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Now in its third year, the Google Summer of Code program continues to unite university students with mentors from open source projects from more than 90 countries across the globe. By funding student coding projects, Google Summer of Code encourages students to immersively participate in open source development practices, with the result that more new, useful and open code is produced for everyone's benefit. Leslie Hawthorn, Program Manager for Google Summer of Code, will cover the program's history, the role of the program in Google's open source strategy and a selection of student success stories. She will also discuss some of the ways Google works with our colleagues in Australasia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere to encourage participation in open source development.

Stream: Licensing, Strategy, Business Models, Case Studies

Paper: Google Summer of Code

Leslie Hawthorn held various roles at Google before joining the Open Source Program Office in March 2006. She manages the Google Summer of Code program and the Open Source Developers @ Google Speaker Series. She also faciltates open-source community meetings and hackathons at Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California, USA. Proud to be known as Google's geek herder, Leslie holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from U.C. Berkeley.