When setting up the Summer of Code program, it probably didn’t occur to Google that it was so complicated to give away 2 million dollars…

In order not to give 30% of their grants (I guess than anybody could use 1350 bucks !) to the IRS, the participants from abroad need to go through some tricky paperwork (W-8BEN, ITIN, W-7, etc.). Well, it may not be that tricky when you know what to do, but for the moment we don’t really have a clue. Google doesn’t seem to know exactly what to do either, and they obviously want to do this right.

Anyhow, on the mailing list where accepted participants talk together, there are now litterally hundreds of emails per day, providing new information from each one’s local tax counsellor/IRS office/ambassy, asking what to do if one lives in smurfistan but has a schmarkese nationality, or trying to sum up what has been said in the 467 previous emails of the day.

I just find it really funny, interesting, and a bit surreal, that students who have been selected to write code are all talking together about how to fill in exception number h) of the fourth section of form W-674, finding out about tax treaties, different types of grants, tax withholding, etc. Another week and we can all become tax consultants !

We are just a bunch of painters, all on our way to become electricians, because the light in our workshop won’t work. So here we are, all together in the dark in the same huge workshop, discussing together and bumping into each other, trying to get the circuits A157 and C976 to connect, repairing fuses 54, 89 and 103, replacing wires, etc. Somehow, it’s just like some kind of detective story ; it’s quite unexpected, and although it might look silly, I just find it really interesting !

More news from the front now : my mentor is French (just like I am), which will probably make communication easier. He contacted me today (after I contacted the mentoring organization the day before yesterday), and we have an appointment together (on the “IRC” chat system), along with another person working on the same project (I will not be posting names or project details here, I hope to keep it this blog easy to read and understandable). That’s tomorrow morning (French time). They all seem to be really very nice, patient and helpful. More news tomorrow !

PS : although I love to use (a few) smileys in my emails, because I think they can make things easier sometimes, I will try to keep this blog smiley-free. It’s not the same kind of communication. I’m not speaking to anyone in particular ; and I hope my poor writing skills in English will be enough not to be misunderstood !

I have already written a little about Google’s project, named “Summer of Code”.

At first, 200 slots were available for students over 18. The applications had to be sent before June 14th, 2005. The success was huge, and Google was a little overwhelmed : about 8700 applications were sent, partly because of Google’s excellent reputation and partly, let’s be honest, because of the $4500 grant.

A few days after the 14th, Google announced that they raised the available slots from 200 to 400, saying they received a lot of very good applications and wanted to give a chance to more students. Provided Google also gives $500 to the mentoring organization, the math is fairly straightforward ! (410 people were finally selected.)

Anyway, the good news is that I got selected for this program : that’s why this blog is going to be a lot about Ubuntu (my mentoring organization), GNOME (the window system I will be working on) and Google, in the next few weeks. But I’ll keep on posting about more general subjects, when I have time to do so !

This kind of projects is rare enough (especially from a private company) to be really encouraged. Thanks to everybody from Google, especially to Chris DiBona and Greg Stein !

Something tells me that 4100 fingers will be actively running on keyboards until September 1st…

All right, I thought I might quite as well provide some info about myself, so that I don’t appear as “just another blogger out of nowhere”. Hope nobody will consider this as “blog-SPAM”…

So, first, I do a little music sometimes, and actually released a CD. Here it is :

In French, “Distance & Temps” actually means “Distance & Time” (yeah, I used to study physics !). This CD is available from CDBaby.com (for $8), on this page (music samples available). You can also look at a 3D preview of the CD here and of its booklet here.

You can also get more information (and more samples) on my website, here.

In Paris, where I live, most people always seem to be in a great hurry. And the best place to see this is in the “Metro” (Paris subway). Try this : just sit down for some time, inside the Metro, and watch a few trains passing by. Each time you hear the sound telling everybody that the doors are about to close before the train leaves the station, take a look at the passage from where passengers arrive get the station. You will always see, at this precise time, two or three people running not to miss this train.

While most people run a little, or walk slightly faster, just in case they can catch it after all, some of them are running like mad. And I mean “like mad” : it is as if their lives depended on catching this train. Of course, they will get the next train, about 2 minutes later. But it doesn’t matter : they need to catch this one. Or they will lose some time. Time is money. Lose time : no can do. Bad.

I used to think those mad runners were just anxious because maybe they need to wait half an hour for the next train. They don’t want to be late for their important appointment : that, I can understand.

I was wrong. Recently (one or two years, I guess), the bus and metro company (“RATP”) put little screens in most metro stations (and on most bus stops, too) so that you can know exactly how many minutes you need to wait before the next train (or bus). And this information is, most of the time, quite accurate. That’s why I thought I wouldn’t see any more of these “mad runners”, since they could just read the screen and learn that even if they miss this one, they only need to wait exactly 2 minutes. Nope : they go on running for their lives. I guess that’s a little harder to understand…

Open source software is definitely on its way up. Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice.org and numerous other pieces of software are already very popular.

However, something’s changing is the developers’ community. Open source development used to be made only for geeks or volontary developpers. That’s over : you can now make money coding for open source software.

Several organizations have what they call “bounties” : they pick one of their programs, they describe a precise problem, and set a bounty for it (usually proportionnal to the effort needed). You solve it, you win. And these bounties often rise up to several hundred dollars.

Moreover, Google has had the great idea of setting up a contest, called the “Summer of Code“, for students to get involved into open source during this summer 2005 (don’t apply now, though, the deadline has just passed, hope they do it again next year). Students apply by describing what would be their project and by selecting one of the mentor organisations from Google’s list. Google then picks 400 of them (among nearly 9000 proposals !) to work in team with the mentor and to make the project become real software. So, what’s so special about this ? Each of these 200 students will receive a 4500 $ check for his contribution (plus 500 $ for the corresponding mentor organization : if you doubted how much Google was ready to give for open source, you do the math — and hopefully it’s just the beginning) ! Now that’s quite new : open source development and dollars.

Some might say that money interfering with the open source’s state of mind might not be such a good thing. I think it’s just great. New programmers will probably come to open source, at first to get paid a little bit, but after a few months they might as well get involved into projects without a bounty. And programmers already involved into open source will probably spend even more time on it if they can sometimes get a compensation.

I think this is some kind of sign that open source has reached its maturity.

And there’s a new job on the list : open source bounty hunter ! If you’d like to give it a shot, just type “bounties” in Google, change your nickname to “Boba Fett” and start coding !

What the woooorld neeeds now… is not another blog.

Too bad, I have decided to create my own blog. Now that makes three zillions and one. My friend has a blog, my colleague has a blog, my father’s stepmother’s cousin’s former roommate’s dog has its own. Well, why not me ? Hopefully, I’m not dumber than a dog (ever written a song where “dog” rhymes with “blog” ?).

All right, blogger asks me to find an original name for my blog. Original ? Nah, all the cool names are taken for other blogs that people have been creating for centuries (yeah, that’s right). All right, I must confess, I’m a little late on this, and I’m there, among billions of other ants, dreaming about what my life will be, what it should be. Right, that’s it ! I finally got a silly blog name !

I will be writing posts about virtually anything. Feel free to post comments, and to correct my mistakes if you see some. Hope to make it interesting. Hope you enjoy it. Back soon !