Strange title ain’t it? This is the speed of the connection I used for the past 2 months to get myself a project for Mozilla in Google Summer of Code!
That’s right, my proposal got accepted. Here’s the link for those nay-sayers! (Just Kidding…. 🙂 )
It’s like a dream come true. From the time Vipin Sir spoke about my chances in GSoC just after I completed the Open Solaris project, I began dreaming (oh dreaming is my pass-time indeed!) about GSoC! I waited for many, many months for this (8 months to be precise) to get the news of GSoC 2010! And boy was I crazy about it!
Then began my frantic search for possible organisations. I finally made up my mind to use IRC channels (which I’ve been reluctant to, dunno why!). Lurking in the gsoc channel, I wondered whom will I ask first. Mozilla was always on my mind, one of favorite organisations! But didn’t know how to contact them. Then a ray of hope- a guy in gsoc channel told me that Mozilla are very helpful and you can ask them. So then I went to the mozilla channel, landed up in the qa (Quality Assurance), and finally started fixing bugs for them.
For one month I was working hard on getting these bugs fixed, but in vain. Finally I just mentioned about GSoC to jmaher (Joel Maher), and then there was no looking back!
They were many projects to choose from, and I chose the proposal to add new automated tests to the Fennec front end. Fennec is cool mobile browser from Mozilla, and I am supposed to write new tests to automate the normal functions of the browser, like preferences, awesome bar, zooming and download manager. In the end I submitted 3 proposals to Mozilla and 1 to Plone.
4 days before the announcement of the results, I was invited for the Mozilla Summit 2010 held at Whistler, Canada. I was, as a matter of fact, shocked! I never really submitted any bug fixes, and all I have is the project proposal! This increased my hopes, oh I was full of joy!
And then that night came, 00:15. I just got into the net and logged into the gsoc irc channel, when I saw people going gaga about being selected. I checked my inbox, and there it was! The acceptance mail! The joy that time was immense, felt I was on the moon!
I thanked everyone then and the first hurdle was crossed! All this with my 5kBps mobile connection! I happen to bear the sluggish speed to get into GSoC. Spent the whole night downloading just 10mb files! Took loads of time to even get into GMail! But still I held on, and now the dream came true!
Well back to earth now, and the next hurdle will be the mid-term evaluation. Actually it would be completing the project! This indeed would be even bigger task than just getting in. But hey I got in right! One among 1000!
So friends, if you want get into GSoC next time around, use the BSNL unlimited 5kBps mobile broadband connection with Sony Ericsson K750i!
