PALISADOES FOUNDATION

The Palisadoes Foundation was created by a group of Jamaican technology professionals interested in assisting in the continued development new and existing technologies in Jamaica.

Our current focus is on the field of software engineering as it can extend the Caribbean region’s success in the business process outsourcing service sector.

Recent developments in software engineering have made resources very accessible via the Internet with many large scale volunteer community projects frequently referred to as the the Open Source movement. Open Source software is free to download, access, modify and use which significantly lowers the barriers to adoption encountered when working with traditional proprietary systems.

All the world’s largest websites actively use and contribute to the Open Source movement, and often require their new engineering employees to have in depth knowledge of its core projects.

Though the short term focus is to encourage participation in the Open Source movement, the longer term goal is make Palisadoes participants globally recognized innovators, academics, entrepreneurs, and executives.

The first Palisadoes program is The Calico Challenge which promotes interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses by offering stipends to students wanting to contribute to the Open Source community.

The aim is to progressively expand the Palisadoes programs as the availability of resources increases and our experience in the process matures.