PROJECT:POSSIBILITY SHOWCASES BREAKTHROUGH OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR DISABLED COMMUNITIES

April 30, 2008

PROJECT:POSSIBILITY SHOWCASES BREAKTHROUGH OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR DISABLED COMMUNITIES

LOS ANGELES (April 30,2008) -- Project Possibility, a non-profit organization striving to create free and accessible software for people with disabilities, has unveiled what happens when altruism and expertise unite.

Project:Possibility held its Semester Project on April 30 at the University of Southern California to showcase the open source software aimed at making a beneficial impact on the disabled community. Software projects premiered Wednesday included: Universal closed-captioning for the Internet, a search engine specifically geared toward finding software for people with disabilities, word prediction software for people with limited mobility, gesture-recognition software for those who have difficulty using keyboard and mouse, and a mobile currency reader for the visually impaired.

Because Project: Possibility is an open-source organization, the finished software products will be made available on online at www.projectpossibility.org so other programmers worldwide can improve the software.

Twelve weeks ago, twenty-five USC students split into five teams, each led by a professional engineer from Google, Amgen, or NASA. The teams sought to expand on their achievements from last year's competition, "SS12, Code for a Cause," during which the participating students had 24 hours to create useful technologies for the disabled community.

"With Project: Possibility, software engineers, programmers and system designers can use their unique skills in a philanthropic and challenging way to make an impact on the world for disabled people," said Ely Lerner, a graduate student at the University of Southern California who was part of the Semester Project. Lerner helped to create the online closed-captioner for people with hearing impairments. "It's a wonderful experience for both the programmer and the community served."

Said Chris Leung, the executive director and founder of Project:Possibility, "We were astounded by the positive feedback, and industry interest in Code for a Cause. We knew we had hit on something significant, and he had to see what would result if students were given a longer period of time to work on the software."

"This program was a complete success," Leung added. "We set out with high goals in mind, and though we didn't always hit them, we identified what stopped us."

During the semester project, participants had to overcome the pressures of university midterms and finals. Now that the race to complete the projects is over, they said they feel honored to have been involved in such an unparalleled venture. In general, team members said they were grateful for the ability to "code for a cause" while refining their technical skills, and will continue to do so in the future.

"The vision and passion of those involved with Project: Possibility really affected me," said Stanley Lam, a volunteer for the Semester Project. "I saw the excitement that Leung and his team had for this cause and I that everything that he had envisioned might actually come to pass. I wanted to become a part of that."

Leung said Project:Possibility will be repeating both SS12:Code for a Cause and the Semester Project annually.

"Hopefully we did our job of raising awareness around the disabled community while also helping USC students learn more about different technologies," said Jacquelyn Leong, General Manager of the Semester Project. "I hope Project:Possibility will soon expand to other universities and beyond so more people will continue to give back to the community with their engineering skills."

If you would like to contribute to this noble endeavor, please go to www.projectpossibility.org for more information.

About Project: Possibility

Project:Possibility is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking open source software for the disabled community. The software that is created through this project is open source--made available in entirety to the world, free of charge.  Our mission is to inspire a community of disabled persons and software developers to work together and make a difference by inventing software that will unlock new areas of life for persons with disabilities, giving them access to experiences previously impossible to achieve.

Media Contact:

Jean Guerrero
media@projectpossibility.org
(619) 992-1988