[wicker]

I completely agree with you on the merits of the program. Why don't more companies do it on the scale of GSOC? Organizing it must take multiple full-time people. It'd be great to see more programs where students get paid for their work but I want to point out that it's not the only way companies and students are both benefiting from collaboration.

I'm at Portland State and we've got a solid six-month capstone program in computer science where local companies, including several in open source, are working with student teams. I know electrical/computer has a similar program with a more hardware focus. It's not that GSOC is the only program where companies work with students, only the most visible.

[tikhonj]

Except for GSOC, the students aren't working for Google at all: they're just working on random open source projects and get a stipend from Google for it. This is very different from a company--even an open source one--working with students directly.