Google Summer of Code Application 2011
Application Deadline
- February 28: 19:00 UTC
- Mentoring organizations can begin submitting applications to Google.
- March 11: 23:00 UTC
- Mentoring organization application deadline.
Old
- Base on 2007, 2008, 2009 and Google Summer of Code Application 2010
Pending
- Verify if the application rules have changed in any way since we last looked at them. - Done (Hamish)
- Apply
New
- Anne!
For discussion
Possible additions to last year's
- Title: (please include the name of the member project as part of the title, for example: "Gee Whiz Foobar 2001 for QGIS")
- Anne: +1 for me.
proposed additional question for the application:
- Would your application contribute to your ongoing studies/degree? If so, how?
- (logic: If they will use the software for their degree they will care more about functional and absolutely correct outcomes. Also if they have a local univ. supervisor it's like a built-in co-mentor)
- Anne: Agreed. We can also ask if the supervisor is willing to participate more officially to the application, as co-mentor, for example discussing with the student and the official mentor about goals and timeline.
Possible removals vs. last year's
- too many "why are you interested in this?" questions? combine some? (or not)
- Anne: They are OK for me. Maybe we can invert the order, starting from more general questions (generic computing > programming > GIS). I also think that these two questions are overlapping, the first can be dropped, if not at least swapped so that first we ask about interest in OSGeo, the in the OSGeo project, then in the specific proposal.
Please tell us why you are interested in your specific coding project: Please tell us why you are interested in working for OSGeo and the software project you have selected:
The Application
Organization Name
OSGeo - Open Source Geospatial Foundation
Description
OSGeo is a non-profit organization serving as an umbrella organization for the Open Source Geospatial community in general and 20 (to 26) code projects in particular:
Web Mapping: deegree, geomajas, GeoServer, Mapbender, MapBuilder, MapFish, MapGuide Open Source, MapServer, OpenLayers
Desktop Applications: GRASS GIS, OSSIM, Quantum GIS, gvSIG
Geospatial Libraries: FDO, GDAL/OGR, GEOS, GeoTools, MetaCRS, PostGIS
- The following are sub-projects of MetaCRS:
- CS-Map, GeoTIFF/libgeotiff, PROJ.4, Proj4J, Proj4js, SpatialReference.org
Metadata Catalog: GeoNetwork
Other (non-code) Projects: Public Geospatial Data, Education and Curriculum, Live Handout DVD
Home page
http://www.osgeo.org
Main Organization License
Each member project uses their own, but all OSGeo projects are required to use an OSI approved license. (see http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/evaluation.html)
- Member projects specifically use: GPL >=2, LGPL, MIT/X, ...
GSoC program requires an OSI approved license, but the dropdown only lets you select one.
We go with GPL 2 since it seems to be the one most commonly used.
Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2011? What do you hope to gain by participating?
(required)
We hope to get more students excited about open source geospatial development. This will help to grow the development community and of course tangibly advance particular projects. Additionally by way of the level of exposure that SoC provides we aim to further extend the use, development, and teaching & training of open source GIS at universities worldwide. This will help to prepare a new generation of developers for industry and government agencies capable of introducing and implementing viable open source geospatial technology, to the benefit of all.
Last but not least we hope to use this opportunity to bring more open source geospatial projects closer and to communicate more. We are encouraging students to come up with ideas that cross project boundaries, and to find new ways to connect the separate efforts in order to bring out new and perhaps improved wholes. In 2008 we also saw the birth of a new project, Spatialytics, which is a novel combination of several geospatial technologies. This is, as stated above, one of our goals, which SGoC helps us achieve in a way which cannot be matched in any other regular effort.
Additionally it has been a great opportunity to mingle code with and get to know other likeminded FOSS projects in our app domain. (such as OSM, Mapnik, Sahana, Ushahidi, ...)
If accepted, would this be your first year participating in GSoC?
* No
Did your organization participate in past GSoCs? If so, please summarize your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation.
OSGeo participated in GSoC in 2010.
details here
OSGeo Sent two delegates to the Mentor Summit.
where we participated in many (6+?) geospatial sessions
OSGeo participated in GSoC in 2009. Twelve OSGeo member projects participated and were very successful. The applications were of better quality so we had fewer dropouts than the previous year. We also had further cross-project co-operation projects, which went very well indeed. OSGeo Sent two delegates to the Mentor Summit.
OSGeo participated in GSoC in 2008. Eleven OSGeo member projects participated and were in general very successful. OSGeo didn't send delegates to the Mentor Summit due to the busy schedules of the mentors.
See http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/SoC_Report_2008 for a full report.
OSGeo participated in GSoC in 2007. Six OSGeo projects participated and were generally very successful. OSGeo also sent one delegate to the Mentor Summit in 2007. See http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/SoC_Report_2007 for a full report. We also opened up a demo theatre track highlighting SoC work at our foss4g conference that year.
OSGeo was formed in early 2006 and did not participate in GSoC prior to 2007. However, Refractions Research did participate in 2006 on behalf of the GeoTools, uDig, and PostGIS projects which now participate through OSGeo. Most of the the previously participating mentors and administrators continue to be involved in this years OSGeo GSoC effort.
If your organization participated in past GSoCs, please let us know the ratio of students passing to students allocated
e.g. 2006: 3/6 for 3 out of 6 students passed in 2006.
2007: 13/19
2008: 15/19
2009: 17/20
2010: 7/10 ??
the breakdown of the failures is interesting- Were failures all from first-time-SOC / outside-of-osgeo projects?
- MapGuide - OSGeo - student who failed was a last minute replacement for Sergei who we gave to another SOC org during the conflict resolution swap-meet.
- MapWindow - non-member OSGeo
- GeoKettle - non-member OSGeo
2c thoughts: So we could do better helping our "outsider" projects in? Or perhaps projects already accepted into OSGeo have a long history and established already-integrated teams, thus correlation with success in an OSGeo-led endeavour is not entirely surprising. (aka we can twist our friends arms with greater force than we can our guests).
2009 app comment: "As the numbers indicate each year we have received better and better applications, and thus have had a better success ratio. Also we have learned to mentor better, and to spot the good applications."
What is the URL for your ideas page?
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2011_Ideas
What is the main development mailing list for your organization?
This question will be shown to students who would like to get more information about applying to your organization for GSoC 2011. If your organization uses more than one list, please make sure to include a description of the list so students know which to use. (required)
soc@lists.osgeo.org - For questions about applying and other GSoC questions See http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for a full list and descriptions of the OSGeo project mailing lists.
What is the main IRC channel for your organization?
The primary OSGeo channel is #osgeo on the irc.freenode.net network. member projects maintain their own IRC channels: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/IRC
Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use?
If so, please provide it now. Please note that it is a very good idea to ask students to provide you with their contact information as part of your template. Their contact details will not be shared with you automatically via the GSoC 2011 site.
Yes. [add here]
What criteria did you use to select the individuals who will act as mentors for your organization? Please be as specific as possible.
(required)
What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
(required)
What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
(required)
What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program?
(required)
If you are a small or new organization applying to GSoC, please list a larger, established GSoC organization or a Googler that can vouch for you here.
n/a
If you are a large organization who is vouching for a small organization applying to GSoC for their first time this year, please list their name and why you think they'd be good candidates for GSoC here
As an umbrella organization we are fundamentally a conglomerate of small(er) organizations and so are well experienced in helping smaller mentoring teams. We have been happy to mentor-mentor small orgs in the past when they've approached us, each year taking in a few in-the-same-field projects who were not technically members of our Foundation but who'd otherwise would have missed out. This year we are vouching for Neo4j graph database. Neo4j worked with us last year as one of the many projects under the OSGeo Umbrella. This year they have chosen to go on for them selves and we OSGeo vouch for them as an organization.
This year there is also the Opticks project, but they are participating under the OSGeo umbrealla, since they have started the OSGeo incubation process. So I guess what we're saying is that we are already performing this role.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
GSoC is a very important project for OSGeo. We are investing more and more to it every year. This year we have a second full-time administrator in order to improve on the quality of mentoring the mentors. For OSGeo GSoC is not only a means to increase the size of the community, but also an important event to grow awareness of our project in academia, and other open source communities.
Backup Admin (Link ID)
Backup administrators:
* Anne Ghisla (melange: anne_ghisla) * Hamish Bowman (melange: hamish)