Brief: Looking for an internship in open source projects? Here we list the best open source internships with all the relevant information.
Are you a college student looking to learn programming as well as help Open Source projects? Good thing is that there are several organizations that offer internships to students to work on open-source projects.
I am going to list some popular open source internships here, both paid and unpaid.
Best open source internships for college students
I have listed the most useful information as possible but it is always a good idea to check the project website. Do note that this is not a ranking of internships. It’s just a list with no specific order. Number 1 is not ‘better’ than number 11.
1. Google Summer of Code
GSoC -Google Summer of Code, the one which started it all.This time it got the highest number of students from India, in excess of 228+ students from India according to GSoC’s own stats.
The idea of giving those other GSoC programs is that almost all of the above projects were at one time or the other part of the GSoC program. GSoC is limited in the sense the program can run only from May to September while some want a whole-year around GSoC program and any limitations that Google has.
You can work with famous organizations like, Debian, Fedora, GCC, FreeBSD, Git (Not GitHub), Gnome, OpenSUSE Arduino, and other more top names in Open Source community.
| GSoC | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None. |
| Internship period | 3 months |
| Application Period | Usually March to April |
| Stipend | It depends on where you live, from $3000 to $6000. |
| Location | Remote |
2. FSF
FSF – The oldest, mother of all organizations which started the free software movement. The Internship program runs thrice a year.
| FSF | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None |
| Internship period | 3 months ( September 11th to December 8th, 2017) |
| Application Period | Can apply from April to May (April 30) |
| Stipend | Unpaid |
| Location | Boston, U.S. or Remote |
3. X.Org Endless Vacation of Code
X.org – Project which develops, maintains, supports the free software stack for accelerated graphics for all graphics hardware.
| X.org | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None |
| Internship Period | 4 months nearly full-time work |
| Application Period | Throughout the year |
| Stipend | $5000 in stages |
| Location | Remote |
4. RGSOC
RGSOC – Project to entice/enhance women participation in Rust, Clojure, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, Rails web framework etc.
| RGSOC | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | For Girls only. |
| Internship Period | 3 months (from 1st July to 30th September) |
| Application period | Usually February to April |
| Stipend | Case by Case basis |
| Location | Remote |
5. SOCIS
SOCIS ESA – A pan-European organization working on exploration of space, human spaceflight etc.
| SOCIS | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Students from the European Union |
| Internship period | 3 months (from 1st July to 30th September) |
| Application period | Usually May to June |
| Stipend | depends on each mentoring organization, see below for more details |
| Location | Remote |
6. DataONE
DataONE – A project to collect, understand earth observational data using a variety of sensors, testing and making cohesive sense out of the data collected.
| DataONE | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None. |
| Internship period | 3 months (from 1st July to 30th September) |
| Application Period | Usully from February end to March end |
| Stipend | $5000 |
| Location | United States |
7. OpenDaylight
OpenDaylight – FOSS Project which works to use and promote software-defined networking and network functions visualization.
| Opendaylight | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None. |
| Internship period | 3 months (from May 30th to August 29th) |
| Application Period | Usually from January to March end |
| Stipend | $5000 |
| Location | Remote |
8. Deeproot
Deeproot started in 2000. Their main product is deepOfix Mail Server and is based on Debian.
| Deeproot | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | A desire to work hard on solving a practical problem using Free Software |
| Internship period | 3 months – 10 months |
| Application Period | All round the year |
| Stipend | Unpaid |
| Location | Bangalore/Remote |
9. ICFOSS
ICFOSS – An autonomous organization set up by Government of Kerala for development and promotion of FOSS in India.
| ICFOSS | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None. |
| Internship period | 1.5 months |
| Application Period | Usually August to October start. |
| Stipend | Unpaid |
| Location | Remote |
10. ICFOSS Fellowship
ICFOSS – An autonomous organization set up by Government of Kerala for development and promotion of FOSS in India.
| FOSS Innovation Fellowship Programme | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Age should not exceed 30. |
| Internship period | 3 months (from 1st April to July 30th) |
| Application Period | Usually April to May |
| Stipend | INR Rs. 20k per month |
| Location | Kerala, India |
11. FOSSEE Internships
FOSSEE – An organization targeted towards development, maintenance and promotion of various FOSS projects based in the famous IIT-Mumbai.
| Fossee Internships | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Depends on project |
| Internship period | 2 months |
| Application Period | Usually January to February end |
| Stipend | Unpaid. |
| Location | Mumbai, India, or sometimes remote. |
12. The Center for Internet and Society
CIS – A Bangalore-based organization based organization looking at multidisciplinary research and advocacy at various levels.
| The Center for Internet and Society | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Diverse Educational backgrounds but need to know LibreOffice |
| Internship period | – |
| Application Period | Throughout the year |
| Stipend | Unpaid |
| Location | Depends, some remote, some Bengaluru, India and New Delhi, India |
13. OPNFV
OPNFV – An organisation dedicated to network functions virtualisation
| OPNFV | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | None. |
| Internship period | 3 months full-time or 6 months part-time |
| Application Period | Around the year |
| Stipend | $5500 in stages |
| Location | Remote |
14. Outreachy
Outreachy -Outreachy started in 2006, wrapped up, and started up again in 2010. I did share an interview with Maria Glukova which shared her experience. Twice a year it runs and has in excess of 30+ interns per year from 20+ projects including Debian, Redhat, OpenStack, and many others.
| Outreachy | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Women, trans and cisgendered women |
| Internship period | 3 months |
| Application Period | Usually from February to April |
| Stipend | $5500 |
| Location | Remote |
15. Linux Kernel development program
The Linux Kernel Mentorship Program offers a structured remote learning opportunity to aspiring Linux Kernel developers. It can be applied through Community bridge.
| TLKD | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | No Criteria. Should have completed their free prerequisite course. |
| Internship period | Three 12-week, full-time volunteer mentee positions, and two 24-week part-time every year. |
| Application Period | Summer/Fall: March end/April Spring program: December |
| Stipend | It depends on Purchasing Power Parity, i.e. your location |
| Location | Remote |
16. GNOME internship program
GNOME internships provide three-month internships for any person eligible by the eligibility rules. Interns are paid a stipend of $8000 per internship.
| GNOME internship program | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Familiarity with GNOME or contributed to GNOME. |
| Internship period | 3 months, Usually start in Sept |
| Application Period | Usually from Sept to Oct |
| Stipend | It depends on Purchasing Power Parity, i.e. your location |
| Location | Remote |
17. Google Season of docs
Technical writers can spend three months working closely with an open-source community. Bring their technical writing expertise to the project’s documentation. Google uses Payoneer to pay a stipend to technical writers who have successfully completed their Season of Docs projects.
| Google season of docs | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | At least 18 years old at the time of registration. |
| Internship period | 3 months, Usually start in Sept |
| Application Period | Usually from June to Julay end. |
| Stipend | It depends on Purchasing Power Parity, i.e. your location |
| Location | Remote |
18. Girl script summer of code
GirlScript Foundation is a non-profit organization registered by the. Government of India. GirlScript Summer of Code 2019 witnessed an overwhelming participation of 1000+, from 4 countries. We had 150+ mentor applications.
| GirlScript summer of code | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Anyone |
| Internship period | 3 months, Usually start in January. |
| Application Period | Usually from January to Feb. |
| Stipend | Unpaid |
| Location | Remote |
19. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is looking for talented software developers to create a free virtual classroom for the world. You can work on developing web solutions, data analysis developing classroom content, etc.
| GirlScript summer of code | Details |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Criteria | Anyone |
| Internship period | N/A |
| Application Period | N/A |
| Stipend | Depends on work |
| Location | Remote, On site. |
