Santa Clara, CA – November 16, 2015: Palisadoes, working in conjunction with the UWI Computing Society and the Utech IEEE Student branch, announces Calico, a 2016 pilot program that will offer Jamaican student developers stipends to write software code for various open source software (FLOSS) programming projects over the summer holidays.
Jordan Jones, Utech IEEE Student Branch Section Chair stated “I believe the Calico is an excellent way for students to showcase their talents whilst contributing to the development of companies in Jamaica. It will allow companies to get skilled persons capable of meeting their needs and allow students the opportunity to build their confidence and have their stronger resumes be recognized by future employers.”
“Calico is very closely modeled on the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) initiative, which reflects one of the projects goals of becoming a GSoC feeder program.” stated Peter Harrison, CTO and Co-founder of Colovore, and Palisadoes volunteer. “We aim to work with many open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify projects that can be completed by students between academic years.”
Stipends will be funded by donations from the Jamaican Diaspora organization, individuals and businesses both in Jamaica and overseas. Active members of the open source community will participate as mentors for students which will help expose Jamaica to modern, international programming standards, while promoting Jamaica’s talent.
A majority of participants are expected to be enrolled in high school, university or college Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs.
“This will be a marathon, not a sprint”, Mr. Harrison continued, “The pilot project approach allows us to learn in a controlled environment, and this is especially important as a majority of the participants are volunteers.”
The 2016 Calico pilot project aims to support 20 students over the summer of 2016.
About the Palisadoes Initiative
The Palisadoes initiative aims to provide new avenues to promote Jamaica’s technology businesses and talent using a series of programs aimed at creating increased awareness of the island’s abilities in the global marketplace.