APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize

"What you get from working with other people [on FOSS development] is extremely rewarding. You get a way of collaborating with others, you get a human warmth that doesn't exist in other areas, a sharing of skills and a lot of help from others."

Chris Nicol

Prize winners

Two initiatives have been selected by an international jury and awarded The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007. Yet another initiative received a honorable mention.

Prize winners are initiatives:

- Free Geek, USA
- NepaLinux, Nepal

Read more about the winning initiatives Free Geek and NepaLinux

Honorable mention was awarded to:

- Gleducar, Argentina

Read more about the Gleducar project

A ceremony celebrating the prize winners will be held during the APC council meeting in Rio de Janeiro on November 6, 6 pm local time.

APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007

The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize is awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users.

The APC FOSS Prize has been established to honor Chris Nicol, a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years worked with APC.

We are looking for initiatives that:

improve the accessibility to, knowledge of and/or usability of FOSS
are user-oriented
are documented so that others can learn from and replicate the model
have demonstrable impact and have increased the number of people using FOSS on a day-to-day basis

The prize is open to:

Any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes user-oriented free and open source software. The application form must be completed in either English or Spanish however there are no language restrictions regarding the language of the project. Small-scale activities are encouraged to apply.

The prize

Prize money of USD $4,000 is offered. This may be shared by up to three initiatives at the jury's discretion.

Applications

The deadline for prize nominations for this year was March 30 2007.
Over 50 applications were sent from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
We are very pleased with the interest and we want to thank all applicants.

Ceremony (Change in date!)

A ceremony celebrating the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 winners will be held during the APC council meeting in Rio de Janeiro on November 7, 6 pm local time.