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.

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.

In late December, the Linux Foundation announced its I'm Linux promotional video contest. Though early submissions were welcomed, today is the day the contest officially gets under way, sporting a new name and a panel of judges hailing from all over the open source and media industries.

A few corporations have ventured into the uncharted territory of user submitted ads and promotions -- GM gave it a try a few years back, and Microsoft recently encouraged users to submit videos based on its I'm a PC campaign. There is an inherent danger to this advertising approach, of course, but the Linux Foundation is confident that its I'm Linux contest promotion has a major advantage due to the operating system's focus on community and collaboration.