Providing a collaborative publication venue for talented IAT students is the aim of “Inch ka chka?” (What’s up?: http://www.inchkachka.org/) online project initiated by X-Tech team (http://www.x-techs.org/), one of the winning groups from the Open Source Programming Marathon held as part of “Armenia’s IT Month 2006”.

As Arman Atoyan, the founder of the “Inch ka chka?” project noted, “By getting involved in the IT Month activities, we discovered that there are so many creative and talented youth that lack an opportunity to express themselves. IT Month gave us a chance to demonstrate our knowledge and skills and enter a new, more serious stage of activity.”

Three of the team members of “Inch ka chka?”, Arman (programmer), Lilit (designer) and German (programmer) organized a competition entitled Best Justification for Having a Website, in November 2007, through their own newly-opened website. The purpose of this competition was to discover and promote the talents of young IT enthusiasts. As a prize, the winner, a thirteen-year-old model, who desires to become a singer, received an operating website (http://elyahunanyan.com/) prepared by the X-Tech team. The second place winner was awarded the opportunity to publicize his collection of anomalies through “Inch ka chka?” website.

“As a country with big intellectual potential, Armenia should develop and make best use of its IT potential”, the team thinks. “Large-scale events such as the IT Month are very important for the future enhancement of the country’s IT industry since competitions and familiarization with international best practices help elevate existing quality.”

Realizing the need for an IT publication that will cover the latest developments in Armenia’s IT industry, the X-Tech team started an online IT journal. It contains information on vacancies and training programs of prominent IT companies, recent events in the IT sphere, software and hardware, viruses and antivirus software, technology and education, research, project management and Web-based training, etc.

Started in January 2008, the journal already has an audience of more than a thousand.