Dries Buytaert

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!