Youth Hacking 4 Freedom

[Alexander Sander]

Hi all.

Today we launched Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: Coding Competition for teenagers

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.

To make this project a success we need your support, to help us reach
out to young people. Your contribution is valuable to make sure that
young people from your community and region are taking part and have the
chance to win an awesome prize and a trip to Brussels.

YH4F in a nutshell:
	
* Participants must be 14-18 years old and should register at YH4F
website [1].
	
* The opening event will be hosted on 10 October 2021.
	
* The registration is open until Sunday, 31 October 2021.
	
* Six winners will be awarded with cash prizes (2 x 4.096€, 2 x
2.048€, 2 x 1.024€) and a trip to Brussels.
	
* The competition takes place online. The Award Ceremony is in	Brussels.

The YH4F competition includes an online opening day to welcome
everyone on board, in a kick-off event on Sunday 10 October, 5pm CET.
The FSFE will present the competition and answer open questions.
Please find more information on how to join at YH4F website [1].


## Coding
>From Monday 1 November 2021, a five-month coding phase starts and the
participants focus on coding until March 2022. Participants can bring
in all their imagination to the competition; they can 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 and 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 [2] 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.

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.

If you would like to help young people in your network spot this
opportunity, please share our call for registration [1] with a post on
your website, a mention in your Newsletter, or a social media post. In
YH4F website [1] you can find all related information, such as the
process, the eligibility criteria, and FAQs [3]. You can also use the
illustrations in our dedicated media package [4] when sharing the news
of the competition.

Let’s make sure that the people in your community who are interested in
taking part to the competition will have the chance to register! Your
contribution in sharing the news is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help! We are happy to answer any questions you might
have.

Best,
Alex

[1] http://yh4f.org/
[2] https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/jury.html
[3] https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/faq.html
[4] https://fsfe.org/activities/yh4f/media.html

-- 
Alexander Sander - FSFE Policy Consultant
Free Software Foundation Europe
Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany |
Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030  |   (fsfe.org/join)