Summer of Code will take place in 2009
I know it’s been a long silence. I’ve not only been overwhelmed, but have also been grappling with finding a focus and a style that would allow me to continue blogging more consistently without it being or becoming a major distraction.
In this sense, there may not be a more fitting reason (explaining this will have to wait for a later post) to break the silence than this: Google, in the person of Leslie Hawthorn who manages the Google Summer of Code program, just announced that Google will run the Summer of Code program again in 2009.
As I wrote previously, I have been fortunate enough to participate in the program for the last two years, as mentor and as organization administrator for NESCent. The program has allowed us to train future scientists in distributed software development skills and methods that aren’t normally taught in the university curriculum, and at the same to nurture a more sustainable developer community in phyloinformatics.
In previous years, Google wouldn’t publicly commit to the program until later in February. The much earlier announcement this year gives us an opportunity to better reach out to biology students with an interest in evolution and a bent towards computer programming who are waiting for the push to overcome their activation barrier towards contributing to an open-source project.
So, if that is you, or if you know someone who could be, please pass the word, and watch this place as well as our Summer of Code wiki for updates.
