Phase II Submissions to GNOME Seek to Connect Coders with FOSS
This month, 18 teams of game designers, education specialists and tech engineers submitted proposals for Phase 2 of the GNOME Foundation and Endless Community Engagement Challenge, an exciting competition that challenged design teams to develop programs that engage beginning coders with the free and open-source software (FOSS) community.
The goal of the challenge is to generate stimulating ideas that will connect the next generation of coders to the FOSS community and keep them involved for years to come. Entries for Phase 2 consisted of a variety of games, apps and education tools that aim to engage beginner coders in the FOSS community in exciting and creative ways.
Each of the proposals envisions unique and creative ways to bridge coders with the free and open-source software community. Some of the proposals describe web platforms that cover coding theory and practice exercises and message boards for interacting within the FOSS community. Another brings to life a DIY computer kit that integrates hands-on coding and technology instruction into elementary classrooms. Many of the proposals bring their coding education programs into the FOSS community to reduce barriers, and provide mentorship and collaboration opportunities to underrepresented communities.
These projects are essential because access to software engineering education and training has been globally identified as deficient in a number of areas. Research suggests that the number of engineers contributing to open source projects once per year is decreasing, and the sector has faced challenges recruiting and maintaining the number of high-quality developers it needs to continue pushing forward.
FOSS provides many benefits compared to proprietary software, including increased personalization and customization, a community that is focused on collaboration and quality, and of course, little to no cost to develop or access. Endless believes that the people using technology should be the ones building it, and the FOSS field reduces barriers for diverse and talented developers to contribute game-changing ideas to the field.
Endless and GNOME are well poised to support diversifying the field by inspiring young creatives around the globe to utilize their talents, ingenuity and imagination to expand coding education, mentorship and technology access to new groups of people. This three-phase competition is doing just that: with many of the proposals for Phase 2 coming from more diverse teams, the proposals design a world where access to high quality coding education is barrier-free and develops the next generation of highly-qualified, technologically-skilled developers, thinkers, and change-makers.
The Phase 2 winners will be announced in early December, with the Challenge announcing the final winner in April, 2021. You can read more about the teams that submitted Phase 2 applications here.