Google "Summer of Code" inspires HollandOpen

This summer Holland Open and Finalist It Group, are organizing an Dutch look-a-like. Dutch -in this sense- means that the project must have a representative in Holland who is wiling to assist the student, during the period he or she is working on the project. Per student a sponsor fee of 4000 euro's is available. The student will be paid 3600 euro, and another 400 euro's will go to the project.

The goals of the initiative:

• Presenting the profession of software-engineering to a large and young audience. Many Dutch IT companies are looking for (young) software engineers, but they are hard to find.
• Giving students the opportunity to work on a professional project. Work they are paid for and hopefully stimulates them to contribute more in future.
• Stimulating Open Source Software in The Netherlands. There are many negative signals concerning the Dutch "knowledge economy", this project will make clear there are many innovative project where Dutch engineers can play an important role.
• Promotion of the Open Source development model, as it offers great opportunities to share knowledge and accelerate innovation.

The (not for profit) Foundation HollandOpen has good contacts with all coordinators of (higher) IT-education in the Netherlands. They will make sure all students are aware of this opportunity. For IT companies it is of course an outstanding opportunity of presenting themselves to the students. Wednesdag May 31 all proposals should be submitted to the organizing committee (info@hollandopen.nl; info@programmeerzomer.nl).

Probably there will not be enough budget for all students that try to attend. For that reason Finalist IT Group and Holland Open will organize a lottery at the first day of the Holland Open Software Conference (June 15-17). Might well be that the we ask one of our keynote speakers, like Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), to present the winners!

This project leader is Jean-Luc van Hulst, managing director of Finalist IT Group.