Google employees may be working from home, but it won't stop the search giant from running its internship program this summer — even if it will be held remotely for the first time ever.
The difference is that where Google interns traditionally work on the company's core products and infrastructure, this year, they'll be tasked with contributing to open source software. Those sorts of software projects are already developed by vast, distributed teams of largely-volunteer developers, making them ideal for present circumstances.
"Open source is designed for remote collaboration," Eric Brewer, Google Fellow and vice president of infrastructure at Google Cloud, told Business Insider. "The way code management is done, code reviews are virtual already. It's expected that you can work remotely as part of the system."
"It's a great fit for shelter in place," he later added.
Open source projects, by definition, are free for anybody to download, use, and contribute to as they see fit. Today, Google shepherds about 2,600 open source projects, including the Android operating system, the cloud computing infrastructure software Kubernetes, the Google Chrome browsing engine Chromium, the AI project TensorFlow, and more.
How Google set up its internship program
Some companies like Yelp have canceled their internship programs, citing logistical issues with the pandemic.
Brewer says there were some logistical issues of its own Google had to figure out, such as sending laptops to all its interns, who live in over 43 countries.
It also had to figure out how to set up a three-month virtual internship program without a physical working environment to facilitate Googlers helping interns with their projects. Besides, Brewer says, some projects are better suited to office work; some Google projects are covered under security measures or constrained by technical resources that make them better-suited to working from the same office.
"In some cases, we can do that remotely, but it's much harder," Brewer said.
When Brewer announced internally that interns were available to contribute to open source, he received 200 submissions with 1,000 potential projects on which they could work. Some of those projects are those that are directly under Google's stewardship, while others are those that the search giant merely contributes to.
Besides open source projects, interns may also work on other Google services like Google Ads, or its Google Cloud AI product line. Some will also be tapped to work on projects that support Google's coronavirus response efforts.
At the end of the summer, Google will evaluate how these internships went, as it may also incorporate open source projects into future internships. He also says that interns are an important pipeline for hiring at the company.
"This is an experiment we'll learn from," Brewer said. "I'm very curious to think what the interns think at the end of the summer. I also hope they'll be lifelong contributors to open source. It's helping them get started to explore the space and decide it's something they want to use in the future."
Do you work at Google Cloud? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at rmchan@jkmperu.com, Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request.
