= Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: Coding Competition for teenagers about to start =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2021/news-20210928-01.fi.html ]

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charity that empowers users to control technology. To inspire the younger generation to software freedom, the FSFE is organising the coding competition ‘Youth Hacking 4 Freedom' (YH4F), where teenagers from all around Europe have the chance to compete in a fair and fun way. The winners receive a cash prize and a trip to Brussels with other young hackers.

- Participants must be 14-18 years old and should register at yh4f.org [1]

- The opening event will be hosted on 10 October 2021.

- Registration will be open until *31 October 2021*.

- Six winners will be awarded cash prizes (2 x 4.096€, 2 x 2.048€, 2 x 1.024€) and a trip to Brussels.

- The competition will take place online. The Award Ceremony will be in Brussels.

Graphic by Lisa Schmidt [2], CC-BY-SA 4.0 [3]

The YH4F competition includes an online opening day to welcome everyone on board, in a kick-off event on Sunday 10 October, 5pm CEST. The FSFE will present the competition and answer questions. Please find more information on how to join at yh4f.org [4].

=== Coding ===

On Monday 1 November 2021, a five-month coding phase starts and the participants focus on coding until March 2022. Participants may bring all their imagination to the competition; they may code any type of software they want, as long as it is Free Software. The software project can be a stand-alone program written from scratch, or you can modify or combine existing programs. Everything is welcome! The participants will have the chance to briefly follow each other’s work and exchange ideas.

=== Evaluation ===

After the participants submit their programs, an evaluation phase is carried out by Free Software experts. Our jury members [5] excel in software development; among them are Neil McGovern, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, and Claudia Müller-Birn, Professor for Human- Centered Computing at the Freie Universität Berlin.

=== Awards ===

The winners will be invited to receive their awards during a trip to Brussels in June 2022. The 2-day trip includes the Award Ceremony and social activities where the winners will have the chance to get to know each other better.

Graphic by Lisa Schmidt [6], CC-BY-SA 4.0 [7]

We are dedicated to offering an inclusive environment in the YH4F, and we would like to encourage people of all genders to join! We will make sure that everyone will enjoy the process and will leave this competition with added knowledge and a smile. The YH4F is made possible thanks to the kind support of Reinhard Wiesemann, Linuxhotel, and Vielrespektzentrum.

At the website yh4f.org [8] you can find all related information, such as the process, the eligibility criteria, and FAQs [9]. You can also use the illustrations in our dedicated media package [10] when sharing the news of the competition.

Discuss this [11]

1: http://yh4f.org/ 2: https://mullana.de/ 3: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 4: http://yh4f.org/ 5: https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/jury.fi.html 6: https://mullana.de/ 7: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 8: http://yh4f.org/ 9: https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/faq.fi.html 10: https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/media.fi.html 11: https://community.fsfe.org/t/744

== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==

Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.

The FSFE helps individuals and organisations understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency and self-determination. We enhance users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.

https://fsfe.org