Project Proposal Application: Fill & Download for Free

Website : Google Summer of Code ArchiveGoogle Summer of Code is program to promote open-source development. It is organized by Google every summer since last decade. It runs for 12 weeks from mid May to Mid August. Students contribute to open-source repositories and get paid by Google in return. It's a great way to spend summer vacation.EligibilityYou must be a student. That's it. No other criteria. Age, Country, Qualification - no criteria. If you have a student ID card, you are eligible.Edit:Turns Out You have to be 18 years old for participating in GSOC !Application ProcedureThis is not a program where you fill up a form and get selected.First, the interested open-source organizations apply. They are shortlisted by Google. The students will code for these organizations and the organization has to mentor the student. in GSoC 2014, around 190 organizations were selected including the big organizations like Mozilla, KDE, etc. The list of organizations selected is announced around mid-February.Every Organization had an Idea's Page or a Wiki Page in which they publish the list of possible projects. Some even have a to-do list. Students can browse through organizations and check out their projects. If they like any project, they can contact the organization or the mentor itself via the organization's Mailing List. One can come up with his/her own project, which is even better. Generally, each organization wants the student to show some background in the area of the project (fast learning abilities + keen interest is fine too), and familiarity with tools like version control system (GitHub is the most popular). One has to demonstrate his/her skills which can be achieved by fixing some bugs. Generally there will be a list of known bugs/issues in a repository and some of them are really simple to fix. One can even try to find, report and then fix a new bug. One has to install that particular repository on their system, get comfortable with it and understand (at least the basics) what's going on. Past Open-Source Experience is a big plus although not necessary.Student application period is between 1st to 3rd week of March. Once the student has demonstrated his/her abilities, they have to apply via Melange. They have to write a project proposal. This proposal should outline the project objectives, technical/implementation details, timeline and end deliveries. One can ask the concerned mentor to review his/her proposal before submitting. One student can submit up to 5 project proposals. However, at max only 1 project is assigned to each student.On an average one has to devote at least 35 to 40 hrs each week during the summer for their GSoC Project.BenefitsIn GSoC 2014 5500 USD were given to those who successfully completed their project.Learning a lot - Working with large code bases, debugging, optimizing, testing profiling, tuning, fixing bugs, etc. You can learn a lot.Work from Home - No office. No Attendance. No reporting. Work from anywhere, anytime.Even if your proposal is rejected, you can still continue contribute to the repository. You will miss on the money, but it's fine. You will still learn a lot.

GSoC proposal…A brief view of how GSoC works.Before you get to the proposal part, you have to introduce yourself to the organisation and then prove your credibility to them. How do you do that? You fix bugs and solve issues.Now apart from proving your credibility the bug fixing process also helps you get familiar with the organisations code base and it’s philosophy. Now that we have this out of the way, you are good to go on the project proposal.Now you can do either of the following two:Write a proposal on the projects listed by the organisation.Suggest your own project, get a mentor for it from the organisation and write a proposal on that.Now what is a proposal?A proposal is basically you describing to your organisation how you would go about the project. Based on this and your credibility your organisation would contemplate on whether to select you or not.So what should a project proposal contain?An About Me Section:NameUniversity DetailsContact InformationTime ZoneGitHub or BitBucket IDA Paragraph describing you, your work background, and your past experiences in the field.AbstractThis section basically describes the project in about 50 words. Avoid directly copying the description from the organisation’s project description page.Project ProposalDescribe how you would go about the project. This will form the core of your project proposal. Ideally should be between 1700 to 2000 words. Describe sequentially what you would do. How you came to know that which decisions are the best for the project. Which packages you will use and why. Split it into sections and points. Make it attractive.Project TimelineThis is the second most important section. Describe how you will distribute your work right from the Community Bonding Period right to the Final Submission date. Split it up into smaller time periods and describe what you would do in each periods. You can also split the project up into smaller segment and allot a time frame for each segment. I did the former. I split the time up into two week periods and described what I would do in each those periods.Future DeliverablesThe organisation would like to have students who would stick around after GSoC and help the organisation grow. They would prefer not to waste slots on folks who would be gone after GSoC ends. This is just a means of making the organisation believe that you would stick around post-GSoC *wink wink* . Tell them what you would do more in the project after GSoC gets over. Try to finish this section in under a 100 words.Concurrent Commitments in SummerWhat are you doing this Summer other than GSoC? Do you have an intern? Do you have classes? Do you have any commitments? How many hours a day will those commitments take?GSoC requires 5–7 hours of work a day just like any other internship. This information is required by the organisation to ensure that you can be fully committed to the project they are wasting a funded slot for.You and The ProjectDescribe how you and the project are a match made in heaven. Why you are a perfect candidate for the project. If you have any prior experience with a similar or related project and how those experience blend in to the framework of this project. Generally people list all the bug fixes they made for the organisation here. Name the issue, attach link to the issue, quote the issue number, describe briefly how you solved the issue and how it impacted the codebase.On an ending note your proposal should ideally be in the 1000–4500 words range. However it depends on the organisation you are making a proposal to. Ask your mentors for a word/page limit. Mine was of 2800 words and of 12 pages.PS: DO NOT ASK ME TO SHARE MY PROPOSAL. TWO REASONSThe proposal took a month’s hard work. I am not comfortable sharing knowledge that I worked hard to gain on a public platform. I cajoled seniors and batchmates who had cleared GSoC, mailed mentors left right and centre to gain all that info. I stayed up nights for days, overdosed on coffee and literally abused my health. I definitely do not want prospective applicants to have an easy life.Plagiarism is a reality in the era of internet. So I might find my very own proposal being forwarded to organisations with just a change in the about me section.Wish you all the best!Peace!

Essentially, all project proposals should provide the following information:purpose of the project and what product / improvement it will deliverresources the project will require and cost of those resourcesbenefits / return to the organizationhow the project will be structured to accomplish its aims e.g. timeline, payment schedule (if applicable), quality assurance plan, and any other relevant details.So, that’s the basic content you need. But there are many different ways you could organize that content i.e. headings in your proposal. And for each content area above, there are MANY details you could include or not include, depending on the size of the project and expectations of the organization you’re working for.Try to get your hands on proposals from previous projects in your industry or company. Don’t follow these blindly. Your project will likely differ significantly from any prior proposals, so be prepared to make adjustments.If you’re new to project proposals, try to find an advisor, maybe a manager or project manager in your company.