Preparing for Google Summer of Code 2021

[Mike Parker]

Recently, Google put out an announcement on the GSoC mailing list 
about their plans for GSoC 2021. They're doing things differently 
this time.

A big change is that the event is being cut down to 10 weeks, 
with 2 evaluations rather than 3. That means we will need to 
think of project ideas that fit into a shorter time period than 
in the past.

Everyone, please start thinking of suitable projects and 
submitting your ideas to the dlang/projects repository:

https://github.com/dlang/projects

Mentor stipends on the new schedule are set at $400, so it's not 
much less than before. We encourage those of you with solid D 
experience, or domain experience related to any of the potential 
projects in the repository above, to put yourself forward as a 
potential mentor.

They're also relaxing the eligibility requirements to allow 
participation from a broader range of applicants:

"In 2020 there are many ways students are learning and we want to 
acknowledge that so we will be allowing students who are 18 years 
old AND currently enrolled (or accepted into) a post-secondary 
academic program as of May 17, 2021 or have graduated from a 
post-secondary academic program between December 1, 2020 and May 
17, 2021 to apply to the GSoC program.

What this means is that now the program will be open to folks 
participating in a variety of different academic programs, not 
just accredited university programs. This includes licensed 
coding camps, community colleges, and many other programs that 
may not be accredited yet but are post-secondary academic 
programs."