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Comment by hpfr | Hacker News Reader

Sad to see GNU missed out.

“After participating for 12 consecutive years, for the first time ever the GNU Project got rejected as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code 2021.

We did not get any explanation other than: "We had many more applications than available slots. We hope you will apply again in the future!"”

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/summer-of-code/2021-03/ms...

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I do wish they would let organizations apply earlier in the year (or even better the year before) so the organizers can know whether or not the organization will be accepted. In fact, many students start talking to us even the previous fall in preparation for an application to gsoc. But certainly, immediately after org announcements things really start, so everything, including project descriptions, mentors, etc. need to be set up. Handling the inquiries, getting the mentors set up, etc. is a nontrivial amount of work. We (Julia) missed out in 2015 and it was quite a scramble. We ended getting sponsorship to run a Summer of Code outside the Google umbrella to avoid disappointing the students, but more of a heads up would have been useful.

I know a community that held the event after being rejected to ensure that the "processes" where still in place for the future. They are now on the list again (haskell).

I think GNU should do something similar.

Ask HN: what are some OS projects that have a process to recruit help? Should OS projects have a "survival strategy"?

See for example R: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/5111129224...

Is clearer than Sagemath (IMHO): https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/6362857865...

I see that GNOME, GCC, GNU Mailman, GNU Octave and GNU Radio are on the list. What does it mean for the GNU Project to participate separately?

Good point. I noticed it because of GNU Guix, but it looks like there are other projects that are perhaps too small to apply alone.

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/archive/2020/organizatio...

The larger GNU projects that have the manpower and ecosystem to deal with this on their own usually apply separately. The GNU ecosystem is much much bigger than them though. And its the smaller projects that usually benefit the most out of GSoC. So its quite unfortunate that GNU has been left out this year.

I started out as a GSoC student for GNU Wget 10 years ago and am now the maintainer. Many smaller projects like GNU Poke, MHD, coreutils, lilypond, Guix, etc. do really rely on a fresh batch of contributors every year that we try to convert into regular long term contributors.

indeed. i also remember at least at some point umbrella organizations were preferred because they could support many other smaller projects. so it's actually surprising that GNU as umbrella organization did not get accepted. any of the individual GNU projects that did get accepted could have instead joined the GNU umbrella if they were rejected individually.

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