By Jonathan Leto

I’m excited to announce that Parrot Foundation and
The Perl Foundation
have been accepted as organizations in Google Code-In 2010!

Google Code-In is a contest, similar to Google Summer of Code, where Google
pays students aged 13-18 to do tasks designed by open source
communities, while learning about open source. Google pays for the
work to be done, and we get new members to our communities, while students
learn useful skills. It is a big win for everyone.

In 2010, Google Summer of Code was a great success for Perl and Parrot.
We got amazing new features in Parrot, Perl 5 and Perl 6 .
In 2009, we had similarly spectacular results.

For the students, the benefits are huge. They get mentored by some
of the best minds in open source and get “street cred” in the
community. This contest also acts as a stepping stone for Google
Summer of Code, so students that excel at Code-In will most likely be
sought after for future Google Summer of Code involvement.
It’s also fantastic experience to put on a résumé.
I see many Google Summer of Code students get snapped up by respected
companies, or accepted to prestigious academic institutions.

The more well-documented tasks we have before that, the more students we will
have the potential to attract. I can attest that these kind of contests
attract some of the smartest students in the world, so the Perl and Parrot communities
have much to gain by being involved.

I expect great results for Code-In as well, but we need your help. The Google
Code-In contest opens up for students on:
November 22, 2010 at 12:00 AM Pacific Time / 08:00 UTC.

How Can You Get Involved?

  • Add a task to our task list There is a template
    that you can copy and paste, as well as many examples. Any task related to Perl 5, Perl 6 or Parrot is fair game.
  • Improve the description of an existing task. The more specific a task and
    the more documentation and links you provide, the easier it is for a student
    to choose and complete a task.
  • Volunteer to mentor a student on a task. You apply to be a mentor
    here. Please join the
    tpf-gsoc-students
    mailing list and introduce yourself. Provide a brief description of why you are interested when you sign up, so we know you aren’t a bot 🙂
    Please also join the #gci channel on irc.perl.org.
  • Tell potential students about Google Code-In and how we are involved. Here is a link
    to the timeline
    and FAQ that you can send them, as well as
    flyers to post.

Jonathan “Duke” Leto has been heavily involved in co-ordinating the Perl and Parrot projects in Google Summer of Code for the past three years. He’s also a core contributor to the Parrot and Perl 6 projects, as well as the maintainer of many CPAN modules. You can find his Perl-related blog at http://leto.net/perl.