Public Lab has received support for students to work on Public Lab software projects via [Google's Summer of Code program](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com) -- 2017 is our fourth great year of open source coding! In 2017 we also joined the [Rails Girls Summer of Code](https://railsgirlssummerofcode.org/) program. 

This is a key way that we are able to develop our collaborative platform (this site) as well as [other Public Lab coding projects](/wiki/developers).

2017's program has wrapped up; [Rails Girls Summer of Code ends at the end of September. Please see (and update) our [Ideas page](/wiki/gsoc-ideas) to start preparing for 2018 -- it's never too early!

### Links

* [GSoC Ideas Page](/wiki/gsoc-ideas)
* [GSOC 2016](/wiki/gsoc-2016) program, projects, students and mentors
* [GSOC 2015](/wiki/gsoc-2015) program (application only), projects, students and mentors
* [GSoC 2014](/wiki/gsoc-2014) program, projects, students and mentors
* [GSoC 2013](/wiki/gsoc-2013) program
* [GSoC 2013 mentors & proposals](http://publiclab.org/wiki/gsoc-2013-mentors-and-student-proposals)

### Updates

[notes:soc]


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## Questions

[questions:soc]

## Activities

[activities:soc]

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### Mentoring

What does it mean to be a mentor? 

Mentors basically check in with a student once per week roughly from May-August, and offer some project management guidance... the [plots-dev list](/wiki/developers) can provide code-specific input so we share the burden of specific technical support. 

This means that **to be a mentor you don't necessarily need to know how to code** -- we need mentors who know Public Lab's community and practices well, as well as mentors who can offer some coding help.

If you're interested in being a mentor, email the developers list or jeff@publiclab.org -- and read over our [software outreach resources](/software-outreach) to get an idea of how we work!

Learn more about [different ways to mentor in this post](/notes/warren/11-08-2016/help-public-lab-s-software-grow-by-joining-a-supportive-team)

### Communication

We do occasional chat or video sessions, and mentors rely on each other quite a bit, in [the chatroom](/chat) and [on the plots-gsoc list](/developers). Students often need **project and time management guidance** more than code guidance, and also need to be occasionally reminded to ask for input on the community lists when they get into trouble. 

http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsoc-mentoring/ also has a lot of resources on mentoring.