Google Summer of Code Application 2016

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Application Status

ongoing, with the text below

Timeline: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/how-it-works/

Old applications

• Base on 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

Profile

• Website URL: http://osgeo.org
• Tagline: The Open Source Geospatial Foundation
• Logo: compass+text, square, 256px
• Primary Open Source License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
• Organization Category: Choose between: Cloud - Data/Databases - End user apps - Graphics/Video/Audio/VR - Operating Systems - Programming languages and development tools - Science and Medicine - Security - Social/Communications - Web - Other. (We can pick only one so I would go for Other.)
• Technology Tags (5 max): C++, standards, python, C, sql
• Topic Tags: gis cartography maps science geospatial (were: gis, live-disc, algorithm, graph, mapping, maps, geospatial, geo, 3d, osm, openstreetmap, cartography, science)
• Ideas List: link to Ideas wiki page
• Short Description: OSGeo is a non-profit organization serving as an umbrella organization for the Open Source Geospatial community.
• Long Description: OSGeo is a non-profit organization serving as an umbrella organization for the Open Source Geospatial community in general and several code projects in particular:

Web Mapping: deegree, geomajas, GeoMOOSE, GeoServer, Mapbender, MapBuilder, MapFish, MapGuide Open Source, MapServer, OpenLayers

Desktop Applications: GRASS GIS, QGIS, gvSIG, Marble

Geospatial Libraries: FDO, GDAL/OGR, GEOS, GeoTools, OSSIM, PostGIS

Metadata Catalogues: GeoNetwork, pycsw

Other incubating projects include: istSOS, PyWPS, Team Engine, ZOO-Project, Opticks, MetaCRS, Orfeo ToolBox (OTB), rasdaman, GeoNode

Other (non-code) Projects: Public Geospatial Data, Education and Curriculum, Live Handout DVD

We host regional and international FOSS4G conferences with typical attendance of 500-1000+ geospatial developers, industry and government types, and researchers. Our mailing lists collectively go out to ~ 20,000 unique subscribers.

• Application Instructions: TODO make a wiki page and paste the text in the application
• Proposal Tags: TODO list of software projects - ISSUE: only 10 tags are allowed.
• IRC Channel, Mailing List, or Email done

Questionnaire

• Why does your org want to participate in Google Summer of Code?: OSGeo is now a veteran GSoC organisation, and looks forward to support new students in their summer projects. Past editions of GSoC brought in new great developers, as well as GSoC mentors. Several small projects got a steady input of new code and gained in stability and visibility. OSGeo acting as umbrella organisation tightened the connection with guest software projects. We definitely look forward for another geospatial GSoC!
• How many potential mentors have agreed to mentor this year? 20+
• How will you keep mentors engaged with their students?: Normally our mentors have served in the role also in the past. However we require at least 2 mentors for each project. We welcome mentors who are regular contributors and/or experts in their field, and are willing to guide students in every step of becoming open source geo developers. We keep personally in touch with each mentor to make sure communication with the student is effective.
• How will you help your students stay on schedule to complete their projects?: We invite them to get the clearest picture possible of their project at the beginning of GSoC, compiling a detailed timeline. To do that, they need to analyse the problem first, then split it into smaller tasks. Mentors are called to evaluate the projects based on the timeline provided. By means of weekly reports, we keep track of their progress, and let the students adjust the timeline estimating their weekly workload, with the help of their mentors.
• How will you get your students involved in your community during GSoC?: Each student is expected to discuss openly the proposal with the relevant software communities even before applying on GSoC website. We ask to send weekly reports to the appropriate developer lists and get feedback there. This year we would like mentors to test the students before selecting them, by proposing small non trivial programming tasks / bug fixes, in order to see if the student is confident enough with the software and the programming environment.
• How will you keep students involved with your community after GSoC?: We ask students to include a "Future development" section in their proposal. Sometimes it is only a mind exercise, but it is often the suggestion for further work, maybe not for that student after GSoC, but also for the dev community or for a following GSoC project. We tend to rate better the students that show genuine enthusiasm in their development project, also well before GSoC starts.
• Has your org been accepted as a mentoring org in Google Summer of Code before? yes
• Which years did your org participate in GSoC?: from 2007 onwards
• What is your success/fail rate per year?

Year: pass/total

2007: 13/19 
2008: 15/19 
2009: 17/20 
2010: 7/10 
2011: 19/21 
2012: 20/22 
2013: 21/22 
2014: 22/23 
2015: 13/13

• Are you part of a foundation/umbrella organization? no - we are one
• What year was your project started? 2006

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