GSoC NIU Contributor Application Guidelines#

General tips#

These tips are largely based on the OpenAstronomy guidelines, with adaptations for the NIU organisation.

  1. Get in touch with the community

    Open source work is done and communicated in public - the idea here is to demonstrate that you can do this! Join our Zulip, or browse through our GitHub repositories - you can find a full list of the NIU repositories under the NIU GitHub organisation and the Brainglobe one. Read, ask questions, get to know the people involved, and participate in discussions.

    Introduce yourself, and feel free to can ask questions about specific projects, the development process, recommended readings or the community. If you are not familiar with Zulip, have a look at this quick guide first.

  2. Become a user

    A great way to get started in the community of our open-source tools is to experience them as a user. Try to install and use our tools, experiment with the code, and report any issues you find. This will help you understand the tools better and will give you a better idea of what you can contribute.

    A good starting point as a user could be movement’s gallery of examples or BrainGlobe’s tutorials.

  3. Get ready to be a developer

    Create a GitHub account and learn how to use git - the version control system used by most open-source projects.

    If you are not familiar with either, there are many resources available online to help you get started. Some nice ones are:

    We can help you with this if needed! Feel free to start a new topic in our Zulip GSoc channel if you have any questions, and someone from the community will be happy to help you.

  4. Get started with open-source development

    Check the GitHub issues for the projects you are interested in. Sometimes issues are labeled as “good first issue” or “help wanted”. These are usually easier to solve and are a good way to get started with the project. Otherwise, have a look and see if there are any issues you can help with!

    You will need to submit a pull request (ideally to one of the NIU projects) as part of your application. It does not have to be accepted - the goal is to show that you know how git, GitHub, pull requests and code reviews work. This also allows mentors to evaluate your application based on a real code contribution. If you have previously contributed to an NIU or other open source project, you can point to those pull requests in your application too.

    If you are new to open source software or would like a refresher, these are some nice resources to check:

    Before contributing to a project, make sure you read through their contributing guidelines. These will give you an idea of the required steps, and what is expected of you. An example is movement’s How to Contribute guide. The NIU also publishes some general development guidelines.

    You can check the issues from the tools involved in the GSoC projects in the links below:

  5. Prepare your application

    Make sure you carefully read through the GSoC guidelines (and these guidelines!) when preparing your application.

    Select one of the projects from our project list and prepare a plan on how to tackle it, and the time you will need to complete it. Or if you have an idea that is not covered by the project list, feel free to pitch it to us. Use our application template to structure your proposal and don’t be shy to ask for feedback from the community.

    To discuss your project proposal with the us, please open a PR in the NIU GSoC repo as stated in the README instructions - we will discuss and polish your idea there. Please note that project proposals that are not previously discussed in this repo will not be considered.

    Include specific examples in your application to support your skills - these will help reviewers build a better picture of you. These could be things like “Qualified in final round of XXXX” or “Participated in XXXX hackathon”.

  6. Submit your application

    Remember to submit your application before the deadline!

    Please do not send any applications directly to the NIU team, they won’t be considered - all applications must go through Google’s application system

Application template#

In our GSoC repository you will find our application template - please use it to structure your proposal.

All the steps on how to add your proposal to the repository are explained in the README of the GSoC repository.

References#