OStatic

While the ten hopeful finalists in the Cisco Think Inside the Box developer competition await the judges' decision, OStatic has been fortunate enough to speak with a few teams about their submissions. The global contest centered on the network as a platform approach to develop applications using Cisco's Linux-based AXP (Application Extension Platform), a service module on its ISR (Integrated Services Routers).

Today, Roman Skvirsky of Team RSDevs has graciously taken the time to tell OStatic readers a little bit more about his Flash Gateway to Videoconferences application. The Flash Gateway to Videoconferences allows users to connect and join conferences and audio calls to H.323 and SIP phones through a web browser -- requiring no additional software installation beyond the Flash plugin.

In June, Cisco announced the ten finalists in its Think Inside the Box developer competition. The global contest centered on the network as a platform philosophy, and asked applicants to develop applications using Cisco's Linux-based AXP (Application Extension Platform), a module on its ISR (Integrated Services Routers).

The contest drew nearly 900 hopeful development teams from 75 countries. After many long hours of deliberation, the 110 qualifying teams were whittled down to 10 finalists.

OStatic has been fortunate enough to talk to a few of these finalist teams -- including Toshiyuki Sakata, from Team CampUser. CampUser, based in Brazil, developed its Locker for IP Telephony application to help network administrators maximize their organization's operational efficiency and billing policy administration through call authorization profiles and call management processing.

Safari Books Online is holding a competition for anyone who wants to show off their mad coding skills, so if you think you're up to the task check out the Coder Challenge. If you can convince the judges that you're the best developer out there, you'll take home a 3-month subscription to Safari Books Online and score an invitation to a special event hosted by O'Reilly Media founder Tim O'Reilly.

Calling all artists: If you want to try your hand at creating images as spectacular as the one on the left and win a prize for them, then you need to enter the Blender World Cup 2009 contest. This year's topic focuses on the other world which should contain fantasy, creativity, and interest.

Contest rules are pretty straightforward. As long as Blender is the predominant 3D software you use to create your image, you're welcome to use any other apps you like. Entries need to be submitted in .JPG format and saved at 80-95% quality.

Blender World Cup judges offer the following tips for getting the best shot at nabbing a slot as one of 2009's winners:

Let's face it, open source software companies and projects have a wide variety of innovative platforms and methods to drum up awareness, business, and interest in development for the projects they create and support. The problem is, it's not always easy to quantify how much interest and awareness (or ultimately, new contributors, users, or customers) result from any specific method.

Social networks are a great way to reach out to people with specific interests and start the chain of word of mouth recommendation. But they just aren't the traditional sort of public relations drives or advertising many organizations are used to. If an organization understands this, there's a lot to gain from social network outreach -- and open source software, a model that works based on input from the wider community, is in a position to benefit even more.

There's just that matter of metrics -- will the push yield good results? Engine Yard, a Ruby on Rails hosting and services provider, found it's well worth the effort.