Google fires up this year's Summer of Code

Google has been doing the Summer of Code for several years now, and today they just kicked off this year's program. It sounds like Google will be will hosting more students than last year's 900 -- the accepted applicants will "flip bytes instead of burgers" for their summer job.

The final list of participants will each get $500 in advance, then two equal payments of $2000 during the course of the program (May 26 to August 18). I would be all over this if I was still in school.

We look forward to applications from organizations and students eager to participate. Applications for organizations open March 3 and close March 12; for students, applications open March 24 and close March 31. Coding will run from May 26 through August 18.

Last year, Google hooked 900 students up with over 130 mentoring groups. These groups include organizations like Dojo, Python, Samba and Ubuntu. For more information, check out the FAQ.