Google Summer of Code 2013 Ideas

Member projects have been collecting theirs, we're just about ready to link them all here!

For now, look at last year's ideas:


 * Google Summer of Code 2012 Ideas

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 @

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 * Back to the main OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2013 wiki page.

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 * See also ideas from 2010, 2011, and 2012.

OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2013
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to extend a welcome to all SoC students. On this page you will find links to a host of ideas organized by project. You will find ideas ranging from the depths of computer science graph theory to the heights of visualization. One thing all these ideas have in common is lots and lots of spatial data.

These ideas are *only* to motivate you, and serve as example of the kind of hills we want to charge up. Your own ideas are more than welcomed - they are encouraged. We view you as the next wave of open source leaders; show us what you've got.

If you need more information on how to apply you can contact all the mentoring organisations via the  mailing list (see below)


 * There is a Google SoC flyer to look at and post in appropriate places and an OSGeo flavoured one as well (TODO: update to 2013).


 * Ok, OSGeo is involved in working with maps and things, but what kind of projects does it really do? Have a look at the live blog feed to see what people are working on right now.

Important dates

 * [ The official timeline]


 * : Google announces accepted organizations. If OSGeo is accepted as an organization for Google Summer of Code, start talking to us earlier rather than later.
 * : Student applications open. The earlier you start the more probable it is that you will be accepted! There is two way feedback during the application process which really helps you improve and clarify your application before the final deadline. The better your involvement with your potential mentors during this period, the better your chances of being selected.
 * : Student application deadline.
 * : Accepted student proposals are announced.
 * : Coding begins! (you may unofficially start a week or two earlier if you know you'll have to take a week or two off during The Summer or you'll be sitting finals in the first week(s) of the program. This must be reflected in your application timeline)
 * : Mid-term evaluation.
 * : Pencils down!
 * : Final evaluation deadline
 * : Final results announced
 * : Students begin submitting required code samples to Google

The ideas pages
[Work in progress]

Each participating project's list of ideas is here, with a short description of the project and what type of students would be interested in it:


 * http://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_SoC_Ideas_2013
 * http://hub.qgis.org/wiki/quantum-gis/Google_Summer_of_Code_2013
 * http://trac.osgeo.org/ossim/wiki/GSoC_2013_Ideas
 * http://udig.refractions.net/confluence/display/HACK/Summer+of+Code#SummerofCode-2013SummerofCode
 * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GvSIG_GSoC_2013_Ideas
 * http://opticks.org/confluence/display/opticksDev/Google+Summer+of+Code

Which project do I choose?
Most of the software projects are available pre-built on our Live demo { DVD | USB stick | VirtualMachine } with project overviews and short tutorials where you can try everything out.
 * View the documents and download the ISO from http://live.osgeo.org

How to get in contact via mailing lists
Since OSGeo is an umbrella organisation for multiple projects, each project has their own discussion and development mailing lists.

Main OSGeo mailing lists of interest to students:
 * Please start here, when contacting us for the first time with questions about Google Summer of Code.


 * OSGeo SoC Mentors and Students - soc@lists.osgeo.org (http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/soc)
 * OSGeo Wide Discussion List - discuss@lists.osgeo.org (http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss)

Also see the Mailing Lists page for project specific lists, as well as the longer list at http://lists.osgeo.org.

How to get in contact via IRC
Primary channel:


 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#osgeo (Web based IRC client, alternative)

GSoC @ OSGeo inter-project discussions:


 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#osgeo-soc

Project irc channels:


 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#gdal
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#geoserver
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#geotools
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#grass
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#gvsig
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapbuilder
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapguide
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapnik
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#mapserver
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#openlayers
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#opticks
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#ossimplanet
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#pgrouting-project
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#postgis
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#qgis
 * irc://irc.freenode.net/#udig

Application questions we'll ask you
[Provisional]

(All questions must be answered)

Name: Country: School and degree: Email: Phone: OSGeo project(s): Title: (please include the name of the member project as part of the title, for example: "Gee Whiz Foobar 2001 for QGIS") Describe your idea 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. The idea 4. Project plan (detailed timeline: how do you plan to spend your summer?) 5. Future ideas / How can your idea be expanded? Explain how your SoC task would benefit the OSGeo member project and more generally the OSGeo Foundation as a whole: Please provide details of general computing experience: (operating systems you use on a day-to-day basis, languages you could write a program in, hardware, networking experience, etc.) Please provide details of previous GIS experience: Please provide details of any previous involvement with GIS programming and other software programming: Please tell us why you are interested in GIS and open source software: Please tell us why you are interested in working for OSGeo and the software project you have selected: Please tell us why you are interested in your specific coding project: Would your application contribute to your ongoing studies/ degree? If so, how? Please explain how you intend to continue being an active member of your project and/or OSGeo AFTER the summer is over: Do you understand this is a serious commitment, equivalent to a full-time paid summer internship or summer job?

What to expect during the summer

 * A group of past GSoC students, mentors, and Googlers have prepared this short book just for you: Flip bits not Burgers: The Student's Guide to the Summer of Code -- READ THIS eBOOK

Be prepared to be in constant communication with your mentors and project
You and your mentors will decide on the specifics, but we will expect you and your mentor to communicate *a lot*. Part of the idea of SoC is to intergrate you into the developer community, so you should get involved with them from the start. The more you communicate the easier it will be. Don't be afraid that the mentors will request your phone number. It is only to make sure that we can reach you, in case of problems.

Weekly reports
Yes, every week we expect to see a report posted to the soc@osgeo mailing list that at least answers the following questions:


 * 1) What did you get done this week?
 * 2) What do you plan on doing next week?
 * 3) Are you blocked on anything?

These questions BTW are the same as are used in real-work, when developing with the Scrum development process. ;)

If you want, feel free to write *more*. But three sentences is the bare minimum. *IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SEND YOUR PROGRESS REPORTS ON TIME*, if you don't send this email your mentors will start to get twitchy, and *especially* if they don't get any responses to their emails / don't see you in IRC. Twitchy mentors is not what we want. If you are blocked by finals, that's cool. We have all studied at some point, just tell us about it up front, be honest, and we'll work around it. If you don't know how to proceed and your mentor isn't answering *definitely* tell about it. The SoC project admins will always be available. Basically the point is that you open up the communication channels, and keep them open. That way you will have a super summer, and get paid ;)

Last year this weekly report proved to be very popular among the students and mentors alike, so we will keep it up.

Wiki page and blogs
In addition to weekly reports we require you to maintain a wiki or blog page for your project. You should store your weekly reports there and add other information, like how to compile and test your program. If applicable add screenshots and other nice info.

Wiki and/or blog space can and will be provided by OSGeo if your project doesn't have anything already set up for this.

We hope to link all of the students' blogs to the OSGeo Planet blog aggregator for maximum community exposure and hopefully early feedback from the experts who read it, which may save you a lot of time and trouble if, e.g., some obscure wheel has already been invented.

[Back to Google Summer of Code 2013 @ OSGeo]