GNU Generation is an ongoing community and competition to involve pre-university and high school students (approximately age 13-18) in Free Software. Once registered, students work on a project. Each year, participants will be evaluated based on their contribution to Free Software. All active contributors will receive a complementary membership to the FSF, and the top contributors will win a GNU/Linux netbook! The community has currently 98 participants.

"While GNU Generation isn't the next Google Highly Open Participation Contest™ (GHOP), the two efforts have a lot in common. My name is Max Shinn and I am going into my junior year of high school. This summer, though, I'm interning with the Free Software Foundation (FSF). When I was participating in GHOP, I never imagined that I would be using that experience to start a similar project.

The Free Software Foundation has started a community for young people interested in contributing to free software. The GNU Generation community is aimed at people between the ages of 13 and 18 and encourages them to participate in the development of free software.

"I received an email recently from a young man in Brazil who wanted me to come to his university and talk to the students and faculty about using Free Software. I am normally happy to advise universities to use Free Software, but usually this is done in conjunction with some large conference held at the university or some other venue. I just do not have the time to visit each and every school.

Max Shinn is a high school student and is doing the FSF internship program. Max recounts his experience with free software and shares the story of how a school research assignment led him to discover the ideals of GNU and the free software movement. Max has been tasked with the project of reaching out and inviting the youth to get involved in free software.

"The last 7th of May I was at the III University Free Software Contest’s final fase. That event is a really interesting and (IMHO) very important for the free software community world in Spain. The event takes place at several universities in Spain and have this final fase in Seville.

Thousands of Polish high school students now have a chance to learn about GNU/Linux and the benefits of using free software as Polish FLOSS foundation together with school headmasters, supported by local authorities organize a series of lectures on free software in education. PolishLinux.org has a report — summary of the first 3 months of the campaign.

RMS: «...Every school must migrate to Free Software, and I call on you, those of you who are faculty, or staff, or students of this University, to work together to bring about the migration of this University to Free Software, completely to Free Software, within a few y

"...Teaching the students to use free software, and to participate in the free software community, is a hands-on civics lesson. It also teaches students the role model of public service rather than that of tycoons. All levels of school should use free software." -- via edte.ch http://edte.ch/2008/01/13/why-schools-should-exclusively-use-free-software/