Below are the questions asked by Google for the Summer of Code 2016 contest and Drupal's answers that were submitted.
Why does your org want to participate in Google Summer of Code?
Drupal wants to participate in GSoC for a variety of reasons. Mainly because a major piece of Drupal's success is based on the fact that we have gained many of our greatest contributors from GSoC. It is our goal to continue this growth by finding our next great contributors. Additionally, GSoC is the perfect chance for students who have never heard of Drupal to find out about us. We believe it is crucial to embrace the next generation of coders. As an organization, we hope students become engaged in their contributions and see how important many of these features are to millions of people around the world. Our newest version of Drupal (Drupal 8) was released recently and it is a great time to join the fun of porting some of our many modules (plugins). Now is the perfect time for anyone (student or not) to start contributing to our project. Plus we have a ton of fun volunteering our time mentoring students in GSoC every year :)
How many potential mentors have agreed to mentor this year?
20+
How will you keep mentors engaged with their students?
Keeping mentors engaged with students will be managed on many levels. Mentors are required to provide contact info such as full name, phone, etc. Mentors are required to provide any known dates for holidays/vacations. Detecting the absence of a mentor as early as possible ensures the student does not suffer. We encourage students to bring up any issues they might have with their mentors in the weekly check-in meeting with org admins. Similarity, org admins will be working with mentors each week to verify project progress and offer mgmt advice. This is one reason we decided our org admins will not mentor any projects and will check-in during required weekly meeting/hangout for all projects. Org admins will verify students and mentors are receiving proper communication in a timely manner. Notes from students and mentors will be documented each week about project progress. In the event a mentor actually disappears, we have multiple backup alumni mentors willing to help if needed.
How will you help your students stay on schedule to complete their projects?
We began using Drupal Ladder as a resource for GSoC processes. All students are required to complete the student ladder @ http://drupalladder.org/ladder/47217ef7-9bf5-4c7f-926f-aeee247aac78 during their proposal process. This helps us filter out spam applications (and those students who are not serious about contributing to Drupal) and we strictly discard any applications where the student hasn't completed the ladder. Each week students are required to attend a meeting with an org admin. Org admins will not mentor any specific project and will personally be responsible for conducting this meeting twice weekly, in two different timezones, so that students from across the world are able to attend. If a student misses more than two meetings, they will be failed automatically. Most importantly, these meetings will encourage students to interact with each another providing feedback and support. Students are required to submit a weekly blog to an org admin for review of that week's work.
How will you get your students involved in your community during GSoC?
To ease the on-boarding process of students, we've created a 'Getting Started Guide for GSoC Students' @ https://www.drupal.org/node/2415225. Although, we also have a more comprehensive guide for new contributors @ https://www.drupal.org/getting-involved-guide, we've designed this guide so that it is not overwhelming for new students. That being said, we've also ensured that the guide contains all the information and resources required by students to start contributing to Drupal. It contains help on important topics such as using issue queues/IRC/git, setting up development environment, and contacting the mentors. We spent a lot of time writing and updating our documentation for new GSoC students. It is essentially a summary of every question potential students asked in the past plus more. Life is much easier now that we can copy/paste link to potential students who seem to ask the same frequently asked questions. Students should have no trouble getting started on their own.
How will you keep students involved with your community after GSoC?
Throughout GSoC students will learn about various ways to contribute, join initiatives, work on specific types of functionality, attend Drupal related events, and more. Students are advised to find and attend Drupal related events in their local area. Attending events and talking about Drupal in real life is a great way to help students continue their excitement after GSoC. Major encouragement comes from hearing about amazing full time Drupal careers from mentors. Students will learn that working with Drupal is not a job, but a lifestyle. Furthermore, having Drupal on a CV/resume is one of the top skills requested by many tech recruiters and job providers. During the mentoring process, it is clear to see the student is starting to understand how open source contributions work and that many companies support these efforts by hiring developers with credentials such as GSoC experience. Any successful GSoC student should have no problem finding an internship/job when the GSoC is over.
Has your org been accepted as a mentoring org in Google Summer of Code before?
Yes
Which years did your org participate in GSoC?
2005-12,14-15
What is your success/fail rate per year?
2015: Passed 9 - Failed 3 2014: Passed 12 - Failed 1 2012: Passed 12 - Failed 1 2011: Passed 11 - Failed 4 2010: Passed 18 - Failed 0 2009: Passed 19 (bonus student from another org) - Failed 0 2008: Passed 19 - Failed 2 (dropped @midterm) 2007: Passed 18 - Failed 2 2006: Passed 14 - Failed 0 2005: Passed 11 - Failed 0
If your org has applied for GSoC before but not been accepted, select the years:
2013
If you are a new organization to GSoC, is there a Google employee or previously participating organization who will vouch for you? If so, please enter their name, contact email, and relationship to your organization. (optional)
Are you part of a foundation/umbrella organization?
No
What year was your project started?
2001
Anything else we should know (optional)?
Drupal is interested in mentoring 10 projects for GSoC 2016. Our experience has shown that it's better to select 10 projects that we're confident will be successful rather than attempting to tackle too many. We believe it is a better use of our volunteer's time to provide a focus to a smaller number of students and projects in order to optimize the GsoC experience.
Tagline
Drupal is a Free, Open, Modular CMS written in PHP. Let's make something amazing
Short Description
Drupal is an open source content mgmt platform powering millions of sites and app. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world.
Long Description
Drupal is content management software. It's used to make many of the websites and applications you use every day. Drupal has great standard features, like easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security. But what sets it apart is its flexibility; modularity is one of its core principles. Its tools help you build the versatile, structured content that dynamic web experiences need. It's also a great choice for creating integrated digital frameworks. You can extend it with any one, or many, of thousands of add-ons. Modules expand Drupal's functionality. Themes let you customize your content's presentation. Distributions are packaged Drupal bundles you can use as starter-kits. Mix and match these components to enhance Drupal's core abilities. Or, integrate Drupal with external services and other applications in your infrastructure. No other content management software is this powerful and scalable. The Drupal project is open source software. Anyone can download, use, work on, and share it with others. It's built on principles like collaboration, globalism, and innovation. It's distributed under the terms of the GNU (GPL). There are no licensing fees, ever. Drupal will always be free. The Drupal community is one of the largest open source communities in the world. We're more than 1,000,000 passionate developers, designers, trainers, strategists, coordinators, editors, and sponsors working together. We build Drupal, provide support, create documentation, share networking opportunities, and more. Our shared commitment to the open source spirit pushes the Drupal project forward. New members are always welcome. Drupal 8 is the biggest update in Drupal's history. Creating content is easier. Every built-in theme is responsively designed. It's available in 100 languages, and its integration tools make it a great hub for complex ecosystems. More than 4,500 people, companies, and organizations contributed their time, experience, and imagination.
Primary Open Source License
GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPL-2.0)
Organization Category
Web
Technology Tags
php, symfony, sql, javascript, drupal 8
Topic Tags
web, web development, content management, object-oriented, cms
Ideas List
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PJ3Hr5pEXCw-S3cyATcmOe4Cf3IXTnJqA4vk...
Application Instructions
Welcome, GSoC students! Please read Drupal's getting started guide for students @ https://www.drupal.org/node/2415225 completely which will provide you with all the necessary information before applying. You should join Drupal's GSoC group @ https://groups.drupal.org/google-summer-code and add your name under the "Interested Students" section of our Task Organization Wiki @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/508466. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions. If you wish to chat with us in real-time, join our IRC channel #drupal-google @Freenode. Remember, "don't ask to ask". All students are required to complete Drupal Ladder for GSoC students @ http://drupalladder.org/ladder/47217ef7-9bf5-4c7f-926f-aeee247aac78 which is a step-by-step guide designed to give students an introduction to Drupal. All applications must follow Drupal's application template @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/411293. If you wish to look at some of the sample successful applications from the previous years, you can find them @ https://groups.drupal.org/node/459223. But remember that these are provided to be used merely as inspiration material, and not resources to copy from.
Proposal Tags
drupal 8 port, new module, new features, migration
IRC Channel
http://drupal.org/irc#drupal-google
Mailing List
https://groups.drupal.org/google-summer-code
Google+ URL
https://plus.google.com/113325464728592995596
Twitter URL
Blog URL
Comments
GSoC 2016 Application Submitted
Drupal's Google Summer of Code 2016 application has been submitted. Now we wait until February 29th for Google to announce participating organizations.