Sun Microsystems announces Open Jive Regional Challenge 2009
ConvergenceAsia staff
27/04/2009

Sun Microsystems has announced the launch of its annual Open Jive Regional Challenge 2009 in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. Open Jive will reach out to more than 100 schools and top universities across the region, giving students the opportunity to learn and innovate on open source technologies.

In Open Jive, students have to use open source technologies to build web 2.0 solutions that respond to businesses’ needs to lower costs and increase business efficiencies. Organised by Sun Microsystems and supported by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), the challenge is part of IDA’s 2009 series of the National Infocomm Competition (NIC). Students can register at sg.sun.com/openjive.

“Open source technology and communities offer student developers the best opportunities to further their IT education and become extremely competitive in today’s market. With open source, students can study how some of the world's leading software is crafted,” said Gan Boon San, president, Sun Microsystems, Asia South. “Open source communities also offer access to some of the world's leading software engineers. By participating directly in the open source communities, students will have access to work with some of the world’s leading software engineers and learn firsthand how next generation software is crafted.”

Participants will pit their skills against their peers on a national level. The Open Jive Challenge is open to all tertiary students from the universities, polytechnics and ITE colleges. Teams which have their business cases selected will develop their Web 2.0 solutions using Sun’s portfolio of open source technologies such as Java technology, Open Solaris, NetBeans IDE, and MySQL database and have a chance to pitch it to a panel of judges comprised of Sun developers and industry experts.

Leong Keng Thai, Deputy Chief Executive & Director-General (Telecoms & Post), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said, “A ready and continuous pipeline of infocomm manpower is important to drive Singapore's competitiveness, and infocomm competitions like Open Jive, help to nurture such talents."

The winning Open Jive teams from Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia will compete on a regional level.

Students from Philippines and Indonesia are joining the challenge this year for the first time, bolstering the challenge’s growing footprint amongst schools in the region. Since Sun launched Java Jive three years ago, Java Jive has seen active and innovative participation from more than 100 teams representing the universities, polytechnics and ITE colleges in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Teams will be judged on innovation and creativity, effective use of technology and its commercial relevance and value. The winning team from the Singapore Finals will receive S$1,500 in cash as well as other prizes. The team will also stand a chance to compete in the regional challenge and win an additional prize bounty of US$3,000 in cash and attend Sun’s worldwide developer conference – Sun Tech Days in 2009/2010. All challenge winners will stand to receive Sun Learning Services exam vouchers. Also to be won in the Singapore challenges are technology awards sponsored by industry partners Elixir Technology and Parasoft. Elixir Technology is also the regional sponsor for this year’s challenge.

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