Google Summer of Code 2009 draws to a close

We've reached the end of the 2009 Google Summer of Code.

This was my first year being involved as a mentor, and it was quite enjoyable. My intern, Eranda Sooriyabandara from Sri Lanka, worked on a number of Derby projects, and completed them. Together we found and fixed a number of Derby bugs, and also made substantial progress on the great multi-year project to convert the Derby test base into JUnit assertion-based tests.

I think that Eranda was able to learn a lot about Derby, and about database systems in general, and was also exposed to a body of software that was significantly more complex and involved than he had worked with in the past. I think that Eranda also had the opportunity to meet and work with a variety of the other people in the Derby community, and had the opportunity to learn a lot about how the open source software process operates.

As always, we hope that the GSoC interns who worked with Derby will continue to stay active in the Derby community in the future. This doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's very rewarding. Even if they don't, they may get involved in some other open source project in the future, building upon their experiences in the Derby community.

It was a good experience for me; I hope I have the opportunity to be involved in the Google Summer of Code again in the future.