Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), has announced that nominations for the 2016 Women in Open Source Awards are now open. The awards honor women who make important contributions to open source projects and communities, or make innovative use of open source technology.

DeLisa Alexander, executive vice president and chief people officer, Red Hat , said in a statement,“At Red Hat, we’re passionate about promoting the sizable impact that women are making in the technology industry and open source in particular. The Women in Open Source Awards support this effort by recognizing influential women whose contributions are technologically important and are inspiring more women to get involved in this exciting field.”

Two winners are selected from each of the following:

  • Academic: A full-time student currently enrolled in a college or university.
  • Community: A woman who works or volunteers on projects related to open source software.

Award package: Each winner will receive:

  • Paid registration, flight, and hotel accommodations for Red Hat Summit 2016
  • $2,500 stipend
  • Feature article on opensource.com
  • Slot as a featured speaker at a future Red Hat Women’s Leadership Community event

Nominees’ experience and contributions can encompass many different areas, including:

  • Code and programming
  • Community advocacy and management
  • Design, artwork, user-experience (UX), and marketing
  • Documentation, tutorials, and other types of communications
  • Intellectual property advocacy and legal reform
  • Involvement in open hardware
  • Open content
  • Open source methodology
  • Quality assurance, bug triage, and other quality-related contributions
  • System administration and infrastructure
  • Translation and other internationalization contributions

Nominations will be accepted until Nov. 30, 2015, after which a list of finalists will be determined based on nomination criteria. Anyone who currently identifies as a woman can apply. Once all nominations are in, the public will vote to determine the winners. Those winners will be announced at Red Hat Summit 2016, to be held June 28 – July 1, 2016, in San Francisco.

For more information see: http://www.redhat.com/en/about/women-in-open-source?sc_cid=70160000000wxWPAAY