Summer of Nix 2022

Announcements
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Hi all,

Summer of Nix 2022 will happen from 15th of July to 30th of September!

Following the excitement of Summer of Nix 2021 (more in last year’s report), I am happy to announce that the European Commission, NLNet and the NixOS Foundation have granted enough budget to organize another community event this year. After some brainstorming sessions, I am excited to share how we (an organization committee of ~8 people now) would like to organize this event.

Summer of Nix is a paid summer program where you can learn, meet, and work with the Nix community. It targets experienced Nixers and Nix newcomers alike to come together and work on a range of different topics. At the same time, there will be talks about Nix and presentations by Nix-using companies with the goal of fostering a strong sense of community and pushing the ecosystem forward together.

What’s new this year is that we offer …

  • a communication stream to write quality documentation, deployment stories, tutorials, and produce video content and podcast episodes;
  • an ecosystem stream to work directly on Nix tooling that improves the overall packaging and package user experience;
  • a packaging stream to package new free and open source software either within nixpkgs or as independent flakes.

All streams focus on improving Nix support for the free and open source software (FOSS) ecosystem from different angles. As last year emphasis is on the packages sponsored by the European Commission via the NGI initiative and NLNet.

You can participate in Summer of Nix in several ways:

  • As a participant, you will work full time on various projects together with other participants within the 3 work streams for about 8 weeks (with some flexibility, e.g. to take vacation). This is the main role in Summer of Nix and great for those who want to work in a team to share and improve their Nix skills and meet nice people while contributing to the community.
  • As a team coordinator, you will lead a small team, arrange communication and mentoring, and guide technical discussions and decisions. You will also be involved in the overall organization of the program with other coordinators. Technical work in this role includes reviewing PRs and answering technical questions. Hours can vary, but on average the time commitment is about 12 hours a week. Experienced Nix tinkerers with a social knack are encouraged to apply for this role. If you’re interested in Nix and also enjoy team organization, this role is for you!
  • As a tech wiz, you will pair program with participants, answer their questions, review their PRs, and show them how to get along with Nix. This is a great way to be involved if you are an experienced Nixer and enjoy helping others in a flexible way.
  • As a project lead, you offer a project within the three work streams. You will work together with participants on this project and provide them with guidance and technical expertise. This is great for anyone who is looking for support on their own Nix project. If you have an idea, please apply, but understand that projects have to fall within the three work streams and we will need to evaluate whether they can fit within the scope of the European Commission’s grant.

The compensation depends a bit on each role but will roughly be oriented on Google’s Summer of Code stipend for the participant roles.

Applications are open here from now until May 15th.

Please write to summer@nixos.org or post below if you have questions. In addition to this, we will also have a separate sponsor track for companies who want to connect with the community in this program this year. But more about this later…

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So many :+1: for this! :heart:

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So great to see that European Commission is involved !

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2 days left to apply! Team building will start next week.

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I’m a bit confused because my interview is scheduled after next week. Have all the candidates been already decided for 2022 Summer of Nix.

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Hey @Ahmar, we have not started with any team decisions so far. We are closing applications after May 15th, will continue to interview those who have applied before and start building teams. Building teams is an iterative process and it is no problem to still do interviews during the next 2 weeks or so while we are already looking into it. What is important for you, as applicant, is that you fill out and send the application form before the deadline.

Does this answer your question?

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Yes it does, thank you for the reply.

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Hi @mat thanks for clarifying this as I also had the same doubt. Also I’m looking forward to contribute in Nix Organization, so could you please share some insight as to what the interview process will be all about?
Thanks

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Hey, The interview is quite informal to make contact, to clarify any questions, to exchange on what our respective goals are within the program and to see roughly what your professional and your Nix experience is. We are building teams afterwards based on what you filled out in the form and based on this information. There are many criteria that go into this. One of them is a base level of Nix because we want, and even have to do useful work together in the short time that the program lasts. If you are interested how we selected last year, the report talks about these criteria quite a bit.

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Okay, thanks for the update.

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Hey all, just wanted to drop a quick note that we are almost done with team building. Answers will be out by the end of the week!

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See Summer of Nix - NixOS Discourse for proceedings.

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