OStatic

We've written before about the motivations people have for participating in open source projects. Well, here's a new one for you: sign up to participate in the Hackontest and you could win an all-expenses-paid trip to Switzerland. Oh, and you might win your share of $8,500 in prizes and help advance a favorite open source project as well.

Here's the deal: the Swiss Open Systems Users Group and Google are co-sponsoring the contest, which will take place in conjunction with OpenExpo2008 Zurich on September 24 and 25. Right now, they're taking nominations for worthy open source projects and particular features, and letting anyone who cares to register vote on which features are most important. For example, the idea of adding a user preferences module to phpMyAdmin has good support in the early voting.

But beyond voting for features, you can also volunteer to be an implementer of a particular feature. In August, a jury of open source contributors will pick the three most promising three-person teams to fly to the competition in Zurich. There they'll have 24 hours - non-stop - to implement the chosen feature, at the end of which time the jury will decide who gets the cash awards.

It's early days for the Hackontest yet - which means that there are many more suggestions than there are potential implementers. If you can afford to take some time off in September, and one of the projects you know about is on the list (or you'd like to nominate it yourself), it just might be worth your while to volunteer.

• contest