14 DAY TRIAL // ESRI (UK) and Bing Maps have introduced a new contest designed to let developers build Geographic Information Systems mashups that bridge Microsoft’s mapping, search and location platform with the ArcGIS Server. ESRI is ready to offer an Xbox system to the winner of the competition, but participation is limited. In this regard, only ESRI (UK) customers and business partners will be able to enter the contest, provided that they licensed ArcGIS Server 9.3 or later. At the same time, the ESRI (UK) / Bing Maps Mashup Challenge is also opened to subscribers of the ESRI Developer Network (EDN).
“ESRI (UK) and Bing Maps are challenging the UK’s Web developers to build a GIS-based mashup that demonstrates how GIS can be used to improve business processes, unlock information and/or connect people with geographical data. The winner will be announced during this year’s AGI Community Conference and a prize of an Xbox will be awarded based on the creativity, applicability and originality of the application,” revealed Chris Pendleton, the Virtual Earth technical evangelist for Microsoft.
Developers don’t have that much time at their disposal if they’re looking to participate. In this regard, ESRI (UK) requires all devs to submit a demo of the web application they build by 5pm, Friday, September 18th. Approximately a week later, ESRI (UK) will announce the winner. Revealing the recipient of the Xbox system will coincide with the AGI2009 Conference on September 24th.
“Enter the Mashup Challenge and discover how easy it is to integrate multiple services into an application, bring together basemaps, operational data, and analytical services to create both simple and complex applications that provide information and solve common tasks,” Pendleton added. “Web applications must be developed using any of the ArcGIS Server 9.3 or 9.3.1 online software development kits and must include Bing Maps data.“