Computer programme for students in May

SOFTWARE PROJECT: The Sri Lankan Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community is hosting FOSSCode 2006, a program that encourages students to work on open source software projects, in May this year.

Modeled on the popular Google Summer of Code program, computer science students of universities and schools islandwide will be given the chance to be innovative and also earn some money for their efforts.

"We hope to inspire young developers and provide students the opportunity to do work related to open source software. Our intention is to promote contributions to open source among Sri Lankan students and expose them to global open source communities. This will help them realise the value and benefits that FOSS can bring to developers as well as the country," said Eran Chinthaka, project chairperson, FOSSCode.

Free and Open source projects are where the source codes of applications are accessible for anybody to use and customise. Some of the more famous FOSS projects include the GNU/Linux operating system and Apache Web server which dominate the server market today. The development model is usually centered around a community of developers from all over the world.

The deadline for sending in project proposals for FOSSCode is the 26 May where up to five of the best projects will be chosenuidelines are available on the FOSSCode 2006 Web site http://code.foss.lk