Santa Clara, CA: The Palisadoes Foundation announces the initial software projects for Calico 2016.

Calico is an initiative to foster active software development among Jamaicans by sponsoring summer scholarship internships where students can contribute to a variety of open source software projects.

Detailed information on Calico’s entry requirements can be found on the Calico FAQ page at http://www.palisadoes.org/calico. Technical details of the approved projects can be found at
http://calico.palisadoes.org

The Palisadoes Foundation is proud of this accomplishment and encourages readers to both sponsor our students and encourage students to participate.

About the Palisadoes Foundation

The Palisadoes Foundation 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.

Santa Clara, CA: The Palisadoes Foundation’s Project Calico was featured on the TVJ Smile Jamaica morning show.

During the show, Project Calico was outlined as the equivalent of a summer long student scholarship. The award is US$500.

1. During this time the students add desirable new features to approved software projects.
2. The software projects are approved by The Palisadoes Foundation and the UWI / UTech student computing societies.
3. All the projects are open source, meaning that they are free to use, download, and examine over the web. Software developers donate their time to these projects free of charge to enhance their skills, resumes and international credentials.
4. Students will have mentors from these projects to ensure they meet international standards.
5. Scholarship stipends would only be paid upon meeting mentor defined milestones.
6. Sponsors will have continued visibility into all student contributions, not just the ones they sponsor.
7. The features students add will be visible to the world for peers and potential employers to evaluate.

Project Calico is a feeder program into the international Google Summer of Code project. We encourage students to apply to both GSoC and Calico. Details can be found on the Calico page.

About the Palisadoes Foundation

The Palisadoes Foundation 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.

Santa Clara, CA: The Palisadoes Foundation, is pleased to announces the JMMB Group as the first local Jamaican company to sponsor Project Calico.

“Joint sponsorship from local and overseas companies and individuals is a key component to the success of Project Calico. In addition to the nation building goals, it introduces sponsors to each other and creates closer ties between Jamaicans locally and abroad. I can think of at least two continuing conversations between local partners and sponsors in the US.” stated Peter Harrison, President of the Palisadoes Foundation. “This is a an important component of the industry’s development.”

Project Calico was launched on February 18, 2016 by The Palisadoes Foundation in association with the University of the West Indies Mona Computing Society and the University of Technology student branch of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is launching ‘Calico’, a program to offer Jamaican students a stipend to write software code for various international open source software projects during the summer holidays.

Calico is a program modeled on Google’s Summer of Code which offers post-secondary students around the world a chance to earn money by writing software code and learning about open source development, while being guided by a mentor. All Calico projects have a Jamaican connection. The total stipend for students participating in Calico is USD $500.

About the JMMB Group

The JMMB Group is one of the leading financial groups in the Caribbean, serving approximately 220,000 clients in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic combined. The JMMB Group provides a broad range of financial solutions including: investments; banking; remittances; and insurance brokering, to individual, corporate and institutional clients.

About the Palisadoes Foundation

The Palisadoes Foundation 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.

Here are our photos from the 2016 Project Calico launch. There was a great deal of interest with peak attendance being between 120 to 150 students. The agenda included:

• Radcliffe Robinson, UWI Student: The Google Summer of Code 2016
• Peter Harrison, President, The Palisadoes Foundation: Project Calico 2016
• Otto Akama, Krys Nuvadga; Google Summer of Code Participants, Cameroon: Experiences and Advice on the Google Summer of Code.
• David Bain, CEO Alteroo: Real Jamaican Experiences and Advice on the Google Summer of Code
• Cat Allman, Stephanie Taylor; Google Program Managers: Google Summer of Code Talk

Our photos tell more of the story. Take a look!

 

Project Calico Launch, 2016

Project Calico was launched on February 18, 2016 at the UWI Computing Lecture Theater. Here are photos of the presenters, the organizing student committee and the attendees.

Radcliffe Robinson, UWI Student, giving his presentation on the Google Summer of Code

 

Peter Harrison, President of The Palisadoes Foundation outlining Project Calico for 2016

 

David Bain presenting on his experiences with the Google Summer of Code

 

Cat Allman from Google talking to students about Google Summer of Code.

 

(L to R) Alex Nicholson, Public Relations Officer, UWI Mona Computing Society; Shane Richards, President, UWI Mona Computing Society; Jordan Jones, Head of the UTech IEEE Student Branch.

The UWI and UTech Attendees

The Palisadoes Foundation was featured in the Jamaica Observer today in an article titled “Silicon Valley, Google execs coming for Mona Computing Society launch“. You can download the PDF version here.

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.