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TopCoder Awards $100,000 in Prize Money to Winners of AOL's Open AIM Developer Challenge During TopCoder Open in Las Vegas

Posted on: Monday, 19 May 2008, 09:00 CDT

LAS VEGAS and GLASTONBURY, Conn., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- 2008 TopCoder Open -- TopCoder and AOL today announced the winners of AOL's Open AIM Developer Challenge. These winners were awarded $100,000 in prize money, live and on stage, at the 2008 TopCoder Open, the world's most elite software developer face-off, at the Mirage in Las Vegas. 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. A purely fun plugin even makes animal noises when the animal name is typed in the message window. Winners were chosen based upon innovation, actual download and usage stats for each application, best use of Open AIM API functionality, and popularity in separate voting by both the TopCoder community and by AOL. A list of the winning developers with descriptions of their applications follows below.

"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. "When we opened up our messaging network wider than ever before in March we sought to empower the web community to leverage the AIM network in bold new ways, and we were not let down. Kudos to the participating developers. We look forward to sharing their creations with our users."

The full gallery of competition submissions is online at the Open AIM Developer Challenge homepage at: http://www.topcoder.com/openaim.

"These new applications were just built, yet we're already seeing them being downloaded all over the world, and popping up on social networks everywhere, because the flexibility and choice to build any imaginable client drives tremendous creativity, resulting in innovative new AIM plugins that users really want," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder. "The TopCoder community, both long-time members and new competitors that joined for the Open AIM Developer Challenge, really came through-showing what top developers are truly capable of when competing to extend AIM in new ways."

Open AIM Developer Challenge Winners:

A prize of $10,000 was awarded to the nine top winning applications. An additional 20 secondary winners were also awarded $500 each. Full details on all the winning applications and the members who built them are available online. The top nine winning applications, available for download, include:

-- IM Remote: A plugin that lets users share their desktop with a buddy using AIM.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/03/31/desktop-sharing-through-aim-with-im- remote/

-- IM Loud: A plugin that lets users listen to their instant messages. http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/03/13/first-submission-im-loud/

-- IM Whiteboard: An AIM plugin that lets users draw simultaneously with their buddies.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/03/25/draw-with-your-buddies-with-im- whiteboard/

-- LinkPreview: A plugin that lets AIM users preview an URL by hovering over a link.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/04/07/preview-links-in-aim-without- opening-with-linkpreview/

-- Free2IM: A plugin that enables instant language translation between AIM buddies.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/05/06/instant-language-translation-with- free2im/

-- Share-A-Map: An AIM plugin that lets friends customize and share maps.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/04/16/share-maps-with-a-buddy-with-share- a-map/

-- PopsChat: An AIM plugin for the TopCoder Arena that provides integration of AIM features.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/04/11/popschat-an-aim-plugin-for-the- topcoder-arena/

-- FeedReader: A plugin for AIM users that lets them manage their RSS feeds from within AIM.

http://openaimblog.aol.com/2008/04/02/use-aim-to-track-your-rss-feeds- with-feedreader/

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the world's largest competitive software development community with over 150,000 developers representing more than 200 countries. TopCoder hosts the largest and most comprehensive developer ratings and performance metrics available. The TopCoder community builds software for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. This methodology results in a highly consistent set of software components allowing a software-as-parts approach to application development. TopCoder makes this large library of software components built through competition available to all of our clients. Utilizing a world-wide member base and this library, TopCoder seeks to lower the cost of software development while increasing both the speed at which applications can be developed and the quality of the ultimate application. For more information about utilizing TopCoder's software services or sponsoring TopCoder events, visit http://www.topcoder.com/.

TopCoder is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact: Mike Schultz, Message Infusion PR for TopCoder 978-496-1012 topcoder@messageinfusion.com

TopCoder, Inc.

CONTACT: Mike Schultz, Message Infusion PR, +1-978-496-1012,topcoder@messageinfusion.com, for TopCoder, Inc.

Web site: http://www.topcoder.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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