Photo: Michael HimbeaultThe APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize recognises initiatives that make it easy for people to start using free/libre and open source software (FLOSS). The APC FLOSS Prize was established to honour Chris Nicol, a longtime FLOSS advocate and activist who for many years worked with APC.
Open to any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes user-oriented free/libre and open source software, the 2014 APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize consists of two prizes that will be awarded in parallel:
1. Public global APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize for public recognition of innovative initiatives. USD 4,000.
2. APC Member FLOSS Prize for an individual or organisation within the APC membership. USD 1,500.
In addition to these two prizes, the APC programme or management systems team that has made the greatest strides in adopting FLOSS will be awarded a prize in the form of hardware.
APC acknowledges all the people and organisations who sent their proposals, and encourages them to continue in their efforts to include more people in the use of free/libre and open source software.
Now that the submission phase has ended, APC would like to introduce the honourable jury members for the APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize 2014:
Nnenna Nwakanma
Nnenna is an experienced development professional who has worked in the ICT field in Africa for over a decade. Nnenna has in recent years co-founded the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, and served as a board member of the Open Source Initiative.
Pilar Saenz
Pilar Saenz is project coordinator at the Karisma Foundation in Colombia, where she leads Karisma’s policy advocacy projects. A physicist by profession but an activist by vocation, Pilar’s work focuses on free software, open technology and open culture.
Ragib Hasan
Dr Ragib Hasan is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a founder of UAB’s SECuRE and Trustworthy computing Lab (SECRETLab). Dr Hasan has received several prestigious awards for his career achievements, research and writing on computer security and cloud computing.
Wojtek Bogusz
Wojtek Bogusz is a digital security consultant and currently works for the Dublin-based Front Line, an international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders. He is the co-author and project leader of Security in a Box – a toolkit of software and guides for improving computer security and privacy.
APC expresses its gratitude to the jury members of the 2014 APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize for their commitment and effort in taking on this important task.
In order to evaluate the initiatives submitted, the jury will address these questions:
- Does the initiative improve access to, knowledge of and/or usability of free/libre and open source software?
- Is the initiative user-oriented, e.g. is its development driven by community needs rather than commercial potential?
- Is the initiative documented so that others can learn from and replicate the model?
- Does the initiative have demonstrable impact and has it increased the number of people using FLOSS on a day-to-day basis?
Since the prize is intended to recognise user-driven innovative initiatives to improve FLOSS accessibility and promotion, or that focus on user groups who were previously not able to use ICTs because they are not “profitable” for conventional technology providers, prizes will not be awarded to large, commercially supported projects or already-popular GNU/Linux operating system distributions.
A ceremony celebrating the APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize 2014 winners will be held during the APC Member Meeting in Barcelona on 4 June at 19:30 pm local time.
Check out previous winners:
Prize winners in 2007
Free Geek, Portland, USA
Free Geek is a not-for-profit community organisation that recycles used technology to provide computers, education, internet access and job skills training to those in need in exchange for community service.
NepaLinux, Patan, Nepal
NepaLinux is a localised Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux distribution in Nepali. The NepaLinux Team is committed to producing more user-friendly, more stable and less technical software that meets the actual demand of the Nepali people.