![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
The key GSoC ingredient: passion.
Apr. 2nd, 2010 03:17 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
deniseWelcome to everyone who's come here via Google Summer of Code! You've already met mark, who's our primary contact for GSoC; I'm denise, the other site owner and the general business-type person. I am so not the person to go to for technical help or mentoring, but I wanted to post anyway, because I've been noticing a common thread to a lot of the applications (and questions about applications) that we've been getting.
Many of you who've talked to us so far have described your project purely in technical terms: what technologies you want to use, what your technical skills are, what experience you have, etc. These are all important -- we absolutely want to know what kind of project you want to work on, in as much detail as possible. Tell us everything you want to do, how you want to do it, and what you've done before that's like it. Tell us how you think your project will work.
If you've thought about what it should look like, draw us a sketch. (It doesn't have to be a good one; I once gave Mark a sketch I'd done that consisted of nothing but boxes with things scribbled in them. Just show us what you think it might look like.) If you haven't thought about what it should look like, think about what it should do, and tell us that.
Tell us the parts you think are going to be easy. Tell us the parts you think are going to be hard, or the parts that you know you don't know enough about yet. (It's okay if you don't know everything about what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. We like seeing people who are confident enough to say "I don't know this part, and that's what I'm hoping to learn from you.") Tell us anything and everything you can think of about your project. (Don't worry about your application being too long. We want as much detail as you want to give us.)
But don't just tell us what. We also want to know why.
We want to know why you picked this project for your application -- what gets you excited about it. We want to know why you want to dedicate your summer to working on this project, and not a different one on our list. We want to know why you picked Dreamwidth to work on, and not another open-source project.
Dreamwidth is a very unusual open source project, because Dreamwidth is about people and about passion. If you look at the Latest Things page, you'll see some of our users. These are the people who use the software we're writing, and to them, Dreamwidth is their home. They love Dreamwidth passionately, because our Diversity Statement and our Guiding Principles exist to give them a place where they can feel safe, welcome, accepted, and comfortable sharing their lives. We aren't just here to write code. We're here to build them a place to live. Most of our developers have had at least one moment where they've had to stop and think to themselves, "Oh, my God, people are using things that I made to talk to each other and it's changing their lives."
And we get excited about that. We get really excited about that. One of the things I'm most proud of is that about half of the people who write code for us have never programmed before, or haven't programmed in a long time, or have never programmed in Perl before. They got so excited about Dreamwidth that they wanted to learn how to program just so they could help build the site for everybody. Now, we know you won't be as excited about Dreamwidth yet -- you just got here! But we want to know what does get you excited.
A lot of the mentoring organizations are looking for applications that read like a job interview: your resume and your skills. We're looking for something more than that. We want to read your application and feel like we know you: why you care about what you do, why you love programming, and what excites you about the idea you're proposing.
Don't think of us like a job interviewer! Think of us like your programmer friend, and when you explain your idea to us, tell us why you think it's awesome. Maybe the answer is "because I'm fascinated by system administration and want to learn more about how to write good tools", or "because I love browsing on my mobile phone and I get really excited whenever I see a site that has a good mobile interface", or "because I love statistics and graphs and seeing how I can play with them", or "because my sister uses a screenreader and I want to learn about how to make sites work for her". Maybe it's just "I love writing code, and I really like your project culture".
But whatever it is, tell us about it. Tell us a lot about it. We want to be able to read your application and feel your passion for what you're proposing. We want to be able to tell why you care.
(Edited to add:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
damned_colonial has written a post about "Follow Friday" for GSoC students! Check it out, find something -- or somebody -- you find interesting, and take a look around.)
mark, who's our primary contact for GSoC; I'm denise, the other site owner and the general business-type person. I am so not the person to go to for technical help or mentoring, but I wanted to post anyway, because I've been noticing a common thread to a lot of the applications (and questions about applications) that we've been getting.Many of you who've talked to us so far have described your project purely in technical terms: what technologies you want to use, what your technical skills are, what experience you have, etc. These are all important -- we absolutely want to know what kind of project you want to work on, in as much detail as possible. Tell us everything you want to do, how you want to do it, and what you've done before that's like it. Tell us how you think your project will work.
If you've thought about what it should look like, draw us a sketch. (It doesn't have to be a good one; I once gave Mark a sketch I'd done that consisted of nothing but boxes with things scribbled in them. Just show us what you think it might look like.) If you haven't thought about what it should look like, think about what it should do, and tell us that.
Tell us the parts you think are going to be easy. Tell us the parts you think are going to be hard, or the parts that you know you don't know enough about yet. (It's okay if you don't know everything about what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. We like seeing people who are confident enough to say "I don't know this part, and that's what I'm hoping to learn from you.") Tell us anything and everything you can think of about your project. (Don't worry about your application being too long. We want as much detail as you want to give us.)
But don't just tell us what. We also want to know why.
We want to know why you picked this project for your application -- what gets you excited about it. We want to know why you want to dedicate your summer to working on this project, and not a different one on our list. We want to know why you picked Dreamwidth to work on, and not another open-source project.
Dreamwidth is a very unusual open source project, because Dreamwidth is about people and about passion. If you look at the Latest Things page, you'll see some of our users. These are the people who use the software we're writing, and to them, Dreamwidth is their home. They love Dreamwidth passionately, because our Diversity Statement and our Guiding Principles exist to give them a place where they can feel safe, welcome, accepted, and comfortable sharing their lives. We aren't just here to write code. We're here to build them a place to live. Most of our developers have had at least one moment where they've had to stop and think to themselves, "Oh, my God, people are using things that I made to talk to each other and it's changing their lives."
And we get excited about that. We get really excited about that. One of the things I'm most proud of is that about half of the people who write code for us have never programmed before, or haven't programmed in a long time, or have never programmed in Perl before. They got so excited about Dreamwidth that they wanted to learn how to program just so they could help build the site for everybody. Now, we know you won't be as excited about Dreamwidth yet -- you just got here! But we want to know what does get you excited.
A lot of the mentoring organizations are looking for applications that read like a job interview: your resume and your skills. We're looking for something more than that. We want to read your application and feel like we know you: why you care about what you do, why you love programming, and what excites you about the idea you're proposing.
Don't think of us like a job interviewer! Think of us like your programmer friend, and when you explain your idea to us, tell us why you think it's awesome. Maybe the answer is "because I'm fascinated by system administration and want to learn more about how to write good tools", or "because I love browsing on my mobile phone and I get really excited whenever I see a site that has a good mobile interface", or "because I love statistics and graphs and seeing how I can play with them", or "because my sister uses a screenreader and I want to learn about how to make sites work for her". Maybe it's just "I love writing code, and I really like your project culture".
But whatever it is, tell us about it. Tell us a lot about it. We want to be able to read your application and feel your passion for what you're proposing. We want to be able to tell why you care.
(Edited to add:
damned_colonial has written a post about "Follow Friday" for GSoC students! Check it out, find something -- or somebody -- you find interesting, and take a look around.)