Richard: Were did the idea for the competition come from?

Eric: I have always been a fan of Open Source; it is a great way to get software built by drawing on the skill of a wide community of professional and enthusiast developers. I also believe Open Source projects can be really educational for a developer, especially on a rich platform like Symbian OS.

So it is an idea I have been playing around with for a while, to do something to encourage more open source application running on Symbian OS. I had the opportunity to mention it to my contacts at Symbian and Nokia, the response was enthusiast and it has snowballed from there.

Richard: Who do you hope will enter?

Eric: I expect it will be mostly students and enthusiasts who have developed a game or small application. I do hope that we may get companies joining and contributing some small application or utilities they have developed in-house.

Richard: How are Symbian and Nokia viewing the competition?

Eric: They have been really supportive and I think they are very positive about helping the "Symbian community" do this sort of promotion. I’m sure they see it as a good opportunity to encourage a few more developer to get involved with Symbian OS development.

Richard: Are there any restriction on the type of open source application that can be entered?

Eric: The only limitation is that the application must be written in C++. But really we are looking for any type of application it could be a game or a personal productivity tool or maybe a utility that developers can use in their applications, it down to the imagination of the developer. We will also accept code which is a demonstration or proof of concept at this stage.

Richard: What are the judging criteria?

Eric: We have three main criteria, innovation, usability, code quality. The more inventive the application the better. The application must also be usable, which will depend on the type of application submitted, a user application must work well in the platform it is written for, a developer utility must deliver the functionality it promises.

We will also be looking at the code, it has to be of good quality, for example it should follow the Symbian OS development guidelines as much as possible. Good documentation using comments in the code or a manual is also important.

We will also try to check whether the best applications match the Symbian Signed criteria.

Richard: Who are the judges?

Eric: The judges will include members of the Symbian community. At the moment they are myself and Ewan and Rafe from AllAboutSymbian. I’m also hoping I can persuade someone from both Symbian and Nokia to participate as well. So watch this space!

You have until 19th September to submit your project and is done at http://contest.newlc.com all the details of the competition can be found here http://www.newlc.com/article.php3?id_article=412.