Google Launches Open Source Education Site Called Opensource.dev
The importance of open source software cannot be overstated. It powers well-known applications like Linux, Firefox, Android, WordPress, and other companies offering open-source CMS software. With this in mind, Google launched Google Open Source Education through its new site, opensource.dev, in January 2019. The site serves as an educational resource focused on open-source software and licensing, offering valuable insights for developers and users.
Open source applications such as Chrome and Android demonstrate Google’s commitment to open source development. Google values these tools for its developers and also for the software it makes available to the general public. Over the last 10 years, the company has created more than 2,000 projects and continues to build new open source software.
Google Summer of Code
The primary goal of Google Summer of Code (GOSC) is to discover new open source software. Google encourages college students studying technology to participate in its mentorship program and write code. The hope is that these students will eventually become developers, possibly even working with Google.
The GOSC program is now in its 15th year, drawing students from all over the world to take part in a three-month program. In 2018, 1,300 students teamed up with over 200 mentor organizations. One of the program’s main goals is to increase the amount of open source code written and shared for public use.
To support its dedication to open source, Google’s opensource.dev site acknowledges the Open Source Initiative (OSI), which works to make open source software essential for the developer community. Google and opensource.dev also support the Open Source Definition (OSD), the authority on global open source licensing. At the bottom of the site, opensource.dev lists organizations and groups that are the foundation of open source software, showing that open source is here to stay.
Visit Opensource.dev
learn more about Google Open Source Education, open source software, and licensing, visit Google’s opensource.dev site. If you want to know more about Google Summer of Code 2019, and how to participate as a student or mentor organization, click here for general information and here for more detailed info. Act quickly—mentoring organizations must apply by February 6th, 2019. Google will announce the selected organizations on February 26th.
