Google Summer of Code Mentor
Written by Steve Fisher Monday, 17 August 2009 08:23
This summer I was very fortunate to have been chosen as a mentor for the Google Summer of Code project. I worked with an extremely talented student on a project for Joomla! one of the world's largest content management systems. This was great on so many levels. I was able to share my experience and expertise with someone new, contribute back to an open source project by volunteering my time and I got a t-shirt from Google!
Here's a bit more about the Google Summer of Code.
Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code , accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
So in a nut-shell one of the most influential companies in the world let me help them out this summer. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but still it has been a great experience to work with the Google folks.