July 2008

2008-07 Joomla! Community Magazine

Joomla! Community Magazine - Project

2008 Google Summer of Code Midterms

We're halfway there. Take time to learn about these projects.

It has been exciting being involved this year with the 2008 Google Summer of Code program. We’ve had the greatest level of participation yet with fifteen funded student projects as well as one student who is doing it for nothing but recognition and a small amount of Google swag.

Google Summer of Code is an initiative started by – you guessed it – Google, aimed to benefit open source projects by providing funding for college and university students to spend their summers writing code. A stipend is provided to each student as well as a small donation to each project that is sponsored. This is the third year that Joomla! has been involved with this program and it has proven to be beneficial to all parties involved. The students get the opportunity to spend time contributing to real life projects and gain experience that not only helps them learn but also looks great on a resume. The projects, in turn, get some really good code and research done to move progress forward.

This year’s projects are very practical in nature and will deliver results that many will find useful. We have students working on a wide variety of projects, from various niche components, to integration components – too wide a variety to list, but they all show lots of promise and I’m sure will be well received by our community.

For more information on each project check out the Joomla! Google Summer of Code Blog. There, you will find blogs from the students providing updates on their progress. We encourage you to get involved by offering constructive feedback, input and encouragement on their projects. We are very fortunate to have some very talented students involved in the program this summer and we are looking forward to fantastic results!