The Fedora Project, a Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration, today announced that Ian Weller is the recipient of the 2010 Fedora Scholarship. Now in its third year, the Fedora Scholarship recognizes college and university-bound students across the globe for their contributions to free software and the Fedora Project. Weller has contributed to Fedora for more than two years as a packager and designer, and has also played an integral role in Fedora's project-wide transition to a new wiki system in 2009.
"The Fedora Project looks to encourage future generations to be more than just consumers of free and open source software, but to participate in the culture of contribution which helps create it," said Paul Frields, Fedora Project Leader at Red Hat. "Through this scholarship program, Fedora aims to inspire new contributors to continue their work with open source throughout their college years and into their future careers and personal computing experiences."
Weller first used Linux as a sophomore in high school after building a personal computer from recycled parts. He installed an earlier version of the Fedora operating system on his computer and started actively using Fedora. Weller will attend the University of Kansas this fall and plans to study computer science where he hopes to use free and open source software in his coursework.
"When I first installed Fedora, I noticed that a piece of software I wanted wasn't included in Fedora's package database so I added it," said Weller. "The rest is history and I quickly learned that I could contribute back to the Fedora Project in many ways. Free software is now part of who I am and I plan to continue contributing to free and open source software."
Weller also assisted with the inaugural Professors' Open Source Summer Experience (POSSE), sponsored by Red Hat in June 2009. POSSE is designed to instruct computer science professors on how to teach open source in the classroom and integrate open source software courses into computer science curriculum. During POSSE, Weller explained Fedora packaging guidelines to attending professors.
Fedora Scholarship applicants are evaluated on criteria including the quality of contributions made to Fedora and other free software projects, references provided by Fedora community members, the length of time the applicant has been contributing to Fedora and the overall quality of the application. Recipients are awarded a scholarship to be applied toward tuition for the student's college or university education. Fedora Scholarship winners also receive funding for travel and lodging at the Fedora User and Developer Conference (FUDCon) nearest to their location for each year of the scholarship.
Previous winners of the Fedora Scholarship include Ricky Zhou, currently an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University. Zhou continues to be involved in the development and maintenance of Fedora's server and website infrastructure, providing a global platform of services on which Fedora contributors can collaborate on building and providing free software worldwide.
The 2011 application window will open in fall 2010. For more information, visit https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.
For more information about the Fedora Project, visit www.fedoraproject.org. For more news about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.
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- Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
