Google is to provide financial incentives to people providing 'proactive improvements' that demonstrate significant, beneficial changes to select open source projects.
The rewards will range between $500 and £3,333 with more complex code being worth more cash.
The move is an extension of Google's Vulnerability Reward Program which was launched in November 2010 which focuses on fixing glitches in Google's own web services (e.g Blogger, Google and YouTube).
Sources: Google and CBR.