Duke Zone

I want you all to know about this new expo for young people everywhere.

The Digital Open is an online technology community and competition for youth around the world, age 17 and under.

Think about this:

"What can you make with technology that will change the world—or even just make life a little easier or more fun?"

Due to user requests, both BlueJ and Greenfoot have opened their source code. Maintenance and support will continue to be provided at a high level. We are so excited and congrats to the teams!

More info here:

http://bluej.org/news/opensource.html

Sun recently launched two efforts to connect education communities around the world. The first is Educonnection.org for Sun's customers in the education sector and the second one, OSUM is a growing Ning community for students into open source programming tools and platforms. OSUM already has over 16,000 members, how cool is that?

Educonnection is a great tool for schools and will help with the challenges of adoptiong new technology in tough economic times. OSUM's objective its to harnesses the true power of open source by helping students collaborate and use open source developer tools like MySQL, NetBeans, Java, GlassFish, OpenSPARC, OpenSolaris and more. Both of these communities allow you to network, meet new tech focused peers, expand your resources and help spread the message of open source and collaboration.

Sign up and tell me what you think!

You can imagine how excited we are around here to celebrate Software Freedom Day with friends around the world on Sept. 20th. Over 500 teams in over 90 countries are participating. We have events in over 130 campuses as well! Please join us.

Did you that Sun has committed to open source software by contributing billions of dollars in developer time, sponsorships and donations, as well as releasing more code under open source licenses than any other organization in the world? Yahtzee!

So why open source?

-global public collaboration

-extensive access regardless of economics

-enhances communities (software for schools, emerging economies)

-combines diversity of approaches and skills

-promotes open innovation and transparency

-decreases walled gardens

Why do YOU love open source? How can it Change (Y)our World?

Hello!

We are so excited here because Software Freedom Day 2008 is coming up on September 20th. Sun will be celebrating events with our open source communities worldwide. We believe in freedom and sharing, so together on this day, we will encourage the free use and benefits of open source software. There will be installfests, product demonstrations, give aways, and seminars. I can't think of anything more fun! With more than 300+ teams in 65+ countries already planning local events, there is likely an event near you. See where and how Sun is celebrating here. It's easy to join and get involved.

See you all there!