China Is Launching A New Alternative To Google Summer of Code, Outreachy

The Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) in cooperation with the Chinese openEuler Linux distribution have been working on their own project akin to Google Summer of Code and Outreachy for paying university-aged students to become involved in open-source software development.

"Summer 2021" as the initiative is simply called or "Summer 2021 of Open Source Promotion Plan" is providing university-aged students around the world funding by the Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences to work on community open-source projects.

It's just like Google Summer of Code but with offering different funding levels based upon the complexity of the project -- funding options are 12000 RMB, 9000 RMB, or 6000 RMB. That's roughly $932 to $1,865 USD for students to devote their summer to working on open-source. There are not any gender/nationality restrictions with this initative but students must be at least eighteen years old.

A second round of open-source community projects wanting to participate can still apply and simply must have their project under an OSI-approved software license. Mentors will also be paid for their time.

Among the open-source communities participating in Summer 2021 so far include numerous Apache sub-projects, Nebula Graph, OpenMessaging, XMake, and a wide variety of local Chinese open-source projects.

The deadline for open-source community applications is on 20 May while the the student application period runs from later this month through mid-June. The actual program for accepted students runs from 1 July to 30 September.

Students and potential open-source communities interested in Summer 2021 can learn more at iscas.ac.cn.