Ubuntu Wiki

How to start

• Make sure you are eligible to participate

• Review our Project Ideas

• Read the Selection Process / Proposals section very carefully
• Join the on the #ubuntu-gsoc Freenode IRC channel

• Send an email to the mailing list, introducing yourself

• Use this template to create your profile in our wiki page

• Prepare an application, discuss and share it with a mentor

• Apply from March 29 - April 9, 2010 here

• Rock and Roll!

Can you participate?

• You need to be enrolled as a student in a college/university
• You need to be 18+
• If you are a Google employee, intern, contractor, family member, or resident and national of Iran, Syria, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea, and Myanmar (Burma), with whom Google is prohibited by U.S. law from engaging in commerce, you won't be eligible to participate.

Selection Process / Proposals

• We will not accept a proposal that we can do ourselves over a few days, so be detailed. But also, don't be super ambitious - it is be better to succeed with a small idea than to submit a complex project and leave the program
• Feel free to submit multiple proposals, but you can only work in one project (Ubuntu)
• Applications are for individuals, you can't work in groups
• Don't feel stuck to the ideas we have suggested here
• If you have new ideas to help us improve our OS and you are familiar with Ubuntu, go for it and propose them! We believe, we'll have loads of applicants for each idea listed on the mentor's page, so keep in mind that your proposals will have less competition
• The idea needs to fit in with our project goals, it needs to be specific, and it needs to be detailed

• Before sending us the whole proposal, we recommend that you send a summary with your idea to the list or to your mentor for feedback

• Include your IRC nick in the proposal
• List your milestones
• Be creative, do not copycat
• Impress us!
• Tell us who you are and why did you choose Ubuntu

Tips for students

• It is highly recommended that you go through Google's advise page

• If you have queries, read Google's faqs and contact us immediately if your question is not answered there

• Try not to get intimidated: Passion counts more than experience
• Join the IRC freenode channel, let us know who you are!

Reports

We suggest you send the following report to your mentor every 2 weeks minimum

Subject: Project name - Date of report
TIME SPENT: approx hours

HIGHLIGHTS: what you learnt/ enjoyed the most

CONCERNS: what is concerning you that is out of your hands to change

WAITING ITEMS: Are you waiting for anyone else to complete a task or are you depending on someone else

STALLED TASKS: If you are stuck, please state the factors that delayed those tasks

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: List them by importance

MINOR TASKS: Any other tasks

ACTIONS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK: 

If you don't have the time to write a report or you had a busy week, you should at least send an email to your mentor answering the following questions

1. What have you done since your last status report?
2. In the process of doing it, what did you run into, both positive and negative?
3. What did you do about what you ran into, both positive and negative?
4. What are you going to do next?

Time to code!

• Do your best to write good code!
• Track your progress: the more detailed, the best chances to your project to succeed
• Keep in touch with your mentor all the time
• Write reports/updates to your mentors and mailing list
• Log your activities somewhere (wiki is great for this, and you can create your own wiki page)

The end

• Keep in touch
• Blog about your experience
• Become part of our community!