Joomla did it for the 13th time! We are proud to announce that our application as a mentoring organization for the 2021 Google Summer of Code™ program (GSoC) has been accepted with our individual entry here!

This year it's different. GSoC has widened the entry criteria so that it not only helps support university level students but also other forms of higher education. This wider pool of people all get the opportunity to work with mentors on a variety of coding projects that will be contributed back to the student's mentoring organization. Joomla will greatly benefit from this influx of new talent and ideas. The GSoC project is an affirmation of what is best with open source software and gives a chance to share, teach and have fun across the planet.

Joomla! GSoC 2021 application was led by Shivam Rajput, Llewellyn van de Merwe, Benjamin Trenkle and Phil Walton. With help from Patrick Jackson but more on his role later.

We must also thank those who came before and put all the hard work into last year's unsuccessful bid. Their work in 2020 was the foundation on which this year was built and without the hard work of Puneet Kala, Sandra Decoux and Tobias Zulauf our successful announcement would not have been possible.

After learning of Joomla's acceptance into GSoC, Phil said:

Brilliant news. Selection for GSoC is fantastic news for Joomla. We are on the edge of Joomla 4 release; it really is the icing on the cake.
2021 is our first year working with the new criteria and time scales. This has lead to a focus on smaller and more achievable projects that could make it into J4.1 core

When the GSoC organising team were asking for mentors there was a flood of participants eager to help, all saying how much they enjoyed previous years on the project. There were so many we didn't ask too far afield and have heard several not asked saying how much they will miss it this year. It's gratifying to see how much the project means to past members involved in its success and once we have learnt from this year's journey we will revisit all those who didn't make it as mentors last time and see how we can involve more next year.

Students, apply to Joomla GSoC Project

Talented and committed students, we are looking forward to hearing from you! We invite you to go through the program details and apply to participate in GSoC. It’s a fantastic opportunity to write code, learn about open source development, meet great people, while earning a stipend! All information about Joomla GSoC participation can be found here GSoC 2021 project.

Taking students to the VET!

GSoC criteria have changed but no, students do not need to be microchipped and treated as pets.
This year is different from previous as we now have a re-energised Volunteer Engagement Team (VET) and part of their job is to engage with anyone interested in helping in the Joomla community.

We have already had over 20 potential students reach out interested in being GSoC participants and with just four projects in the planning this year that's a lot of people who will not get a place in the program.
This year the VET team would like to make sure that enthusiasm does not disappear, and are working to engage and nurture those that don't make it, getting them involved in the project to harness their interest and have them learn and contribute to Joomla.

We have already run several sessions on a Saturday helping students learn about setting up local environments and these are being followed up with talks and sessions on IDEs and other aspects of the coding environments. So just because there is no place in the GSoC for some of the students it does not mean there is not a place for them in Joomla!

If you’re interested in volunteering with Joomla, email Patrick Jackson, the VET team leader, to find out more about the many ways you can help contribute to the Joomla project, and Patrick and the team will help you get started.

Let’s go for another successful Google Summer of Code!

To all volunteers who are involved to make it happen: MANY THANKS! It wouldn’t have been possible without you!
We are confident the GSoC 2021 will be a great time to make Joomla even more awesome!

If you are interested in following our team activities, please look at the reports on the Volunteers portal.

Useful links about GSoC 2021

• Announcement of the selected organizations by Google
• All information/project ideas about Joomla! GSoC 2021 are available at docs.joomla.org/GSoC_2021
• View the list of 2021 Open Source organizations that will be participating as mentor organizations for GSoC 2021