Hello again everyone 👋
Here at Funkwhale we've been doing some thinking about the future. While we love what we do, the reality of the situation is we don't always have the time to do what we might want to with Funkwhale as a project. This means there are a lot of really good ideas and pressing issues that are being left to the wayside while we focus on what we can.
The main blockers here are time and money. Many of us work full time on other things, and none of us are being paid for our contributions to Funkwhale currently. However, an opportunity has presented itself in the form of Google announcing an extension to their Google Summer of Code program.
What is the Google Summer of Code?
The Google Summer of Code is an online program in which participants get sponsored by Google to work on open source and free software projects. It essentially provides projects with paid staff who can work on specific, scoped projects in collaboration with the project maintainers and community.
Okay, so what do I need to do?
The most important thing for GSoC is interesting ideas. We need to come up with some projects that GSoC interns could work on if we are accepted into the project. These can range from improving our app's frontend, to adding support for new devices, to integrating into new services, to improvements to our Android app. Really, the sky's the limit!
We'd like to hear your ideas for projects so that we can represent the interests of the community properly when we put forward a proposal. If you have an idea of something you've always wanted to see in Funkwhale, hop on over to our forum or our Matrix channel and let us know. We'll collate everything nearer the time and put forward our application.
So, when do we see results?
It's important to note that we may very well not be accepted into the program. Many different projects put forward proposals every year, so it's very competitive. We will also be limited to a select few projects we can choose to put forward, so we need to choose carefully!
We're looking forward to hearing your suggestions! 🐳