The Microsoft Student Partners organized this yearly event called Hour of Code. Today was the first session and as from their tweet it seems they rocked it.

They hosted the event at the University of Mauritius, which is an easily accessible location for most people. Moreover, December being holiday-time for the school kids it explains the higher number of kids that showed up with an interest to learn programming.

I reached the University of Mauritius and met a few of the fellow MSPs. In the hallway, I saw Arnaud, the Technology Evangelist of Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands having some word with his MSP team. I greeted them and joined the chat. Arnaud introduced me to his colleague who was surprised to hear that “Ish is a Linux guy”. Oh, oh, Microsoft is going Open Source after all? Shouldn’t I be around. Well, I mean the Open Source philosophy adoption is just the beginning.

Microsoft loves Open Source

Around a year ago Microsoft released the code for the .net Core which pretty much rocked the headlines on tech magazines. This year Microsoft open sourced Visual Studio Code and that remained a beautiful contribution until news showed up that Microsoft is releasing Chakra as Open Source, which is the JavaScript engine powering it’s game-changing Edge browser. So much of Open Source love flowing down the streams of Redmond is a good sign. We surely could expect Microsoft engaging more with the developer world and embracing cross-platform compatibility and yes I keep hope that Microsoft Office comes on the Linux desktop rather than just hanging on the browser with Office.com.

I talked to Arshad Pooloo who is into marketing & communication for the Microsoft Student Partners. It’s his second Hour of Code since he joined as MSP. He says the aim of Hour of Code 2015 is to demystify coding and specially show that coding is not limited to ‘boys’. Today’s event laid much emphasis in teaching the basics of programming to kids and there was a session for DigiGirlz (the name says it all). The event which continues tomorrow is being followed on Facebook by over 500 people.