Slides from my presentation on GSoC held on the 6th Jan 2016, at IIT, Sri Lanka

1. GSOC 2016
Plan, Execute, Succeed
Suranga Nath Kasthurirathne

2. Who am I?

3. Myself, continued…
Part time batch rep (2008 –
2011?)
IIT newsletter editor (2012 – 2013)
Accepted to grad school: April 2013
…. Graduated from IIT in Aug 2013

4. Myself, continued…
 GSoC Mentor (with OpenMRS) : 2012 to present
 Google Code-in mentor (with OpenMRS) : 2014
to present
 GSoC Co-organization Administrator with
OpenMRS - 2013 to present
 Google Code-in Co-organization Administrator
with OpenMRS - 2014 to present

5. Questions for you!

6. Disclaimer
 My ideas are my own, but informed by my
experience
 GSoC rules may change; keep your eyes
open
 No guarantee that OpenMRS, or any org,
will be selected for GSoC next year

7. What we’ll cover
What is GSoC ?
Essential GSoC FAQ’s
Selecting a suitable project
 Integrating yourself into the
community
Being a competitive applicant
Essential skills
Wrapping it up with style

8. What is GSoC??

9. How GSoC works
 Student
 Mentor/s
 Org
 Google

10. GSoC in numbers
10
5,500
137
1051
58

11. GSoC 2016
13th
Oct 2015: program announced
29th
Feb: Selected orgs announced
25th
March: Application deadline
25th
April: Winners announced
23rd
May: Coding begins
27th
June: Mid term eval.
30th
Aug: Results announced
https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/tim

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

13. Excuses IIT students make
 Its too hard!
 Its too competitive
 I’m starting my internship year
 I’m starting my final year
 I don’t have enough practical experience
 Mentors only go for a few specific
universities
 I’m too busy (???)

14. My GSoC experience
Hatched my plan in 2010
Worked with OpenMRS in 2011
Mentor for OpenMRS in 2012
Admin since 2013
Two mentor summits, 12+
students, one failure

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

17. Selecting a project/s
What I want to do
Vs.
What I can do
Vs.
What I have the opportunity to do
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/projects/list/

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

19. Suggestions…
Pick projects with a,
Active community
What is an active community?
Track record with mentoring
https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RE
S/Summer+Of+Code+2015

20. Suggestions contd.
 Aim for one to two organizations
 Three to four applications
 Quality over quantity
 DON’T spam
 Coming up with your own project
ideas…

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

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

23. Are you about to start
communicating?
Your email id has ‘gangsta’ or
‘angel’ in it
Your profile picture is obnoxious or
silly
A Google search on your name is…
sketchy

24. Also…
RTFM
LMGTFY
Please and thank you
Timezones
Some humans are not Sri Lankan!

25. Building ties
Be a team player
Be nice
Practice constructive criticism
Understand that everyone is
important
Understand that everyone is busy

26. 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

27. Common skillsets for
every project
Communication etiquette
Build management tools
Issue trackers
Being ‘responsible’

28. You wont believe this, but…
 Mentors lurk a lot; they may not respond,
but they see what you’ve been doing
 Finding good students are hard. We’re
always looking for them
 Friendships you build pre-GSoC actually
help

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

31. 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

32. 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

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

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

36. 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

37. Resources
 https://developers.google.com/open-
source/gsoc/
 https://wiki.openmrs.org/display/RES/Sum
mer+Of+Code+2015

38. Questions

39. Thank you !
suranga@openmrs.org/suranga (IRC)