Open Jive Regional Challenge cultivates student-drive innovation to tackle business needs using the latest open source technologies

Singapore, April 21, 2009 – Sun Microsystems today 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. Organized 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.

Centers of academia are a hotbed for developing and encouraging interest in the use of open source technologies. As the largest commercial contributor to open source, Sun is working closely with schools and engaging with students encouraging them to participate in open source communities.

“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 Mr 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.”

The open source model is in the spotlight more than ever in these globally economic tough times. As companies look for new ways to continue to move their businesses forward at a lower cost, open source is helping them reap immense savings by escaping proprietary costs. Open source is also enabling innovation on a higher level, enabling companies to experiment, innovate and incubate new projects before having to build a business case.

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 leading-edge 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.

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.

“Open Jive demonstrates Sun's commitment to Freely available and Open Source Software (FOSS) and nurturing even greater student engagement, participation and sharing on open source innovation, by having students build next generation applications using a gamut of technologies to address opportunities they see in the World around,” said Mr Naveen Asrani, senior manager, Global Developer and Outreach Programs, Sun Microsystems.

Mr Ong Chee Beng, managing director, Sun Singapore echoed this sentiment, “Students are at the forefront of pioneering new trends and making them mainstream, teaching us a whole new level of innovation.”

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.

Mr 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. Regardless of technology platforms, infocomm has tremendous potential in enabling economic and social growth. I look forward to students coming up with innovative infocomm solutions that can play a part in addressing real world needs and making a positive difference to lives."

Dr Ricky Tam, Principal, ITE College East said, “This competition will provide another exciting and vibrant learning environment beyond the classroom. It offers our students an opportunity to benchmark their skills and share innovations with the participants from the region.”

About Open Jive Regional Challenge 2009
The Open Jive Regional Challenge 2009, organized by Sun Microsystems challenges tertiary students in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines to create innovative open source web 2.0 applications to address world and business issues. In Singapore, Open Jive is open to students from universities, polytechnics and ITE collegies. It is part of IDA’s National Infocomm Competition. Register for the Open Jive Regional Challenge at sg.sun.com/openjive before 15 May 2009.

About the National Infocomm Competition
The National Infocomm Competition (NIC) is a year-long infocomm competition held annually that allows students to hone their skills and showcase their talent in infocomm. The NIC is brought to you by IDA and the following academic partners including Ministry of Education, National Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Institute of Management, Singapore Management University, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Institute of Technical Education, Information Technology Standards Committee, Singapore Computer Society and Science Centre Singapore. The industry partners include Adobe, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. For more information, please visit www.infocommtalent.sg.

About Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer (TM)" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com or at http://sg.sun.com for Asia South.

About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is committed to growing Singapore into a dynamic global infocomm hub. IDA uses an integrated approach to developing infocommunications in Singapore. This involves nurturing a competitive telecoms market as well as a conducive business environment with programmes and schemes for both local and international companies. For more information, visit www.ida.gov.sg.

About ITE
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Singapore, was established as a post-secondary education institution in 1992 under the Ministry of Education. ITE is a principal provider of career and technical education and principal authority in developing national occupational skills certification and standards to enhance Singapore's workforce competitiveness. Under its "One ITE System, Three Colleges" Model of Education, ITE governs three Colleges, comprising ITE College Central, ITE College East and ITE College West.

About Elixir technology
Elixir Technology is the provider of Elixir Repertoire, an award-winning Integrated Business Intelligence Suite designed for RESTful Web Services on SOA. Developed in pure Java, Elixir Repertoire is certified for MySQL, and it comes with a free NetBeans Plugin that allows direct creation and integration of BI features within the IDE. Incorporating best-of-breed open source components, Elixir Repertoire offers a breakthrough in price performance to power the new generation Enterprise 2.0 applications with Business Intelligence that is simplified yet powerful, feature-rich yet affordable; it's Business Intelligence that makes sense.
Please visit our website at http://www.elixirtech.com

About Parasoft
For 20 years, Parasoft has been empowering organizations to deliver better business applications faster. We achieve this by delivering quality as a continuous process throughout the SDLC—not just QA. Our solutions promote strong code foundations, solid functional components, and robust business processes. Whether it's a SOA, Web 2.0, security, or other IT initiative, Parasoft ensures security, reliability, and compliance. Our automated infrastructure ensures quality software is produced consistently and efficiently. And our comprehensive visibility into your development process facilitates continuous process improvement. The result is a sustainable process that delivers predictable outcomes, greater productivity, and significantly fewer software defects.
Website: http://www.parasoft.com