What is GSoC ?

GSoC, or in it’s full, more recognizable name, Google Summer of Code , is a global, online program focused on bringing new contributors into open source development, organized each summer by none other than Google ! More specifically, GSoC is housed under the Open Source Programs Office over at Google, and rightly so.

So what is Open Source and it’s role at Google ?

In technical definitions, Open source is a type of licensing agreement that allows users to freely modify a work, use said work in new ways, integrate the work into a larger project or derive a new work based on the original. However, for everyone working in technology and open source, the very idea of it stems from two important words, community and collaboration. Open Source ensures that whoever works wherever and whenever, the knowledge is shared, and the entire community benefits from the collective innovation.

While many people believe open source means giving away a created product for free, instead of selling open source products directly, businesses tend to build services on top of a strong open source foundation. Google too, knows the value of open source and those who contribute to it, and hence organizes GSoC, a 12+ week programming project for contributors (like me!) across the world, under the guidance of mentors in reputable organizations.

So how did my journey in GSoC come to be?

From deciding I wanted to start contributing to open source, to slowly understanding and building the confidence to make even a small change in such huge codebases, to succesfully completing the entire application process with help from my seniors and peers in college, all in the span of 1-2 months before selections, was a journey of growth in itself.

My efforts bore fruits, and I was selected as a contributor in GNU Octave for GSoC, where I will be spending 12 weeks of the upcoming summer completing a project, Ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible ODE Solvers, under the guidance of my mentor!