hi folks, today, google launched their GHOP[0] program, which serves as an easy entry for pre-university students (highschool, secondary school) into open source. students can claim small tasks, which are provided by 10 open source organisations, one of which is the Apache Software Foundation[1]. students are encouraged to interact and work closely with the communities as they are working on their tasks. as a bonus: students receive a t-shirt, a certificate and 100$ for every three completed tasks, up to 500$ ( =15 completed tasks).
i'm excited that Wicket is part of the program and we already have 13 tasks[2] waiting to be claimed and hopefully completed. how can you help, you may ask? there are several ways: a) if you're a possible candidate, you can even participate yourself ;) b) spread the word (personal contacts, local schools, ...). not only about ghop, but also especially about our tasks. if you know a student who might be interested, encourage her/him to participate in the program. this way, we can infect young people with the wicket fever ;) c) if you have an idea for a task, hop over to the asf-ghop-wiki[3] and use the provided task template any contribution is very much appreciated. if there are any questions left open, feel free to ask ;) cheers, Gerolf [0] http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/ [1] http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-asf/ [2] http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-asf/issues/list [3] http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-asf/wiki/Tasks
