We are thrilled to announced that Kodi has been accepted as a participating open source organization in Google Summer of Code 2019!

What is Google Summer of Code?

In Google's own words, "Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that matches students up with open source, free software and technology-related organizations to write code and get paid to do it! The organizations provide mentors who act as guides through the entire process, from learning about the community to contributing code. The idea is to get students involved in and familiar with the open source community and help them to put their summer break to good use."

See? Simple as that.

Many open source projects — such as Kodi — have participated in GSoC for years. It has proven to be a very useful program to bring together students that want to get involved with the open source community and open source projects in need of new contributors. Plus, if your friends ask what you're doing on your Summer break, you get to say you're working with Kodi and Google. How cool is that?

Student applications

Student applications to GSoC start on March 25, 2019.

We encourage all prospective participants to present their ideas and proposals on the GSoC 2019 forums. Please read our GSoC guidelines carefully before submitting your proposal.

There are several project ideas available on our Wiki. Regardless if you are looking into working on a suggested project or one of your own creation, you are strongly encouraged to engage on the forums or join #kodi-gsoc on Freenode so that the community and potential mentors can learn about it, ask questions, discuss narrowing or broadening the proposal, etc.

Proposals must be submitted following the proposal outline format.

Key dates

The complete Google Summer of Code 2019 calendar can be found here but the most important dates for students are outlined below:

March 25 (18:00 UTC) - Student application begins

April 9 (18:00 UTC) - Deadline to file your student application

May 6 (18:00 UTC) - Accepted student proposals are announced

May 27 - Coding begins. Start your engines!

Please pay special attention to the application deadline. Two weeks fly by in no time. Take time to craft a thoughtful project proposal and discuss it with the community and prospective mentors.

Happy GSoC!