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KDE's Summer of Code: Promote it!

Summer of Code is back, earlier then ever. Early is good as it allows some more flexibility in the schedule (students could start on their projects as soon as mid-April, in case they aren't available later), the disadvantage is that I'm probably not the only one somewhat surprised that its starting so soon.

So it's important to get the word out to prospective students. So if you're on any LUG mailing lists or any list with Computer Science students, send them a message about Summer of Code in general and about KDE in particular. Include a link to the SoC homepage, the Timeline and the list of KDE project suggestions*. Offer yourself as kind of the local contact to the open source "world".

I sent out such a email to my local LUG and found a few interested people. The common response was that they had wanted to get involved with open source but weren't sure how, the issue SoC is largely trying to solve. We had a meeting yesterday and it sounds like a couple of students will maybe even develop for Amarok. This is just at a small university... there's a lot of untapped potential out there.

*The suggestion list, at least for Amarok before I cleaned it up, had somewhat degenerated into people putting up feature suggestions (one not feasible, one that was more like a weekend project). Be sure to add project suggestions (for projects you actually know something about), but also double check the other suggestions. Always encourage the students to work with a particular mailing list or IRC channel to help refine the proposal.