Thursday, June 28, 2007

DebConf 7 & Summer of Code

DebConf 7 just wrapped up last week and Summer of Coders were out in force. Andrew Stribblehill, one of Google's software engineers, was kind enough to send us a report from the conference:


Google was pleased to support the recent Debian Conference, held this
year in Edinburgh. Ten Googlers, six of us Debian Developers, attended
and thoroughly enjoyed it. Google is pleased to encourage the kind of
community involvement that DebConf fosters.

Google also supports Debian through the Summer of Code initiative.
There were over a hundred proposals and we winnowed them down to the
best nine. These include work to help Debian's QA team, a live CD
project and a system which tests the snapshot CD images for
correctness. Debian derives value not just from the project funding
but also from the Summer of Code structure -- self-contained projects
with a clear goal, oversight and reporting.

What was special for us about DebConf is that it gave our Summer of
Code participants, both mentors and students, possibly their only
opportunity to meet face to face. We find this can be a great source
of encouragement after a few months' hacking in relative isolation.

It was an excellent conference. Until Debconf 8!


Thanks to Andrew for sending in the report. If any of the Summer of Coders who attended DebConf 7 want to share their experiences, just post a comment.

No comments: