Student application template

Apply through the Google Summer of Code 2012 webpage, using the following template:

• Name
• University
• Field of study
• Begin of studies
• Expected graduation date
• Degree
• Homepage or blog
• Email
• Telephone
• Other interests

Coding skills

• Link to your discussion thread in the OI developer forum
• Link to a demo app or a patch you submitted
• Link to a patch for a test case (or two) you submitted
• Link to a revision in the trunk containing your patch (if applicable)

Project proposal

• Title
• Abstract (short description)
• Detailed description
• Timeline
• Additional Information

Availability

• Work hours per week
• Other commitments between May and August 2012
• I feel comfortable discussing issues in the public developer forum (yes / no)
• I feel comfortable posting a weekly update to the public developer forum (yes/no)

Tips

In your application, try to tell us as much as possible about yourself, and what you want to do. Sell yourself.

Consider the following caveats before you apply

• Google Summer-of-Code projects are a full (day-) time job. This means we expect roughly 36 hours per week on your project, during the three months of coding. Let us know in your application about other obligations (exams, courses) you may have during GSoC. There is some flexibility, but you are expected to make up for the missing time.
• Getting paid by Google requires that you meet certain milestones. First, you must be in good standing with the community before the official start of the program. We suggest you post some design emails to the mailing list, and get feedback on them, both before applying, and during the "community bonding period" between acceptance and official start. Also, you must have made progress and committed significant code before the mid-term point.
• Accepted students should share their progress during GSoC with other developers through at least weekly updates and posts to the developer forum. You can also write about your project in a personal blog, but make sure to notify other developers of updates on your blog through the developer forum. This is so that the community at large can be involved and help you. GSoC is not a private contract between your mentor and you.

Questions

Thinking about the following questions may help you to formulate your proposal:

• What is the goal of the project you propose to do?

• Can you give some more detailed design of what precisely you intend to achieve?

• What deliverables do you think are reasonable targets? Please break down your project into weekly milestones.

• In what ways will this project benefit the OpenIntents project and the wider Android open source community?

• What relevant experience do you have? e.g. Do you have Java or Android experience? Other object-oriented programming experience? Other mobile development experience? Have you contributed to any other open source software? Been studying advanced courses in a related topic?

• In what ways do you envisage interacting with the wider Android community during your project? e.g. How would you seek help on something your mentor wasn't able to deal with? How will you get others interested in what you are doing?

• Why do you think you would be the best person to tackle this project?

How to prepare your application

Please provide your contact information with your proposal.

The most successful projects are the ones formulated by the students - that is you. So, we encourage you to come up with an idea, or expand on one of the suggestions given on the ideas page, that you feel most comfortable with. Which application would you like to have on your mobile phone in half a year?

Please present a possible timeline for your idea, and break it down week by week. Be as specific as possible, listing Android classes or OpenIntents code parts on which you would base your code (we can help you with that if you ask).

Note that our open source project may evolve, so be prepared and have alternatives for the case that some parts of your idea are already implemented by the time you start coding.

Don't just copy from the ideas page, but focus on one specific point that interests you most and from which you can expand more than exists already.

Reserve time for testing and documentation

In your proposal, reserve an appropriate amount of time for

• testing and debugging:
• consider creating a test project for automated testing.
• consider using Robotium for testing.
• if a beta version can be released already during GSoC, consider taking into account issues raised by end users.
• writing documentation:
• create or update the wiki pages with relevant information for the end user or for other developers.
• if applicable, create or update application descriptions for the public, including screen shots.
• if applicable, prepare promotional material for Android Market.
• providing a demo application:
• if applicable, create or update a corresponding demo application so that other developers can easily see how to use the intents, content providers, etc. that you provide.

Mention sample code that you sent to us

In your proposal, include a link to the discussion thread where you sent us a patch. This can be:

• some sample or demo code that demonstrates one aspect of your proposal,
• or a patch for one of the open issues. In this case also include the issue number. If the patch has been accepted, also include the revision number in the OI trunk.
• or a patch for one of the feature requests in the wiki or one of the feature requests in the feedback forum. If the patch has been accepted, also include the revision number in the OI trunk.
• additionally to the coding patch, it is of advantage to provide a patch for a test project, to demonstrate how you implement effective automated testing scenarios.
• Hint: It is of advantage to OpenIntents and your own application if you provide a second patch for a test case that is unrelated to your patch, but either fixes an existing test case (makes it work on other Android API levels or locales) or increases EMMA code coverage.

This will help us to assess your coding skills and coding style. Note that we look for quality, rather than quantity.

Also, mention if you had already been actively involved in the OpenIntents project in some way (raise issues, write or update documentation, answer posts in discussion groups, etc.)

Contact

Please contact us early if you have any questions - either by emailing the mentors directly or by asking in our discussion group.

Submit your final proposal at Google Melange.