The Academy gives students a taste of real open source development through a combination of classroom sessions and hands-on project work. The aim is to get Academy students quickly to the point where they can usefully contribute to a real open source project. 

During the 2011 Academy participants wrote unit tests to the Koha project,for example, contributing to the overall quality of the popular open source library management system. After the successful completion of the pilot academy in 2011, we are now gearing up for the 2-week Open Source Academy which will take place 9-20 January 2012.

We are particularly interested in other organisations taking part in the Academy, especially those outside the Wellington region, where Catalyst is based.

By organising and funding the Academy, Catalyst hopes to show young technologists how to participate in open source communities and to fully explore their passion for IT through freely available open source tools. We also hope to attract more talented New Zealanders into the IT profession generally, and particularly to meet the growing demand for open source technology across the public and private sectors, both here in New Zealand and internationally.

For more information and to express interest in participating, please send an email to academy@catalyst.net.nz with the information required in the brochure.

Resources

Brochure for 2012 Academy [PDF, 2.2 MB]

Media statement announcing launch of the Academy, December 2010 [PDF 82 KB]

"School's in for open source advocates", Computerworld, 10 January 2011

Catalyst Open Source Academy in full swing

New software contributors through the Catalyst Open Source Academy

The Catalyst Open Source Academy was discussed in "New technology with Sarah Putt" in Nine to Noon Radio NZ on 26 January 2012 (at minute 14:20)

"Forget the beach, let's learn about coding", Interface Magazine, Issue 37, February 2012