The ordeal of the 21st century, the greatest, supreme era of the digital age is far from over. I was browsing this evening to find great opportunities for the geek in me. I chanced upon http://www.XMLChallenge.com and found out that they are conducting competitions for XML developers. Now this is the chance I've been waiting for!
For those of you who do not know, XML is Extensible Markup Language which in lay man's term is still not lay man because this is a little complicated to explain I know. The World Wide Web Consortium is a huge body (with 434 members) that makes certain standards for the Internet. XML is a general-purpose term that they created for specifications in creating custom markup languages. If you try and search your computer's system files, maybe you have come across a ".xml" file. This is an example of it. It may be XHTML, RSS (bloggers know this from feeds), MathML, GraphML, Scalable Vector Graphics, MusicXML, and others. I know this is a little difficult to swallow for non technical people, but for geeks like me it rings a bell if your breakfast, lunch and dinner is customizing websites and changing open source codes. This is like the "ambrosia" of software and web developers.
With that out in the open, the site is holding a competition for students, faculty members as well as professional developers. The IDUG contest is held world wide so even my tech savvy friends can join. This is also to increase awareness and familiarity with XQuery, XML and DB2. All you need to do is one or all of these things:
- Upload a video
- Create a small widget or gadget
- Answer a series of questions by developing queries in XQuery.
- Port an existing application to use XML, XQuery or DB2.
- Develop a brand new application using the same
It's just that easy! The community would also take part in judging and the prizes will awarded on a monthly basis. So start pressing those keys and rushing your brains now for this contest! I already did! So why be left behind!