To that end, Google has launched the Summer of Code program, which will pay students to contribute to one of 40 open source software projects as well as to programs under way at Google itself. Here’s the deal: You sign up at Google at the Summer of Code web page and if you complete an open source project by the end of the summer, Google will pay you $4,500.
If you want to submit your own idea for a project to one of these groups, Google is cool with that, but if you’re just out of ideas and short on cash, Google has posted all of the things-to-do lists from the 40 open source projects together and you can pick your project from those lists.
