[notyourwork]

I think this program is great and similarly reminds me of Google Summer of Code. The biggest deficiency I see with new engineers is lack of real experience. GSOC, this Amazon program, these give students the chance to build a real thing that does something. Too many students come out of school with their theoretical assignments completed, and basic hello world programs.

I hope Amazon receives great submissions from this!

[jsprogrammer]

Isn't the Summer of Code for working on an existing open source project?

This competition is about producing a SocialBot that Amazon will exploit.

[notyourwork]

The open source projects are not exploiting in the same way? I am not sure I see your point. Amazon is offering prize awards for projects. I think more companies should start offering these types of opportunities for students to garner industry experience.

[jsprogrammer]

My point is that the two programs are not so similar.

One is about bettering community projects, the other is explicitly about creating projects for Amazon to commercially exploit. I'd say it is similar to other corporate hackathons.

[drcross]

By exploited you mean release to the public domain. Big difference.