Google Summer of Code - Melange

Creating and Editing

Profiles are created on the Register as Student, Register as a Mentor, or Register as an Org Admin pages (depending on your role). If you have not registered on the website for any previous programs, you also have to create a username which will be a part of various URLs throughout the website. This username will be publicly exposed to other users, so it should not contain any sensitive personal information.

In order to create a Student profile, a user should click the Register as a Student link on the homepage during the application period. Mentors register by going to an Organization page and clicking the Register as a mentor link. Organization Administrator profiles are created as part of the organization application process (and existing Organization Administrators can name new Organization Administrators at any point after an organization's acceptance into the program).

The actual form to create the profile contains the following sections:

  1. Public Info
    This section contains public information which may be shown to other users.
  2. Contact Info (private)
    This section contains various contact information by which Program Administrators may get in touch with the participant. Apart from address information, it also has fields like email and telephone number. The email address is particularly important. This is the email address to which all system generated notifications will be sent. You may choose for this email address to be the same as the email address associated with your Google Account or you may choose a completely different email address. The Contact Info section is private and visible to Program Administrators only.
  3. Address (private)
    This section contains address information to which all potential physical items will be sent. The Shipping Info section is also private and visible to Program Administrators only. 
  4. Notifications (private)
    Preferences on what type of notifications should be sent to the user via email.

You'll notice a box to click if you'd like a different shipping address than a home address. When clicked, another area for you to enter your address will appear.

There is also a section dedicated to Student-specific information (such as university affiliation) which only has to be filled in by Students. Press the Submit button at the bottom when you have completed the fields. 

Profiles may be edited during the program. It is particularly important to update your shipping address should it change during the course of the program, as t-shirts, certificates and all other items will be sent to that address.

After the program is completed, profiles become frozen and cannot be modified anymore. If a user participates in the program, she should make sure that the shipping address is accurate before the program ends, as all potential packages associated with the program will be sent to this location.

Users can still access their data in read-only form after the program and until the legal requirements necessitate the information be deleted or the user specifies the data be deleted.