If you’re a developer these days, you’ve probably used and enjoyed the GitHub code repository and community, especially if you work on open source projects. GitHub is used by over a million people and stores over two million code repositories. The company says it’s the largest code host in the world.

GitLab has launched to let developers create their own GitHub shared code repositories on their own servers, rather than host with GitHub. For free.

GitLab is free and is distributed under the MIT License, and GitLab states:

The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very important. It enables the unlimited tuning and improvement of a software product.

It also makes it possible to port the code to new hardware, to adapt it to changing conditions, and to reach a detailed understanding of how the system works.

More and more, startups are creating multiple projects and have side ventures going at the same time of their main development focus. For example, Twitter was created as a side product during the Odeo days. Something like a hosted version of GitLab could really expand the creativity of a company, and expand the learning of the entire development team.

GitHub is free for open source code, but has a pricing structure for private usage and storage from $7 for single developers all the way up to $200 for businesses, with higher pricing if more storage is needed.

GitLab won’t replace the need for GitHub of course, simply because there is so much code stored on their servers, which helps developers get products and projects off of the ground faster. No longer do small teams have to build anything from the ground up thanks to the developer community who don’t mind sharing insights and code that they’ve worked hard on.

You can view a live demo of GitLab here.

While the overall level of computer competency in the US has likely never been higher, the Defense Department is worried that expertise with Facebook and Youtube doesn’t seem to translate into more students studying in tech-related fields.

The statistics are certainly a bit bleak: according to the Computer Research Association, enrollment in computer science programs went down 43 percent between 2003 and 2006. In response to these figures, DARPA is taking proposals for programs to broaden the appeal of a career in tech.

Given that this wouldn’t be the first time DARPA’s run a student-oriented publicity campaign, the question that has to be asked is “what’s going to make this time different?”

The last time that DARPA ran a campaign like this, the Red Balloons Challenge, the competition was aimed at existing geeks (the three teams on the podium were made up of MIT, Georgia Tech and Harvard students). The new campaign is likely to be aimed at high school and middle school students, to be set up like an extracurricular activity, “perhaps as an after school activity, weekend, or summer event,” and to be set up in a way so that the program “maintain(s) a positive, long-term presence in a student’s education.”

So is it a good idea? It surely seems so. But will it work to the extent the DoD wants it to? I’m skeptical at best. While programs like Formula SAE and other similar initiatives have had some success in this regard, I don’t think a competition alone would drum up the numbers DARPA is looking for. They might find more success if they combine this program with a scholarship initiative for computer science, though.