To those who weren't accepted this year:

[Adam Schreiber <sadam gnome org>]

GNOME Summer of Code applicants,

Thanks everyone for sending us proposals for Summer of Code 2009.  We
received over 160 applications, which means that we had to pass on a
lot of great proposals.  We appreciate all of the time and effort that
you put in this year, and we'd like to let you know that there's
always room for contributors in the GNOME community.

Why would you want to work with the GNOME folks outside of Summer of
Code? There are still endless opportunities for you in the GNOME
project! Here's some food for thought:

      * Are you passionate about GNOME?  Working on a project you love
        is a richly rewarding experience.
      * Students who contribute to open source get more experience
        programming, working in teams, and communicating with real
        users.
      * For any corner of computer science you might be interested in,
        there is a corresponding piece of free software for you to work
        on.  Or you can revolutionize the world with your own unique
        ideas!
      * Businesses all over the world use open source software to solve
        their problems.  Having experience on open source teams is great
        for your resume.
      * By contributing to GNOME, you are helping millions of people
        kick ass every day they boot up a GNOME environment.  Many of
        these people, like office workers, tablet owners, and OLPC
        users, don't even know what GNOME is; they just know that their
        computer works better thanks to people like you.
      * If you are planning on applying for Summer of Code 2010, a
        proven track record in the GNOME community is very helpful!
      * The GNOME community is warm, welcoming, and fun. You will find
        many people who are really friendly and helpful.

So how can you get started?  You don't need a mentor to contribute to
GNOME, you just need to know how to use the community as your mentor.

Even if another student got chosen to work on the project you're most
interested in, you can still help!  Join the project mailing list [1]
and post your thoughts and ideas.  Try out patches, write bug reports,
and submit your own patches.  Join the project's IRC channel and chat
with other developers and users.  Every project appreciates and
respects new contributors!

If you're just looking to get started with GNOME development, check
out the GNOME Love project [2].  Its whole purpose is to help people
get on their feet in the GNOME community.  There is a mailing list, an
IRC channel, and a huge list of bugs [3] that would be good for first
timers to work on.  A lot of friendly GNOME developers hang out in
#gnome-love just waiting to help out a future contributor.

And if you're feeling unsure about putting yourself out there, don't
hesitate to contact any of us privately.  You might want to start with
the developer who would have mentored your project, or with the
maintainer of the software you're most interested in.

Again, thanks for showing an interest in working with the GNOME
community.  Keep up the good ideas, good luck with school, and we hope
to see you around soon!

Take care,
The GNOME SoC Team

[1] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/
[2] http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove
[3] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/reports/gnome-love.cgi