Google Summer of Code 2024 - Wrap up thoughts

A Successful GSoC 2024

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024 came to an end this week with me filling the evaluation for the 4th (and final) contributor of our GSoC organization, Alaska. A group of open-source projects related to Alaska and crafted from Alaska. We could have named the organization "University of Alaska." However, we had interested mentors and support from other Alaskan entities, such as the state employees of Alaska and contributors from the AK Dev Alliance. So, "Alaska" is a more fitting name. The four projects' primary mentors this year were based in either Anchorage or Fairbanks, two of the populous (and popular) cities in Alaska. Given the GSoC happens in the summer, we couldn't show our mentees the true wilderness of Alaska in its blizzards and snow storms. But we did give a glimpse of the true north to our contributors. We had a great time as mentors. I am sure our mentees did too. They all did great work. We are very excited for the potential for GSoC 2025 and already polishing up project ideas, getting messages from interested contributors from across the oceans, and discussions of scaling up for more contributors/projects in 2025.

My personal story with GSoC started in 2009 with AbiWord. During those years, there was no limits on how many times one can be a contributor. So I was a contributor (we called that "GSoC students" during those days) four times. Twice (2009 and 2010) when I was an undergraduate in Sri Lanka, once (2014) when I was an MSc student in Portugal, and then the final time (2015) as a student again in Portugal when I was a PhD student. In between my stints as a student, I was also a mentor for AbiWord (2011 - 2013). During this time was my first time participating in the GSoC Mentor Summit 2011 in Googleplex. It was my first time visit to the US too! Since 2016, my role permanently shifted to being a mentor. Since 2019, I have been a mentor and an org admin, onboarding new mentors to the GSoC organizations that I am a part of.

So far my life has gone in 3 seasons: Sri Lanka (1987 - 2012), Portugal (2012 - 2019), and then Alaska. Time in Sri Lanka feels like childhood when I look back, although I was 25 when I left Sri Lanka. 2012 August - 2019 August is my grad school days. I lived in several cities during this period. But my base was Lisboa, Portugal. This was my second "season" and one filled with fun. Then I moved to the US. More specifically, the Lower 48. I moved to Alaska in late 2023. However, I started traveling extensively in Alaska from 2021 summer, and had traveled to Alaska four times before actually moving to Alaska. This makes me feel like I had been in Alaska for much longer. With the dark and vague memories of the COVID-19 days in the Lower 48 (2020 - 2022), my base had shifted to Alaska two years before I moved to Alaska. I moved to Lisboa randomly. But Alaska was a more careful planning. Time changes perspectives. With every move comes goodbyes, and also a new set of people. Except for the family, very few people stayed in my life across the seasons. This is probably true for all immigrants. But I am a serial immigrant, having lived in seven countries and nine cities. Every time I move to a new city, an inevitable question always lingered in my head - what/when is next. This is also probably the academic life. Grad student life as an Erasmus Mundus scholar came with mandatory mobility. I probably overdid it by moving across six countries during my grad school. But then postdoc in the Lower 48. A postdoc position, is by definition, a temporary one. Mine lasted 4 years, although officially I was titled a "Systems Software Engineer, Senior," allowing me to earn a bit more than a postdoc who is officially listed as a postdoc. Now that I am in a tenure-track position, I feel more stable in Anchorage. However, until an academic is tenured, they must be willing to move. I am aware of that. I looked back at my journey. I have evolved from being an introvert to an ambivert to an extrovert over my life journey. Many things changed in my life. A de-aged me would be entirely different from my younger-self, if we go back 20 years, to the first season. In such a dynamic nature of life, only one thing that remained constant - from 2009 to 2024. That is, Google Summer of Code!

Across various roles (contributor, mentor, and org-admin), I associated myself with different organizations. I presented GSoC to different audiences in Sri Lanka, Portugal, and the US (both Lower 48 and Alaska). I attended two more GSoC mentor summits. 2019 Munich was my favorite among the three. It was a new environment, first time outside the US. But it also felt nice to be back in person to the familiar settings of California for the GSoC in 2023, after the pandemic-induced virtual GSoC mentor summits in 2020 - 2022. In a way, 2023 felt like a trip in nostalgia to return to the Mentor Summit in California. The chocolate table has a story of its own. Then the unconference. Now I am prepared for the Oct 4 - Oct 7 Mentor Summit trip, likely the last professional trip of the year. This is also the 20th Anniversary of GSoC. As someone who was associated with GSoC for several years (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024), most of my summers are filled with a GSoC memory - as a contributor (AbiWord, OMII-UK, and Emory BMI) or a mentor/org-admin (AbiWord, Emory BMI, caMicroscope, and Alaska). I love this constant in the otherwise ever-changing settings and people of my life.

I am very much looking forward to meeting familiar and new faces at my 4th GSoC Mentor Summit in less than 3 weeks. Cheers and long live GSoC.