GSoC 2023: The Good and The Ugly

[AceTheCreator]

AsyncAPI at Google Summer of Code 2023

This year, we again participated in GSoC thanks to the opportunity to join alongside Postman. With nine(9) initial proposed project ideas and over fifty(50) interested candidates, you can see we got a lot of responses this year. Eventually, due to the limited slots available for us in the program, only four projects and four mentees could participate. Now that the program has ended, let's look at the good and the ugly.

The Good

Now, let's look at some of the good things that came along with GSoC 2023.

The Projects

• Automate listing of members of the technical steering committee: Our open governance model introduces a TSC that consists of all the CODEOWNERS that want to use their right to have a vote in TSC decisions making process.
  We needed a bot/github action to read VOTERS files from all repos, maintain a single list, and put it on the website.

Mentor: @derberg Mentee: @14Richa

• Add "Autofix" feature for common linting errors (w/ spectral): with this extension, you can navigate and preview your API definition
  while Spectral for VSCode provides inline and listed linting errors for common and even custom mistakes
  VSCode comes with an API for providing quick/auto-fixes for linting errors

Mentor: @ivangsa Mentee: @Savio629

• Introduce UI tests and refactoring in the website: We needed automation tests to run on the PR level, which checks the overall build and codebase of the changes made in the PR. It should cover all the aspects of testing the website and the scripts running inside it. The idea of this project is not only to add UI tests but also to refactor some parts of the code to create tests on it effectively.

Mentors: @akshatnema @imabp Mentee: @reachaadrika

• Authentication layer for Glee, support for different authentication frameworks: Currently, Glee supports multiple protocols like Websocket, MQTT, and Kafka, and support for HTTP is coming soon. This project aimed to implement support for multiple authentication and authorization processes.

Mentors: @Souvikns @KhudaDad414 Mentee: @oviecodes

The Results

• Executed Project Ideas & Additional features: Thanks to Google Summer of Code, three of the proposed project ideas were executed, and one is still in progress

• Additional Long-Term Contributors: All Google Summer of Code participants regularly contribute to their project ideas even after GSoC ended, which could make them potential maintainers in the long run.

• More Potential Project Ideas Slots for the AsyncAPI Mentorship Program: With four selected GSoC projects, we had the opportunity to push more potential project ideas through the AsyncAPI mentorship program.

• GSoC Contributors Involvement in the Community: As mentioned above, we only had limited slots available for Google Summer of Code, but we got a lot of interested candidates who were willing to be a part of the community despite not getting selected for GSoC simply because we value every single contribution, and there is a nearly immediate value to people using and contributing to AsyncAPI.

The Ugly

Just like the saying, Nothing is perfect in this world; it's just that learning to be better is necessary.. We've also decided to mention some things that didn't go well in GSoC 2023 at AsyncAPI.

• Mentor and Mentee Conflicting Issue: Because all AsyncAPI mentors are core members of the AsyncAPI community and prominent advocates for open-source projects with a strong belief in FOSS, we believe keeping them engaged will require minimum effort. But in the case of one of the selected projects, that wasn't the case during the second evaluation phase. There was a communication conflict between the mentor and mentee, which made the mentor tired and confused and caused a lot of roadblocks in moving the project forward.
• Mentors Stipend Being Blocked: As we all know, being a mentor is not an easy task, so Google provided a small token for mentors. But since AsyncAPI was participating under Postman, and that means we'd have to play by their rules. Unfortunately, Postman rejected the mentor's stipend from Google because they believed all the mentors were employed. But that wasn't the case at AsyncAPI because some of our mentors are students, and the stipend would help them.

Closing Remark

We want to take a moment to extend our gratitude to the mentors who went out of their time and way to support and pass on their knowledge and forge meaningful relationships with our mentees. This program would not be possible without them. Thank you for having a solid belief in FOSS and AsyncAPI.

As we gather around and celebrate the good and the ugly of GSoC 2023 at AsyncAPI, we are looking forward to participating again next year and using all the lessons we've learned this year to enhance the experience next year.

See you all next year, and stay tuned! ✌🏾

[derberg]

@AceTheCreator thanks buddy for transparent overview ❤️

Mentors Stipend Being Blocked

luckily Postman decided to cover that cost in the end 😅

[AnimeshKumar923]

luckily Postman decided to cover that cost in the end 😅

Thoughtful of them! ❤️

[devilkiller-ag]

Thanks @AceTheCreator for giving a review of GSoC 2023 and Async API Mentorship Program. This is helpful for me as I am looking forward to participating in one in 2024. ✨

[HassanBahati]

Thank you @AceTheCreator for the writeup 👏 looking forward to participating in 2024 🎆

[AnimeshKumar923]

Wow! Major improvements to the overall project. Happy to see the growth 🚀

Great read! @AceTheCreator 👍

Let's see what the next season brings... 👀

[akkshitgupta]

Looks like a great ride over the year. Amazed with the great progress in the past months. As the program has ended, this is a great way for the overall insights. Excited to see what comes next with an eagerness to be a part of it 😃
Thanks @AceTheCreator for this amazing read 🚀

[Jagrutiti]

This post did provide amazing insights on GSoC.

[shivam-sharma7]

@AceTheCreator will this project participate in 2024?