Students, looking for a resume-building, educational, flexible coding opportunity this summer? Consider applying for Amarok's Google Summer of Code. This year Amarok is being guaranteed 5 slots out of KDE's pool - and last year Amarok only had 4 applicants. So if you put together a good proposal and work with us to refine it into a strong proposal there's a very good chance you'll be picked to spend your summer coding for Amarok and earn a $4500 stipend. Read on for details on how to apply and be accepted.

The first step is thinking of and deciding on an idea or two. Predicting how long a software development project is going to take is notoriously tricky. That said, Summer of Code proposals need to be both doable in the span of fulltime work for a 3-month summer, but also not trivially easy. We've compiled a list of ideas at KDE's Techbase. These really are just ideas, they still need to be fleshed out with more detail.

Feel free to send your idea to our public mailing list at amarok@kde.org for informal feedback from us. Or join us on our IRC channel (irc.freenode.net #amarok).

The first day you can formally submit proposals on the Google Summer of Code site is on March 24th. Submit them to the KDE project. It is very important to send your idea as early as possible. The more time you're able to work with us to improve your proposal the better chance you have. Sending more then one proposal is allowed and encouraged, but one good proposal is better then 5 mediocre proposals.

Remember that Google isn't picking which students are approved, it's the Amarok and KDE developer community who decide. So let us get to know you a little over the next few weeks. And if you send us a patch for Amarok - even better.

• Amarok's Project Ideas
• Google Summer of Code FAQ
• List of the 2007 approved KDE projects
• Advice for Students from the SoC wiki
• HOWTO: Write a Summer of Code application

Feel free to ask questions in the comments of this post.