More than 20 IBM i user groups and educational organizations applied for and received grants from Maxava's iFoundation designed to promote all things IBM i, according to Allan Campbell, CEO of Maxava.

The company announced last spring that it was taking applications for grants from organizations whose mission was to support IBM i users. It said it had set aside $50,000 to support the effort, which was intended to stimulate grass-roots interest in the platform.

"The user group infrastructure was already in place, and we therefore thought that was a good place to make this kind of investment," Campbell told MC Press Online.

He said the $2000 grants were awarded to organizations from North Amereica, Europe, and South Afraica, with the funds going toward such things as training and speaker fees.

"A lot of people have been talking about ways to promote the IBM i platform, but we felt that helping those who are actually donating their time to support the users of the platform was a good way to go" said Campbell.

He said the company will evaluate how well the groups spend the grant money in deciding whether to make the grants available again next year, but so far, all signs are positive.