Development/Summer of Code/Getting started

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So you're looking to apply for Google Summer of Code, GSoC, and you find the idea of MusicBrainz or some other project under the MetaBrainz umbrella intriguing. But where do you go now? How do you get started? This document intends to guide you along that path.

Get familiar

Do some homework.

Have you read about the MeB projects? Do you understand what we do and why we're excited to be contributers?
Have you looked at the ideas pages for each project?

Get motivated

MetaBrainz tends to choose students who take initiative, who jump in and start doing things, who can find answers to their own questions.

At this point, you should be familiar with basic open source development tools and workflows, and your Google-fu should be excellent.

Get inspired

So, you've done your homework. You've looked at the ideas pages. Excellent.

What looks interesting?
Have you read the related tickets and comments? Having done that, have you read related forum posts or blog posts, if any?
Are the technologies in your skillset? (Or can you pick up the required skills quickly on your own?)


At this point, if you're interested in working on a project you might seek out a mentor on IRC to discuss the project and learn more about what it entails. However, "what do I do next?" is not the right question to be asking.

Get involved

MetaBrainz tends to choose students who are active community members, who get involved at all levels.

Have you created an account?
Have you submitted any data?
Have you installed and tried Picard or the AcousticBrainz submission tool? Written a review on CritiqueBrainz?
Have you said "hi" in IRC? Maybe even lurked in a dev meeting?

Get ready

Do more homework:

Have you found and cloned the relevant git repo(s) and done a successful local installation?
Have you tried fixing a few small bugs/issues? Each project has its own specific contribution instructions, but the basic workflow is the same. Use the issue tracker to find something to work on, and use Git to submit patches.

Get to work

The ideas pages describe problems that needs to be solved. It's up to you to come up with a solution and a plan.

This is not the part where you should be asking for help. This is the part where you show us that you understand the problem and that you have a good plan for fixing it. (When/ if you're chosen for the program, then of course mentors will be there to help.)

But at the same time, don't apply to become a student without talking to us first! We like to know who you are. Some ways you could do this:

We strongly suggest that prospective students send drafts of their proposals to our forums before they apply on the GSoC website.

We have a template which we would like you to use when you write on the forum. If you do not add this information then we may not respond until you've added it.

Git workflow

New to Git? You could do worse than to start with Understanding the GitHub Flow.

Getting feedback

If the docs aren't enough to get you started planning your proposal, please leave a comment on the discussion page explaining what you're looking for and how this doc could be improved.