I don't know how relevant it is for the rest of the world - but for us Indian foss developers, it is good news. And an India-focused site carrying such news is pretty normal too. We have been battling with the problem of being the IT department of the world, and not having enough foss developers to match other countries. The problem is partly economical (IMHO), where we sometimes just can't spare enough time to indulge in giving away our work.
That said, there is a very active foss movement, and conferences like foss.in have been driving the contribution message pretty heavily. The growing number of GSoC applicants means that the message is finally hitting home, and hopefully we can have more active open source contributors in the future (though a lot of students are also attracted by the monetary aspect of GSoC).
That said, there is a very active foss movement, and conferences like foss.in have been driving the contribution message pretty heavily. The growing number of GSoC applicants means that the message is finally hitting home, and hopefully we can have more active open source contributors in the future (though a lot of students are also attracted by the monetary aspect of GSoC).