Summer Coding FAQ

These are all the frequently asked questions about the Fedora Summer Coding program.

• 2010 event main page
• Special interest group running Fedora Summer Coding

2010 FAQs

These questions are specific to the 2010 program, which began in April 2010.

I'm a student, what should I do?

Read this page.

After you read that page, ask your questions on this mailing list.

How much is the student stipend?

The goal is to fund students at two pay rates, depending on the size of the project. US$5000 for full projects and US$2500 for half projects.

Full projects are expected to run from 8 to 10 weeks, covering the whole schedule.

Half projects are expected to run from 4 to 5 weeks, covering a specific 50% portion of the schedule. Half projects must be approved by the project mentor, and the revised schedule included in the proposal.

I'm a mentor, what should I do?

Read this page.

After you read that page, join this mailing list to discuss your project idea(s).

What is the final schedule?

This schedule actually lives on Summer Coding 2010 schedule:

This schedule is ready for Summer Coding 2010. Join the discussion mailing list and/or watch this page to be updated about schedule changes.

Start dates are emphasized and deadlines are in bold emphasis for student items.

Deadlines are 23:59 UTC on the specified date
For example, if the deadline is 09 August, all work must be in for mentor review by 23:59 UTC on 09 August. You must adjust for your own timezone, meaning the deadline may be at a different time of the day for you locally.

• April

  7 April - Students can begin submitting applications

• May

  Whole month - students, mentors, and sub-projects get to know each other

  13 May - Mentors need to finish idea pages

  20 May - Students applications + proposals need to be in

  21 May - Sponsors must pledge funding by this point

  24 May - Organizers finalize how many applications will be accepted

  27 May - Mentors + admins finalize rank-ordered list

  28 May - Students informed yes/no about application

• June

  Whole month - code, interact

  01 June - Project begins (depending on proposal)

Proposals may have a modified schedule included.

• July

  05 July - Midterm evaluations period begins

  05 July - Student midterm deadline for evaluation (first, soft deadline)

  08 July - Student midterm deadline for evaluation (final deadline)

  12 July - Midterm evaluations due from mentors

• August

  09 August - Project coding completes

  16 August - Students final report, code snapshot, and evaluations due

  20 August - Mentor evaluations due for students

  23 August - Final evaluations due back to students

  25 August - Mentor, sub-project evaluations of the Summer Coding program requested

• September

  01 September - Sponsors receive report from organizers

  06 September - Sponsors release and deliver funds (proposed date)

How do I know I qualify as a student?

You must be 18 years of age or older by 28 May 2010.

You must be enrolled in school currently but on extended holiday for most of the Summer Coding 2010 program.

A student is a person enrolled or accepted at an accredited tertiary institution, such as but not limited to colleges, universities, other undergraduate programs, and graduate programs such as masters and PhD. There are no field of study restrictions on students. You may be just about to enter a school if you are enrolled by 28 May 2010. You may be a full-time or part-time student. You may graduate during the program as long as you are enrolled as a student on 28 May 2010.

You must be eligible to work in the country where you will be for the majority of the time of Fedora Summer Coding 2010. You may be asked to furnish proof of student status or eligibility to work.

What are the details of the coding test?

The coding test is to ensure that you have the skills, and sometimes the experience, to work on a certain type of code.

Each mentor and project may use a different coding test, since each project may use a different language and codebase.

For more information, read Summer Coding 2010 coding test.

Can more than one student work on all or part of a project together?

Theoretically, yes. For the Summer Coding 2010, we are not able to fund that many projects. We have to pick the best proposals to fund.

When students work on a project together, they are both at risk if the other student doesn't complete their part of the work. It is not fair to each student to be in that position.

Where is all the information about Summer Coding 2010?

All pages related to this program should be in Category:Summer Coding 2010 or one of the sub-categories.

General FAQs

How do I get in touch with mentors and other participants?

The best way is via our [mailing list].

You can join us on our IRC, #fedora-summer-coding on Freenode. There is a web-based chat interface you can use.

What language will I be coding in?

That depends on the project. KDE SIG people might want you to use Qt while others might prefer Python.

Who owns the code produced in the project?

If you created the code or content, you own the copyright.

Remember that free and open source software projects are collaborations. Code and content resulting from those collaborations are put under a free and open license, and copyright notice typically lists all contributors.

What license(s) do I use?

Code is usually included in a project under the license of the project itself. If there is a need to put a new license on code or content, one of the goode free and open licenses from this page will work:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing

Make sure to discuss final licensing choices with your mentor so you can find license conflicts early.

Can I submit more than one application?

Yes, you can. But mind it one good application might get you the project, 10 bad ones will never get you in.

Can I work on two projects simultaneously?

As of now, its a big no. We want you to concentrate on what you are doing.

The timeline is clashing with my other commitments.

While we have tried to relax the timeline as much as possible some students might still find it problematic. We suggest that you talk to your mentor and try to fix up a schedule that works for you.

Who will own the code I write?

Of course you will own the code. We just want the code to be released under an open source license.

Can I work on a project even if my proposal didn't get funded?

Definitely yes. We truly hope you continue to be a part of open source development. We're going to try to find a small reward, such as a t-shirt, for each participant who works on an unfunded student project.

You would still work with a mentor, who will evaluate your work. If you complete the project on time, you can still earn a certificate of completing the program.

Who chooses which proposals get funded?

1. All of the mentors (the body of mentors) discuss the proposals on their private mailing list.
2. If a project has multiple proposals, the mentor of the project decides which proposal(s) are recommended to the body of mentors. That mentor may work with other Fedora or JBoss.org sub-projects, and with upstream projects, in deciding which proposal(s) are recommended.
3. The body of mentors decide which proposals get funded. This means some proposals that an individual mentor recommends are not going to get funded. This is because the pool of funding is smaller than the pool of proposals.
4. If a student's proposal was accepted by a mentor and recommended to the body of mentors but wasn't funded (an unfunded project), the student may choose to work on the project anyway. The mentor must be willing to work with the student. A unfunded project that completes the Summer Coding program gets the same recognition as the funded project.