GSoC 2021 Candidates were announced by Google on Monday 17th May 2021.

Congratulations to our five candidates:

• Rahul Saini, Frontend Inline editing.
• Kumar Shivam, Accessibility.
• Eyvaz Ahmadzada, Media Manager
• Rishabh Ranjan Jha, Feature Enhancement
• Yatharth Vyas, Feature Enhancement

You can read the full details of the announcement here.

The Runners Up

131 proposals were received, and over 240 students engaged with Joomla in the lead up to proposals being submitted. These numbers are a fantastic increase in recent years and show a great level of interest in Open Source projects in education and the Joomla Project.

Joomla’s regularly applying to participate in Open Source programs similar to Google Summer of Code and will regularly promote opportunities to participate in programs as they become available.

The next opportunity for students to participate will be the ISCAS Summer 2021 of Open Source Promotion Plan. Student applications for the 2021 program are open from May 24 to June 13.

Strengthening your proposals for Joomla: Get Involved.

Getting involved in the wider Joomla project formed part of the application assessment process when the mentors were looking at proposals. It helped mentors see where students were getting engaged with the project and the product so that they understood some of the ways the software works and shows that they would be able to suggest improvements in their proposals. Being involved also gives students a better understanding of what the project focuses on and what the programming standards are in the community.

Feedback from several students found that there was more to the project than they anticipated. As such, they did not submit a proposal feeling they did not know enough or felt there was more to learn before coming back to put a proposal in again for a future coding program.

Over the many years of Joomla’s participation in Google Summer of Code, we’ve had other students with similar realisations. Some have spent the year between projects getting involved in testing, coding and contributing to parts of the project. They’ve then returned the next year to produce amazing proposals to complete projects that have then been integrated into the Joomla core. Several have continued their involvement in the project following their time with GSoC, and many of that group are among this year’s mentors.

Contributors to Joomla come from all over the world and from a range of backgrounds, getting involved for a range of reasons including:

• Many contributors use Joomla day to day to implement websites and digital solutions for clients around the world. They often see that contributing to the project benefits the wider Joomla community and improves the product for their own clients.
• Other volunteers enjoy coding as a hobby and have chosen to code for Joomla as a way to see their contributions put into real-world applications.
• We hope that you’ll consider becoming a part of the third group of contributors - Students learning to code as part of their courses - where you’ll be able to gain real-world experience through volunteering as coders. In some cases, you might find yourself approached by community members looking at recruiting new staff for their own projects.

Coding isn’t the only area where you can contribute to Joomla. The Volunteer Engagement Team have been working on streamlining the information on how to get involved in other areas of the project.

• Patch Testing is related to contributing code and is a great way to learn more about Joomla’s codebase. Join the Bugs & Fun @ Home channel on Glip for more information on how to patch test, as well as checking out the docs.joomla.org/Bugs&Fun@Home resources here.
• Documentation needs considerable contributions. You can get started here and help with tasks like creating new documentation, improving existing documentation, performing maintenance tasks and translating documentation into your local language.
• Joomla’s available in over 80 languages. Translating has become easier in recent years, with Joomla using CrowdIn to manage and automate translation changes. You can begin helping with localization in your language at the Joomla Crowdin. While we’re restructuring the Joomla Translation Program at the moment, work on core translations via the Joomla CMS project, which will be moving soon.
• Our Marketing team is about to get started on a range of activities in the lead up to the release of Joomla 4, and so need everything from designers, animators and video creators to copywriters, translators and even locally connected marketers to spread the word.
• Joomla also has its own magazine and is looking for authors to contribute all types of articles on using and improving Joomla websites. Check their FAQ for more information on how to get started as an author.
• Around the world, there's many Joomla User Groups you can join. Visit https://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html to see if there's one near you and if not (or if you don't hear back from the ones you contacted), join jug-organisers on Glip where the Events team can help you with looking at starting a group.

We look forward to students (and you as a reader) getting involved.

There are many other ways to get involved, so if you find something you think you can assist further with, contact the Volunteer Engagement Team via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and start a discussion about what your skills are, and they will help you get involved.