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June 2008 * Volume 1 * Issue 2
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Featured News Item
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Lilly Partners with TopCoder, to Find Drug Discovery IT Solutions
On May 13, 2008 TopCoder®, Inc. announced a formal partnership with biopharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY). Through the relationship, TopCoder will apply the skills of its global community of top ranked software designers and developers to enhance the software and Information Technology backbone at Lilly. Lilly is currently transforming its business, moving from a Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Company or FIPCo to a Fully Integrated Pharmaceutical Network or FIPNet, striking up strategic partnerships across the globe. Lilly has engaged TopCoder for new software development initiatives which will enhance its process for requesting and distributing chemical samples around the world to assist biologists in testing compounds that are used in assays, or defined tests, to determine if a compound or group of compounds can achieve a desired goal. [READ MORE]
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Other News
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The Truveo Developer Challenge
Truveo is the search engine for video, making it possible for consumers to search and browse through over 100 million videos from thousands of sources across the Web. Truveo was founded by some of the industry's leading experts in video search technology and has built one of the largest and most up-to-date indexes of high-quality video on the Web. As a result, Truveo enables users to find video that cannot be found in any other search engine. With a prize pool of $100,000, The Truveo Developer Challenge will allow developers to compete to build innovative applications that use Truveo's open API for video search available at developer.truveo.com. [READ MORE]
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Software Specifics
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AOL's Open AIM Developer Challenge
In just two short months of competition, TopCoder community members created an incredible 53 new applications using new Open AIM APIs, extending the power of AOL's leading instant messaging platform in powerful new ways. With cash prizes up for grabs in the Developer Challenge, creativity was unleashed, with applications submitted that do everything from live desktop sharing over AIM to instant language translation. "We're pleased to have taken part in such a creative and exciting competition, and even more pleased with the bold and innovative AIM applications that resulted," said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President, AOL. [READ MORE]
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The World is Flat....Now What?
Here is the (multi-) million-dollar question: If you were able to piece together a dream team of software developers, where in the world would you look and what would you look for? India? Russia? Poland? Brazil? Infrastructure? Hourly Rates? Accredited Education Systems? As the list of questions gets longer, the scorecards get harder to interpret. The global distribution of talent, while generally viewed upon as an immense opportunity, can ultimately lead to seven to eight figure guesses.
Interesting trends can be identified by applying TopCoder's patented rating system to its competitive member base of over 150,000. TopCoder has recently released rankings of how various countries stack up in terms of average talent across multiple disciplines, including algorithm, software design and software development. The country ratings used to derive these rankings are weighted averages of individuals competing within the previous 180 days. The results are telling: Eastern Europe is consistent. China is exploding. [READ MORE]
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TopCoder DataShot
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TopCoder Software Factory
By running an efficient software factory, TopCoder is able to provide speed, scale and predictable quality with a cost savings not achievable through traditional workforce models.
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Customer Profile
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Featured Case Study
The Site Management Console (SMC) is a client-server application that allows users to create "Launch Plans" for their online store. The application allows users to create over 35 different types of events and manage them in an online calendar. [DOWNLOAD THIS CASE STUDY]
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Monthly Column
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Blueprint for a Software Factory
By Michael Morris, TopCoder Vice President of Software Development
There is an ongoing debate within the software development community on whether the value of software reuse is ever fully realized and what type of development methodology can make it happen.
Imagine that software projects are built out of cement blocks and the act of putting those blocks together in different ways is what makes each software project unique. Now, replace the physical cement block with a virtual software block called a software component. [CONTUINED]
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Events Calendar
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2008 TopCoder Open
Programming athletes from Poland, the U.S., Brazil and the Philippines were named champions in the Algorithm, Design, Development, Studio Design and Marathon events of the 2008 TopCoder Open at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas. Tomasz Czajka of Poland took first place in the $15,000 Algorithm competition; Tim Roberts of the United States finished with top honors in the Software Design event, earning $25,000 for his win; the Software Development champion was Romano Silva of Brazil, who won $25,000; Studio Design champion Nino Rey Ronda of the Philippines took the $20,000 purse for the graphics design track; and the Marathon Match $10,000 prize went to Przemyslaw Debiak of Poland. In all, more than $260,000 in cash and prizes was at stake for the 120 competitors from around the world. [READ MORE]
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