This document provides advice for participating in Google Summer of Code (GSOC). It recommends selecting a suitable open source project early, integrating into the project community before applying, and building relationships. It emphasizes communicating professionally, working hard during the program, and seeing GSOC as an opportunity beyond the summer. The document advises applicants to find a mentor, spell check their proposals, and develop strong coding and soft skills. Overall it presents GSOC as a chance to gain job opportunities and recommendations through contributing to open source.

1. GSOC 2013
Plan, Execute, succeed
Suranga Nath Kasthurirathne

2. What we’ll cover
 Why GSOC ?
 Selecting a suitable project
 How to integrate yourself into the
community
 Being a competitive applicant
 Wrapping it up with style

3. Why GSOC ?
 Motivation
 Money (…well, yes)
 But
more importantly !
Opportunity
Expertise
Recommendations

4. Pre-Planning
Some people don’t understand the
importance of starting early.
My advice to them is…

6. Remember…
 Select a Project to suit your needs
 Know your weaknesses / strengths
 Go for the best fit
 Don't limit yourself to ‘popular’ projects

7. Pre-application
process
 Community bonding
 Mailing lists and IRC
 Developer contributions – baby
steps

8. How to brand yourself
 Creating a good impression is
everything !
 Be polite
 Be helpful
 Be mature
 Ask for help, but in the right way

9. Building ties
 Be a team player
 Be nice
 Practice constructive criticism
 Understand that everyone is
important
 IRC / email / Skype Nicks

10. Writing a good proposal
 Spellchecking tools – use them
 Discuss your proposal with
potential mentors
 A good proposal is important, but
that’s not all what it takes
 Be open, even with your proposal
 Cheating in any form wont help

11. Be an ideal candidate
What skills do I consider as essential ?
 Coding skills are important, but that’s
not all
 Attitude
 Communication
 (coherent/ rapid and meaningful)

13. Hi everyone,
I was trying out the access Logging module (
https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/docs/Access+Logging+Module )
Unfortunately, it seems that the module has not been updated to
OMRS 1.8.X.
I tried installing it, but ended up with the same error as mentioned
by Dimithri here - https://answers.openmrs.org/questions/535/error-
in-using-the-module-because-detected-attempt-to-redefine-the-
prefix-form
I'd wanted to create a ticket for this (and hopefully, also fix it), but I
cant seem to find the Access Logging module on the OMRS jira
project list.
Is there a particular reason this is missing from JIRA, or am I looking
in the wrong place ?
--
Thanks and Best Regards,
XYZ

14. Life During GSOC
 Getting selected is only the start of
the battle
 Be prompt, be truthful
 Don’t limit your scope to your
project
 Work as hard as you can, because
GSOC is one job that really pays off

15. Don’t…
 Make incoherent excuses
 Vanish without any explanation
 Be slow in responding to emails
 Be unprofessional
 Be lazy

16. But most
importantly, a word
of advice from my
old mentor…

18. Life after GSOC
The end of the GSOC program is the
beginning of great opportunity…
…If you played your cards right !
Jobs
Recommendations
Experience working with foreign clients
A positive online presence

19. Resources
 http://www.google-
melange.com/gsoc/projects/list/google/
gsoc2012
 https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/Sum
mer+Of+Code+2012
 https://code.google.com/p/google-
summer-of-code/wiki/AdviceforStudents

20. Thank you !
surangakas@gmail/suranga