GNOME Foundation launches Coding Education Challenge

The GNOME Foundation, with support from Endless, has announced the Coding Education Challenge, a competition aimed to attract projects that offer educators and students new and innovative ideas to teach coding with free and open source software. The $500,000 in funding will support the prizes, which will be awarded to the teams who advance through the three stages of the competition.

Both the GNOME Foundation and Endless share a deep commitment to a vibrant free and open source software ecosystem.

“We’re very grateful that Endless has come forward to provide more opportunities for individuals to learn about free and open source software,” said Neil McGovern, Executive Director, GNOME Foundation. “We’re excited to see what can be achieved when we empower the creativity and imagination of our global community. We hope to make powerful partnerships between students and educators to explore the possibilities of our rich and diverse software ecosystem. Reaching the next generation of developers is crucial to ensuring that free software continues for many years in the future.”

Endless is an organization comprised of companies, initiatives, and philanthropic endeavors with the singular mission to help children take control of their digital worlds, not be controlled by them.

Matt Dalio, founder of Endless, hopes this grant will inspire new ideas that encourage students and teachers to embrace programming and coding education. “We’re eager to see the various ways that the GNOME Foundation and the wider community will create pathways for people into the world of free and open source software,” Dalio said. “We fully believe in GNOME’s mission of making technology available and providing the tools of digital agency to all. What’s so unique about the GNOME Project is that it delivers a fully-working personal computer system, which is a powerful real-world vehicle to teach kids to code. There are so many potential ways for this competition to build flourishing ecosystems that empower the next generation to create, learn and build.”

Anyone is encouraged to submit a proposal. Individuals and teams will be judged through three tiers of competition.

For more details and to learn how to submit a proposal when the competition opens, please look for coming announcements on the GNOME Foundation website https://www.gnome.org/news/ or social media.