This year's Computer Science Education Week is getting special attention as top celebrities, corporate heads, sports personalities and politicians (including the US President Barack Obama and the House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor) have come out in support of Hour of Code – A Code.org's initiative to promote computer literacy.
"Don't just download the latest app, help design it.", Obama said in his video. Eric also echoed similar sentiments through a video statement.
Code.org is a Seattle-based non-profit founded by brothers Hadi and Ali Partovi. According to Hadi, programming courses in many US states are still not recognized as a core component of the curriculum and this is creating a shortage of computer engineers in the country.
Many other public figures like Bill Gates, Shakira, Ashton Kutcher and Mark Zuckerberg are also promoting the initiative, which encourages students to spend at least one hour coding this week. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg have gone a step ahead and have contributed video tutorials for Code.org's curriculum.
Companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Apple are also adding fuel to the campaign. While the home pages of these tech giants will highlight the Hour of Code initiative, Apple and Microsoft will also be holding special coding events at their stores. Even Dropbox is donating storage space for the event this week.
Code.org has raised $10 million from its supporters like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and Google. Approximately $1 million has been spent on this year's star studded campaign. More information about the initiative is available at code.org.