[HN Gopher] Google Summer of Code in 2022 - No longer limited to...
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Google Summer of Code in 2022 - No longer limited to students
Author : TangerineDream
Score : 110 points
Date : 2021-11-10 20:30 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (opensource.googleblog.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (opensource.googleblog.com)
| cturtle wrote:
| As someone fortunate enough to participate in the GSoC twice, I
| think this is fantastic news. I had such a great experience and
| learned a lot. It's wonderful that this change allows even more
| people the opportunity to be compensated for open source dev.
| neves wrote:
| How much are they paying for the applicants?
| progbits wrote:
| $3000 adjusted by country purchasing power, split into 45%/55%
| (mid-term and final evaluation)
|
| https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/help/student-...
| pzo wrote:
| for anyone curious, for most countries adjustment goes down
| and that means $1500 for 3 months of work => $500/month, on
| top of that you will also have to pay tax.
| jhgb wrote:
| > adjusted by country purchasing power
|
| What's the reasoning behind such an uneconomical decision?
| MatthewWilkes wrote:
| I don't speak for Google, however I was involved in Summer
| of Code from the open source side when this decision was
| made. The reason given was that they were concerned that
| the amounts were having a disproportionate impact on some
| students, paying significantly more than the jobs it was
| meant to compete with to the extent that getting into
| Sumner of Code was one of the main objectives for students
| rather than a nice to have.
|
| I can tell you that when it was announced it was a very
| unpopular move with the mentoring organisations, where the
| strong feeling was that equal work deserves equal pay, but
| ultimately the decision for mentoring orgs is to
| participate or not, and the vast majority chose to
| participate.
| fooker wrote:
| It wasn't like this when I participated (2013). ~5500 USD
| was the flat rate wherever you were from.
| IceWreck wrote:
| It was higher when I participated but still adjusted by
| country purchasing power. The duration was longer than last
| year and we had three evaluations instead of two.
| nafizh wrote:
| When I participated back in 2015, it was 5500$. It seems they
| have reduced it to 3300$.
| bluedino wrote:
| This is one thing I'm glad to see Google has kept alive.
| MatthewWilkes wrote:
| I was very involved in GSoC from an open source perspective for
| many years. I think this is the best tweak they've made in years.
| There is so much talent outside of the University system, and
| widening this will give lots of motivated people opportunities
| they otherwise wouldn't have.
| IceWreck wrote:
| There are also optionally larger projects.
|
| > Rather than a mandatory 12-week program that runs from June -
| August with everyone required to finish their projects by the end
| of the 12th week, we are opening it up so mentors and their GSoC
| Contributors can decide together if they want to extend the
| deadline for the project up to 22 weeks.
| shorts_theory wrote:
| Glad to see Google keeping this alive! I benefited a lot from
| participating in the GSoC program twice and I probably wouldn't
| be where I am right now without it! It can't be overstated how
| valuable the mentorship and open-source community experience is
| for programmers in the beginning of their careers.
| cxr wrote:
| Suppose Google dropped all pretense and offered full-time work to
| any qualified applicant willing to work for minimum living wage--
| a 21st century workfare program. What would those numbers look
| like? What are the costs of the overheads? Suppose Google is able
| to draw managers ("mentors") from the upper end of the same
| applicant pool. What's the upper bound on programmers after
| arriving at an equilibrium by iteration? Knuth estimates 2% of
| the world has what it takes to be a programmer. Is that a
| reasonable upper bound for such a program, considering that the
| existence of the program will by incentive probably double or
| quadruple the number of working programmers in the world, but
| also keeping in mind that the most of the world's existing and
| aspiring programmers won't be interested in minimum wage long-
| term?
| geodel wrote:
| > Knuth estimates 2% of the world has what it takes to be a
| programmer.
|
| Without knowing Knuth's criteria it sounds arbitrary. Would it
| be Knuth caliber programer? Then 2 percent seems high. Or one
| could change webpage color / deploy some simple app with click
| of button or running couple line of script. I guess 80% of
| adult population might be able to do in 2030.
|
| > but also keeping in mind that the most of the world's
| existing and aspiring programmers won't be interested in
| minimum wage long-term
|
| Well minimum wage workers are also not interested in that for
| long term. However that's what people will do if it is the only
| thing available.
| tshaddox wrote:
| I'm not really sure what you mean. Google already offers full-
| time software development work to any qualified applicant for
| _more_ than a minimum living wage. If they wanted to employ
| significantly more developers I 'm not sure how _lowering_ the
| compensation offer would help them.
| mym1990 wrote:
| Its likely that the OP means that the 'qualified applicant'
| criteria would significantly drop in order to increase
| acceptance rate.
| yumraj wrote:
| Doesn't this conflict with internship for students. So, am
| curious as to which ends up being more valuable to a student a
| proper Internship or GSoC?
|
| Or, have students done GSoC in parallel with their internships?
| asperous wrote:
| They can both be valuable from a student perspective; GSoC from
| my experience is a full time gig during that time.
|
| I don't how many internships Google has but SoC is 1-2k people
| a year
|
| Google Internships from Google's perspective is people that
| they may want to hire. Summer of Code the candidates are chosen
| by the participating organizations so it's a wider range.
| sss111 wrote:
| It is already very hard to get in as a student. why make it even
| tougher for them?
| fermentation wrote:
| I have many friends who cannot afford to go to college, yet
| have entry-level coding skills and want experience in order to
| get a job as a developer.
| blocked_again wrote:
| Have they considered emmigrating to one of the more developed
| countries?
| tshaddox wrote:
| As always, "if you don't like it just move across the world
| right now" is not a viable argument.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| It always is.
|
| Year after year thousands of bright young minds just come
| to the valley to build and innovate. Just look at Musk,
| it was either PayPal or military service during
| Apartheid...
| nnoitra wrote:
| Not sure if sarcastic. Immigration to US is incredibly
| difficult.
| tester756 wrote:
| >Just look at Musk, it was either PayPal or military
| service during Apartheid...
|
| weren't his parent relatively rich, which makes going to
| the other country, especially US kinda easier?
| Permit wrote:
| Ignoring pathways for refugees, it is really hard
| (impossible?) to do this without a degree.
| geodel wrote:
| It is only a good thing that others also get opportunity to
| work for Open source and also earn some money for it.
| dilyevsky wrote:
| It is already pretty hard on maintainers which I don't
| believe get paid. I think it's worth it if it's for students
| but it should have been a separate program if it's just some
| random person wanting to get involved.
| david_allison wrote:
| The organisation gets a small stipend per-student ($400)
| which can be distributed to the mentors.
|
| https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/rules/ - 8.2 a) ii)
| geodel wrote:
| I do not know if random student to be able earn money for
| open source work is somehow inherently better than random
| person getting it.
|
| I could be more concerned if they made program more
| restrictive. But making it more open is not only more
| practical and useful for people at large it is also
| ethically better thing to do.
|
| Besides if someone dislike Google's decision they are
| welcome to not participate.
| dilyevsky wrote:
| Depends on how they are going to be selecting
| participants (blogpost doesn't mention that). If that
| opens up a floodgate for yesterday's freelancers to
| suddenly be interested in open source (but really just to
| make a quick buck) then i can see projects pulling out bc
| it repurposes the program from purely
| mentorship/education-focused to commercial and the end
| result will be worse for everyone.
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