Model and actress Lily Cole is to join the panel of judges for the Young Rewired State Competition, for budding young computer programmers.
The competition aims to encourage young children and teenagers to team up and write their own software.
Cole is behind the "social giving network" impossible.com and, according to TheGuardian, is an enthusiast for open source software. She heard about the competition when seeking help for her impossible.com project.
She will be joined by three other judges - Aral Balkan, Conrad Wolfram and Jonathan Luff-to judge the event, which takes place on 6-12 August 2012. A prize-giving ceremony will take place in Birmingham at the end of the week.
During the event, businesses around the UK will act as hosts to local young people, YRS alumni, Rewired State mentors and other volunteers. The challenge is to build any digital product, for mobile or web, using at least one piece of open data.
At the end of the week all participants are invited to The Custard Factory, in Birmingham, for a night of coding, pizza and camping out in sleeping bags all over the site. Prizes are revealed the following afternoon.
The competition is free for all children to enter – however you must be under the age of 18 and have a rudimentary understanding of programming.
