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Competition Fosters Next Generation Of Linux Talent
gollum123 writes "Yahoo reports that about 3,000 students from 75 countries registered for the 2004 IBM Linux Scholar Challenge before registration closed Oct. 31, the largest turnout in the competition's history. This year's winners will be revealed in January at LinuxWorld in Boston. Each entry consists of a 1,200-word essay that can describe the solution to one of 29 Linux-related challenges IBM poses as part of the competition. Entrants, who must be enrolled full time at an accredited university, aren't limited to these challenges and can suggest and solve their own problems. The IBM-provided challenges include asking entrants to identify deficiencies in Linux and propose solutions, describe how to build a high-availability application that would provide failover capability across multiple IBM servers, and improve boot time on a Linux-based IBM ThinkPad."
"full time at an accredited university"
That's just wrong. Some of the best programmers and computer folks I ever met, didn't even go to colleges.
Hah, at first glance all I picked up was "Fosters Linux" and I thought "huh, what will the Aussies do next?"
Furthermore, I don't think it makes much sense to award a scholarship to someone who's not in college. Is that so unreasonable?
Second, I can't wait to see the results of this. Should be interesting to see how some of these are solved, and what other interesting challenges people come up with to try to solve.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Im a full time jr in high school and I know more then most about Linux. I probably could of solved at least the thinkpad problem(im writing this on a T40). I will soon be going into college and I could use some extra help from big blue.
Each entry consists of a 1,200-word essay that can describe the solution to one of 29 Linux-related challenges IBM poses as part of the competition...d to these challenges and can suggest and solve their own problems. The IBM-provided challenges include asking entrants to identify deficiencies in Linux and propose solutions
Uninstall Linux and install FreeBSD.
Oops, wait, that's only 5 words. Need another 1,195 to pad it out. Any suggestions?
Improving boot time on a ThinkPad...
Does IBM own the essays, though? This was mentioned with Google's CodeJam thing too - Google stated that they pretty much owned whatever code was submitted and used to solve the problems. ~stephen
Funny thought: isn't this a great way for IBM to get students to do work for free?
Seriously though, the project list reads very much like a wish list of the things they'd like to have but don't want to spend the money on doing themselves.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing (espectially if it leads to some students landing jobs with them). Just struck me as humorus in that "everything's a conspiracy / everyone has a hidden agenda" sort of way.
I don't see how that attitude and position would help the typical young person who wants a rewarding career. I have two boys that will finish their secondary education in the next few years and I could never tell them that some of the brightest people never went to college so don't worry too much about going. My college and graduate degrees have opened doors for me that would have otherwise been closed.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I too believe that you don't always need a college degree to have commanding intelligence. However, I am aware of the real world expectations of the "job market", among other things, and having that degree determines whether artificial barriers are lifted or fortified.
And sometimes it's a shame that someone who can otherwise think on their feet and do the job 10 times around without faltering are constricted, but that's how it goes.
Join the TWIT army now!
Not all the hard questions in Linux's future are technical.
To IBM challengees/anyone:
How would you reconcile the need for innovation in Linux and the growing number of patents owned by a smaller and smaller group of large corporations, where these patents undermine the capacity to innovate?
IBM, being the largest patent filer in the United States, probably has a unique perspective on this. Though I am grateful for their support of, and happy for their benefit from, Linux, I must concede that I wonder what will happen when their patent interests conflict with their Linux interests.
I'm starting a new competition. I'm "challenging" 3000 college students to see who can clean my floors the best! The winner gets $20!! Competition my ass.
I don't respond to AC's.
What a great way of getting someone to solve your business programming problems on the cheap. :)
As one who met all the eligibility requirements for this competition, I think it would have been nice to have found out about it before the deadline... Maybe next year /. can run an article on it before the fact.
Study a bit more grammar, tell your principal to fuck off in front of several hundred witnesses, and enter college rather than waste a fourth year in high school.
It worked for me. I ended up with a PowerBook and a free ride while my high school friends were being taught history by Bill and Ted.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I was one of the winners in 2001. I actually like the idea. For those who are ranting about how IBM is getting work done for free and so on, i got to intern at the Linux Technology Center and had a blast there, it was worth it(and yea, the thinkpad was useful too).
Put the kernel in the bios. It's quite doable, so why aren't they doing it? http://www.linuxbios.org/
The best way to get young people really intrested in linux is to have games which work hands down better on the linux platform.
Each entry consists of a 1,200-word essay that can describe the solution to one of 29 Linux-related challenges IBM poses as part of the competition.
like... "How to install ATi drivers" ??
"It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool, then to speak up and remove all doubt."
Surely you meant "than to speak up"?
I am already doing this in my company - it is at a very early stage of implmentation.
The primary premise is that software development is similar to artisanship - where an "artisan" joins work in a fairly junior grade and then learns the ropes from seniors and mentors who actively train their juniors on actual projects - all work is closely supervised with the express aim of maturing the skills of the juniors.
All programmers join as apprentices and have to work their way up by earning the respect of their peers. All code is to be reviewed by seniors/mentors and peers and based on their review, the programmers will advance in grade.
Everyone needs to know programming as well as an additonal skill - be it housekeeping, administration, finance etc so they can take on other roles if needed. In addition to programming, everyone will be associated with one of the additional roles they choose - for instance, you might be a programmer, but you could also be incharge of housekeeping responsibilities.
Everyone is given an opportunity to choose the role in which they would like to work - for instance, people showing interest in marketing will be given the option of joining the marketing team as long as the marketing team is convinced that the person fits that role.
Programmers are taken only based on references from others already in the organization - ofcourse, all this means that the company grows very slowly, but the advantages are that the skill levels are kept very high and people can move to a different division/department at short notice.
Also, everyone in the organization interacts much more with each other and this helps team dynamics.
I guess the work ethic and the general work philosophy is a bit like in a kibutz.
Would like to hear what you guys think of this.
" IBM created its program in 2001 to drum up enthusiasm among students worldwide in Linux and open-source software."
It sounds like some of these "theoretical" challenges may be issues that they have in-house, and are looking for some free help to solve.
In 2001, post-bubble, I went on a job interview with a large, not-to-be-named corporate entity and was asked how I would approach / solve a few issues that they were having at the time. Wanting the job, I foolishly gave a couple insightful replies.
Did I get the job? No. Were the solutions implemented? A friend of mine who works in that group said that the hiring manager (he with whom I interviewed) suddenly had some great insight on their current problems, and proposed solutions that sounded quite a bit like my interview replies.
The bastard. My fault, though, for giving away the milk and not having them require that the cow at least be rented.
Is IBM doing the same with these kids? Dunno. Looking at the 2004 Official Rules, however, section 8 of the agreement reads:
By submitting entries, entrant grants the sponsors and their agents of this contest the right to publish, use, adapt, sell, edit and/or modify such entry in any way, in commerce, and in any and all media worldwide, including but not limited to the Internet, without limitation and without compensation to the entrants. Entrant also grants sponsors worldwide irrevocable, nonexclusive and royalty free right and license to use, have used, copy, reproduce, transfer, modify and/or display any information contained in their entry in
whole or part and in any form without compensation.
Things that make you go "tsk tsk." If I read this correctly, it means that they would own your idea as submitted, and can not only use it, but also sell it and / or patent it as their own.
It gets even more fun, in section 9:
At the sponsor's discretion, entrants may be required to submit source code to substantiate
results reported in the entry.
Bastards.
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