Just recently the ‘’And your Dream come true’’ Innovation contest, launched by China Mobile and Canonical, drew to a close. The competition attracted both Ubuntu enthusiasts and developers nationwide, affording them the opportunity to help fast-track the new Ubuntu mobile ecosystem. This contest has provided a creative platform for young developers to flourish and pave the way for new opportunities.

The winners have been selected after an intense six month long competition. Fu Xixi created the winning entry for his dictionary app in the Students category. Wang Guojian came in first place for his plug-in based native music player in the Professional category. The contest was open to University students, independent developers and the open source community in China. The prizes for the top submissions included 70,000RMB in cash, mobile devices and an internship opportunity with Canonical for the winner of the student track.

In addition to the contest itself, a host of online and offline training sessions were carried out. A series of face-to-face training sessions were conducted by Canonical to educate participants on the Ubuntu Phone OS, provide hands-on demos and tutelage on how to develop for Ubuntu Phones. Many of these sessions were organised through a host of academic institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou University, Zhongshan University, Chongqing University, Wuhan University, Nanjing University, Inner Mongolia University, Nankai University, Sichuan University, and many more. These face-to-face training sessions were complemented with the regular online training and technical troubleshooting support.

Another real highlight of this contest was the launch of the first Ubuntu Phone hackathon in China. The event was held in Beijing and attracted a large pool of participants, many of whom were developers. Developers utilised the Ubuntu SDK to create Ubuntu Phone Scopes & applications and for many of them it was their first opportunity to experience Ubuntu Phone. After 30 hours straight, the hackathon yielded more than 10 pieces of innovative content output. The hackathon also served to substantiate Canonical’s mantra that the best way to encourage innovation is by putting technology in innovators’ hands.

All in all this contest was a huge success which provided Chinese students and professionals with the opportunity to develop for a brand new mobile OS and produce some remarkable content to enrichen the Ubuntu phone content proposition.