[ANNOUNCE] Summer of Perl -- call for student proposals

[Simon Wistow]

The Perl Foundation is participating in Google's 2008 Summer of Code(tm) 
and we have a lot of capable, willing mentors looking forward to working 
with some talented, driven students.  So, we would like you to help 
find those students (and quickly -- the students must apply before 
March 24th.)

This is a rare opportunity for students to get a chance to get a paid 
summer of hacking on exciting projects like Parrot, Perl 6, Moose, 
Jifty, SVK, Catalyst, or their very own Perl modules or applications.  
It also brings new talent into the community and gives the student a 
hefty "real world" experience with a knowledgable mentor.  Further, 
employers love to see this sort of demonstration of teamwork, handling 
deadlines, communication skills, resourcefulness and etc.

We're looking for promising students who are interested in open source 
(or maybe you know someone who *should* be interested in open source.)  
Knowledge of Perl is optional if the project is Parrot-related.  The 
student doesn't need to be an expert in the problem domain (after all, 
learning is part of the process), but should bring a big pile of 
creativity, problem-solving skills, and determination.

Students should review the page of suggested projects, but are 
encouraged to bring their own proposals (those are often the best.)  
The most important first step is getting in touch with the community 
and discussing their project idea with potential mentors.

  http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?gsoc2008_projects

Additional information and links can be found here.

  http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?gsoc2008

Google has posted some flyers if you happen to have a university 
bulletin board or hallway handy:

  http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/GsocFlyers

Additional info:

  http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
  http://code.google.com/soc/2008/faqs.html

(Note that google has particular requirements to do with the fact that 
they are paying the students.  The student must be able to show their 
eligibility regarding enrollment and employability.)

Remember, the Perl community draws talent from many fields, so if you 
came to Perl from a non-computer-science major and still have contacts 
in that department from your university, it is probably worth 
mentioning to them.