[tlug] GSoC participation (was: Looking for Summer Internship in Japan)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Attila Kinali writes:
 > On Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:30:58 +0900
 > "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com> wrote:
 > 
 > >  I'm certainly distressed at the extremely low
 > > level of Japanese participation in GSoC.  Compare India: Indian
 > > students surpassed the American contingent in 2014, and they're on
 > > track to increase their lead this year from what I hear --
 > > applications open officially later today so that's just a guess.
 > 
 > There are more reasons for that than just the "lack of programmer".
 > >From what i know from a couple of OSS projects and GSoC participants
 > i have talked to, the main reason why GSoC is so popular in India is
 > due to its pay. I have been told that it can amount to of what is
 > needed for two years of education.

 > Given the cost of higher education in Japan and the US, the GSoC
 > payment is infinitesimal.

The number I've heard from the students accepted by Mailman and
Systers is one year, including books and living expenses.  For a
student at The Ohio State University (Ohio resident, main campus),
it's about one academic quarter (tuition, room, board, books).  For a
student at the University of Tsukuba, it's about a semester.  Big
difference, yes, order of magnitude difference, no, and it definitely
is not infinitesimal.

What's more important is the alternative employment.  In India, I
doubt there is much (except working for Daddy) that pays USD10/hr,
although a lot of students seem to have other internships with
companies like Intel and Google, so I guess there's some.  In the
U.S. that's minimum wage ("flip bits, not burgers"), and in Japan it's
about 30% (given current exchange rate) higher than working at 7-11.

 > would explain quite a lot of the different numbers.

Not really.  The problem is not that India has overtaken Japan, it's
that Japan isn't even on the map.