Google's program that offers student developers a stipend to write code for open source projects during the summer break is running for the ninth consecutive year.

The announcement of the 2013 Summer of Code on the Google Developers Blog has the headline "Flip bits, not burgers" and that seems a good way to encourage students, who benefit from a stipend of $5000 USD to take part. They may also be able to gain college credit for the work they do from the projects they do and of course it's a great addition to your resume if you want a career as a software developers.

Over the past seven years Google Summer of Code (GSOC), a global program that is run completely online, has funded more than 7,200 students from over 100 countries. Last year over 1200 students participated and Google anticipates a similar  number this year. The majority of participants come from university or college Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs but also from more diverse STEM backgrounds and Google's goal is to help these students pursue academic challenges over the summer break while they create and release open source code.

GSOC also benefits open source projects by enabling mentoring organizations to advance projects more rapidly than without this input and also by awarding them $500 USD per student. The number of mentoring organizations has grown year on year from 100 in 2005 to 180 last year and today's announcement is to recruit both students and open source projects.

The timetable is now available and key dates are:

• Mentoring organizations can begin submitting applications to Google on March 18 and the deadline is March 29.
• The list of successful mentoring organizations will be published on April 18.
• Students applications opens April 22 and the deadline is May 3.