Open source news for your reading pleasure.
May 17 - May 23, 2014
In this week's edition of our open source news roundup, we look at the Introduction to Linux MOOC at edX, the Public Domain Jam, and more.
Introduction to Linux MOOC open for registration
In March, the Linux Foundation announced a partnership with edX to make their Introduction to Linux online course free to anyone. Now that course is open for registration at the edX site. The course begins August 1, 2014. Check out the introduction video from Linus Torvalds himself.
Open Hardware Summit seeking submissions
The OSH is holding its fifth annual summit, September 30 - October 1 in Rome, and this year it's open to the public. The theme is "from open making to open manufacturing," and they're looking for submissions. A list of suggested topics is available on the site.
Play CodeCombat, win cash, and find a new gig
The online strategy game that teaches its players how to program is launching a new level within the game where winners can compete for money, prizes, and even coding jobs with tech companies. Greed, the new multiplayer programming arena level, lets players choose between humans and ogres. Then, by writing code to command your workers, you gather resources, amass troops, and compete with other players on leaderboards. And, if you're lucky, you could win a prize.
New game jam celebrates public domain stories
We've all played games with zombies and Cthulhu, and that's fine. But there's a lot of other great stuff out there in the public domain that indie game makers can draw from, and designer Gritfish wants to see them. Nicky Case, who developed the anti-stealth open source game Nothing To Hide, put up $1,000 in prize money, and The Engine Co. has offered a free subscription to their premium cross-platform game engine to the winner. Entries close today at 8pm.
Open Policy Network launched to support openly licensed resources
Governments around the world are sharing more and more data with their citizens, but there's a concern that restrictive licensing for publicly funded materials is preventing them from being fully used. The Open Policy Network is a coalition of organizations and individuals who hope to change this. Timothy Vollmer, manager of public policy with Creative Commons, writes, "When open licenses are required for publicly funded resources, there is the potential to massively increase access to and reuse of a wide range of materials, from educational content like digital textbooks, to the results of scholarly research, to troves of valuable public sector data."
Big thanks, as always, to Opensource.com moderator Robin Muilwijk, editor Jen Wike, and Opensource.com summer intern Bryan Behrenshausen for helping track down open source news with me every week.
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