application.md

Organization Application

Why does your org want to participate in Google Summer of Code?

(1000 characters)

Clojure has successfully participated in GSoC in the past, and it has proven to be a great experience for our students and a boon to the community. Our alumni have made significant, long-lasting impacts in the projects they have worked on, and many of them active contributors. Their work has helped the community enormously, and this is a fantastic outcome we would love to repeat.

Clojure, as mentoring organisation, is a grass-roots organisation not affiliated with any academic institution or corporate sponsor. For the most part, our projects are run by individuals in their spare time. We do not have the resources or infrastructure in place to encourage community members to set aside two to three focused months to work on useful projects. As such, GSoC provides us with an excellent opportunity to benefit and grow our community.

How many potential mentors have agreed to mentor this year?

• 1-5
• 6-10
• 11-15
• 16-20
• 20+

How will you keep mentors engaged with their students?

(1000 characters)

We select mentors based on their prior participation in the Clojure community. A mentor for a given student project will usually be a lead developer for an existing open source project related to the student’s project. This will help ensure the mentor has both an interest in the success of the project as well as the necessary expertise to be an effective mentor. Additionally, many of our mentors are GSoC alumni or veteran mentors who understand the program and have shown that they the dedication to see it through. Finally, we do our best to ensure that a mentor spent enough time with a prospective student before selection to have a general idea of whether or not the mentor, student, and project are an ideal fit.

How will you help your students stay on schedule to complete their projects?

(1000 characters)

Foremost, our goal is to start with students who have shown that they have taken the time to consider the scope of their project, assessed the risks to completion, and have created a plan outlining the work to be done. We believe that a student who has taken the time to work with a potential mentor to create a great proposal is likely to succeed. At the time of selection, we rely heavily on the mentor’s experiences with student. We also ask our students to list any potential conflicts that may impact their progress over the summer.

Once the project is underway, our plan is to assess the student’s progress regularly to see if they are achieving their goals. We do not expect everything to go exactly as planned, but we do expect our students to show steady progress over the course of the summer.

How will you get your students involved in your community during GSoC?

(1000 characters)

Foremost, we believe that community involvement early in the application process is a strong indicator for students who will remain engaged with the community over time. Our experience in previous years has taught us that those students with the strongest community/mentor involvement before the program perform are most likely to excel and remain engaged with the community.

We ask our students to publish regular progress reports on relevant mailing lists, as well as personal blogs. We then leverage our web site and social media to spread the word about our students’ work. Finally, we encourage them to interview in community newsletters.

How will you keep students involved with your community after GSoC?

(1000 characters)

Most of the proposal are significant enough that students should feel a sense of ownership about their accomplishment. At the same time, the proposals are important enough to the Clojure community that members can provide support once the intensive GSoC period is done and the student must focus more time on academic responsibilities. We encourage students to submit talks about their work to community conferences. Additionally, we help our students travel to Clojure conferences so they have the opportunity to meet the community in person. All in all, we feel like we have done a good job of keeping our students engaged with the community after their project has completed.

Has your org been accepted as a mentor or in Google Summer of Code before?

• Yes
• No

Which years did your org participate in GSoC?

• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005

For each year your organization has participated, provide the counts of successful and total students. (e.g. 2016: 3/4)

2015: 5/5 2014: 9/9 2013: 6/6 2012: 4/4

If your org has applied for GSoC before but not been accepted, select the year:

• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005

What year was your project started?

2007

Anything else we should know?

(500 characters)

Thank you very much for your work with GSoC. It is an amazing program that has benefited thousands of students and projects over the years.