As Chris pointed out a few days ago, the Eclipse Foundation is participating in Google’s Summer of Code. Philippe Ombredanne is helping me with the administration of the programme and has, quite frankly, been handling the bulk of the heavy lifting (thanks Philippe). We’ve also assembled an impressive list of mentors and have picked up a few project proposals.
The programme funds students (on the order of USD$4500) to work on summer projects. That’s pretty good scratch for a couple month’s worth of work (at least it was when I was a student). Google takes care of the money, so don’t bother asking me about it (beyond taking part in accepting/rejecting proposals).
Of course, we’re looking for projects with an Eclipse angle to them; Philippe has made a tonne of suggestions on our project page. We’ve had a few students submit project proposals already. Unfortunately, most of them have been little more than resumes. In fact, almost without exception, all of the proposals have contained little or no detail about the actual project.
If you want to participate, I strongly recommend that you spend the proper amount of time and put a lot of effort into the proposal. Get help. Have your friends review your proposal. You need to provide us with enough information for us to:
- Understand what you’re proposing to actually build
- Have confidence that you can actually make significant progress over the summer
We’re not hiring a summer student to work on our stuff. We’re offering to mentor you through the process of building something you’re interested in. Just sending us your resume doesn’t cut it. Your skills are a necessary part of the project proposal, but it’s not enough to let us know that you’re smart. Tell us what you want to do with those smarts.
The one-line project suggestions on our page aren’t enough either. Use ’em as a starting point, but we need to have more information.
