SilverStripe is not involved in the Google Summer of Code program in 2008.
We needed to post a public ideas page as part of our application process, hence why we were talking about GSOC08 in recent blog posts. With over 500 applications to Google, less than one third were able to be offered a spot this year. SilverStripe was one of the rare organisations involved in the past to be so directly related to a commercial company that backs it (MySQL being one of the few other options), and we were very lucky to be involved at all last year.
We would have enjoyed being picked again, and will be talking to them about how we can make involvement next year likely. However, the best thing is that Google has found a home for a thousand or so students to appreciate open source and a diverse combination of open source projects that can greatly benefit from their help. I've spread the word to lecturers and students at Auckland and Wellington universities about GSOC, and I really hope that some of them make the cut over coming days!
We got a real help through our involvement last year, and we're very thankful to Google and the students involved. Now that more people know about SilverStripe, we are now more able to stand on our own two feet, and I'm happy to see many open source projects involved in GSOC for the first time, as I really want to see the whole open source ecosystem flourish.
We can use the time that would have gone on GSOC student mentoring to other purposes (documentation, development), and look to other people and companies represented in this forum to help with their time. We're considering ways of funding payment of a few students this year, as we had done that prior to GSOC07.