Some of you will have already heard that we didn't make it into GSoC 2021. Every year Google receives over 500 organization applications, but they can only accept ~200. I have no insights into their decision process, but I do believe our application was stronger this year than it was when we were last accepted in 2019. Given that we've missed out on two in a row, I expect the odds will begin to favor us getting in again next year or the year after.

That said, it surely won't hurt our chances to have a larger selection of projects that students can choose from. Such a pool of projects also helps us if and when we have another SAOC event.

So I just want to remind everyone that the project ideas repository is there year-round. Anytime you have an idea for a D project that would benefit the ecosystem, please visit the repository and submit your idea:

https://github.com/dlang/projects/issues

When the time comes for GSoC or SAOC (Symmetry Autumn of Code), someone will go through and tag projects that appear suitable for the event.

And I should point out, for anyone looking for a way to contribute to the D ecosystem, these ideas aren't exclusively for the two events. Everyone is welcome to come and take one of these on. Just please be sure to leave a comment on the appropriate issue that you are doing so.

It will also be great to have a pool of people who are willing to work as mentors during the events. Anyone willing to mentor a specific project in the repository should leave a comment indicating their interest. And please, if you see someone else has already done so, leave a comment anyway. There's no guarantee that any given mentor will be available when the event comes around, so having some depth to the list is a good thing.

If you're willing to be generally available as a mentor, please drop a line to social@dlang.org to let us know if you're interested in mentoring for either one or both of GSoC and SAOC and (broadly) what kinds of projects you're comfortable with.

These steps will help prevent us from needing to scrounge around at the last minute for more projects and mentors. It will also allow us to better show in our GSoC applications that we have a lot to be done and that we could really use the resources the event provides.