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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.

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.

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

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.

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