Dries Buytaert

Drupal and Google's Highly Open Participation Contest

Following on from the success of the Google Summer of Code program, Drupal has been chosen as one of the ten projects participating in a new pilot program called Google Highly Open Participation Contest. The goal of the program is to get high-school students involved in all aspects of Open Source development, from fixing bugs to writing documentation and doing user experience research.

I think this is a great idea. Clearly, the internet is doing more than making our kids fat. Repeatedly, I have been blown away with what today's high-school students are capable off. Why not recognize that and get them involved more?

So for every 3 tasks they complete, they get a t-shirt, $100 USD and most of all; Open Source experience. Having experience with Open Source software development is becoming an increasingly valuable asset on any future developer's resume. It is worth a lot more than a few hundred bucks.

We already entered a number of Drupal tasks in preparation of the announcement, but more tasks can still be added. Let's put a thousand students to work, learn and participate! Thanks Google!

— Dries Buytaert