of the GSoC timeline in your calendar.

  • Are you joining for the right reasons? Read “Reasons why you shouldn’t hack on open source projects” AND "The ideal GSoC applicant" carefully. If you’re not passionate about what we’re doing, the work will suffer.

  • Let’s avoid rookie mistakes. Read “DOs and DON’Ts of GSoC (for students)“.

  • What’s your idea? Decide which idea(s) you want to work on. Feel free to @mention the username of relevant mentors listed in the ideas list to get their attention.

  • Orientate yourself. Have you contributed to Discourse before, made a pull request or a plugin? Some projects demand greater expertise than others. In any case, make sure that you have a firm understanding of key Discourse concepts before you apply to any Discourse project. Browse the source code, especially the parts relevant to your project idea(s), and be sure you’ll be capable of integrating your idea into the existing project.

  • Familiarise yourself with Git & GitHub You should be familiar with common Git workflows before GSoC starts.

  • Draft your application (see template below). Feel free to type up drafts for different ideas and ask us which one has the highest chance of succeeding: Create your draft on the forum if you’d like, or type it up on an external site like your blog or a GitHub gist and share a link to it on the forum or PM the relevant mentors.

  • Setting the scope is your job! It is your responsibility to cut down or expand upon an idea so that it’s both challenging but also completely feasible within 4 months. We will however provide plenty of feedback on scope during the application phase.

Personal Details Brief

Mandatory

  • Name: Your_Name_Here
  • Nickname: @Your_Meta_Username_Here
  • Email: name@domain.com
  • Country & timezone: E.g. “Germany, GMT+1″
  • School Name & Study: The name of your university and field of study.

Optional

  • Skype ID or GTalk/Jabber: SkypeID or name@gmail.com (for IM and voice chats).
  • Personal Website: http://yourdomain.tld (if applicable)
  • Phone number (incl. country code): For emergencies only. If all other contact methods fail at a critical time, we can try your phone.

Application Template

Synopsis

Give us the “elevator pitch“. You have 30 seconds to tell us what you are going to make, why we will like this project, and to convince us that you are qualified to do it! (You might want to write this section last).

Project Details

Specs & Scope:

  1. Provide a brief breakdown of the features that this project will add to Discourse (see the example specs in the Ideas List). Feel free to include some stretch goals, as long as they are clearly identified as such.
  2. Go into some detail on the scope of each listed feature. Which features do you expect will require the most and least amount of work?

Anticipated challenges:

Identify challenges or risks to the success of the project, such as the project being incomplete by the end of the GSoC term. How do you intend to detect these risks early on? How do you plan to mitigate the challenges?

Groundwork:

What have you done so far with this idea: Include any work or research on this project you have already started. Has something similar been tried before, and how was it different from your approach? Summarise what you’ve discussed with other developers so far and where you’ll be going from there.

Project Schedule

How long will the project take? When can you begin work? How many hours are you going to work on this a week? Include an estimated timeline of the project with mini-milestones. Consider your school/vacation/work/life commitments that conflict with your project schedule, and please explain how you plan to compensate for them.

Experience

What is your experience using and developing Discourse or similar applications? What about RoR/Ember.js programs? Have you worked in conditions like these before (remote team work, timezone difference, deadlines)? Are you comfortable communicating technical development in English?

Tip: Don’t just rely on the GSoC mentors to review your application in-depth. Ask a technical colleague or friend to review it carefully and provide critical feedback.

Example Proposals:

After Submitting Your Application

After you’ve applied, check on your application at the GSoC site once or twice a day. Answering your mentor’s questions timely is very important. Discourse mentors will leave notes on your application if they need more information or have additional questions about your proposal that they need answered before making a decision. If they leave a note and you don’t respond, it’s not their job to track you down. There will be many applications, so making sure you stay on top of your application will help you compete for the spots we have to fill. Google will announce the accepted students on their site.