Each year Google facilitates contests and mentorships to help students from all over the world gain valuable experience in the field of open source code development. Google has recently revealed some of the information regarding their upcoming Code-In and Summer of Code events. The Code-In will begin this upcoming December and last until mid- January. The Summer of Code will begin in May of 2015 and last until August. According to their official statement regarding these programs, Google states that “we are passionate about introducing students to open source software development. Since 2005, the Open Source Programs team at Google has worked with over 10,000 students and over 485 open source projects in a variety of fields to create more code for us all.”
The Code-In is in its fifth consecutive year and is designed for kids aged 13 to 17 who are interested in the world of open source development projects. The contest is held online and is therefore accessible to students from all over the world. Participants will be expected to complete tasks assigned by various open source organizations in categories like Code Writing, User Interface and Quality Assurance. Last year over 1,500 students from 78 countries participated in this event.
The Summer of Code was started in 2005 and is intended to help interested university students gain experience in open source software development through a mentorship program with participating open source organizations. Chosen students will receive a stipend to spend their summer vacation honing and strengthening their code writing skills. Since its inception, over 8,300 mentors and 8,500 students from over 100 countries have participated in the Summer of Code and are responsible for writing over 55 million lines of code.
Open source software is computer software whose source code is made available by the copyright holder via a licensing agreement to any interested parties who may want to change, study, or distribute the software. The goal of making software available like this is the increased likelihood of greater quality and market share for the software. Some open source organizations of note include The Linux Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation. For information on how students can sign up for these programs please visit the source link.