Yesterday at 3GSM World Congress 2007, Microsoft Corp. and BT announced the launch of the Connected Services Sandbox competition series to help promote the development of innovative customer solutions that merge traditional telecommunications offerings such as voice or text messaging with Web 2.0 applications such as mapping or search. The competitions will be managed by TopCoder Inc., a leader in online programming competitions, skills assessment and competitive software development.In the competition series, developers will be given the task of developing managed network mashups that address the specific service requirements of multiple usage scenarios. The winners of each competition will receive prizes ranging from $2,500 to $25,000.

The Connected Services Sandbox competition series will be open to freelance developers and member organizations of the Sandbox. By registering directly through the Sandbox, developers can review the competition rules, choose from the competitions available, and begin designing applications appropriate for individual competitions within the series. The competitions are divided into multiple usage scenarios as defined by Microsoft and BT. Usage scenarios can include a combination of communications services, such as e-mail, instant messaging and document collaboration, with Web services, such as Windows Live, Microsoft MapPoint^®, Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo!

With the Sandbox environment, we have the ability to see new services created and developed from concept to market, said Bill Murphy, managing director at BT Business. We anticipate that the Sandbox competitions will provide us with compelling business opportunities that we can ultimately deliver to our customers. For example, we will be looking at services targeted at the small-to-midsize business market, where a unified communications solution can benefit a company with one to 10 employees.

Each competition has two stages: In the first stage, the Design Competitions, developers create a storyboard for an innovative mashup idea and present that idea, either graphically or through written specifications, to a panel of judges. The winning mashup design resulting from the first stage moves on to the second stage, the Assembly Competitions, in which developers build a prototype of the winning design that can deliver a demonstrable service.

The initial designs and resulting prototypes will be judged by BT, a panel of Microsoft customers, engineers and peers from the community. Winners are rewarded through monetary prizes and nonmonetary promotional programs. In addition to monitoring the competitions, TopCoder will be responsible for prize administration and distribution. The first round of winners will be announced at NXTcomm in Chicago, June 18 through 21, 2007, with winning services demonstrated at the Microsoft booth.

Developers can find more information about the Sandbox competitions at http://www.networkmashups.com.