Thanks to some timely prompts from Jason Shao and Jon Gorrono on the dev list and some quick action from Michael Korkuska, Rob Able (IMS), and Lisa Mattson (IMS), we were able to submit an application to Google Summer of Code.
We were selected by Google as a mentoring organization! Which now means we need to met and recruit some students for the program – yayay!
I will be the main mentor – if others are willing to help – that is great – take a look at the ideas page and see if anything interests you and if you are willing to help. The effort is not just Sakai – it is about interoperability across learning management systems in general. We can use help with Java, PHP, and Ruby.
SInce this is our first year – we will probably be allocated a few students. Google SOC likes to see how well you do in your first year. Success this year leads to greatly increased likelihood of selection and greater numbers of students in following years. So I will work hard to make this a success for the students and for Sakai. Conveniently I am done with my teaching responsibilities just as the program starts in April so I should have plenty of time over the summer.
I will keep the community apprised as the student selection process progresses. If you have particular students that you think would be a good fit encourage them to apply.
Here are some URLs:
Google’s Sakai Announcement
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/sakai/about.html
Google SOC Page:
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
Sakai Ideas Page:
http://www.sakaiproject.org/soc2008/