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    March 19

    We’re baaaackkkk!

     

    Greetings to the blogosphere from the Connected Services Sandbox!  We’re coming up on springtime – a perfect time to get back into the Sandbox …without the Participation fee 

    Honest!  We have waived that fee, we’ve added more MS products, more promotional activities, were updating our website, adding more benefits (including a multi-tier tech support plan designed to fit a wide range of needs), adding scenario-based RFS/RFIs, and more.

      

    If you’ve already decided to join the Sandbox, click

    here csmashups@microsoft.com to request a Participation Agreement!

     

     

    May 22

    Microsoft Competition Launched

    We've launched the first of the Microsoft sponsored competitions in the sandbox. More information at http://csf.topcoder.com/?module=Static&d1=assembly&d2=msSessionManifestDetails. The idea this time is to use Microsoft Silverlight to build a cool tool for service assembly using the Microsoft Connected Services Framework.
     
    Log in and participate to win over $4500 in prize money!
     
    Sandbox Team
    May 03

    New Design Competition Launched

    The next edition of the design competition has been launched. The scenario this time is around Wireless Cities. To participate, visit:
     
    Good Luck!
     
    April 04

    Winners Announced - Connected Services Sandbox Design Competition

    On April 2, 2007, the winner was notified that their design submissions had been selected.

    First Place winner is Deepak Sharma from Tata Consultancy Services. The winning design mashed up the following services:

    Microsoft Corporations MapPoint Web Service
    mashed up with the following British Telecommunications services:
    Location
    InboundSMS
    Messaging
    Authentication
    Presence
    The combination of these services seeks to resolve capacity issues in the transportation industry.
    For more information on the winning design, please visit: http://csf.topcoder.com/?module=ViewPastContests 

    Every competition has two phases, the first is Design and the second is Assembly (actual prototyping). Now that the winning design has been selected, it will be used as the basis for the Assembly competition. The Assembly compeition begins Tuesday April 10, 2007. For information on how to register for the competitions, please visit www.networkmashups.com to learn more about the competitions and how to join.

    April 03

    Microsoft Launches Connected Services Sandbox

    To stimulate the creation of new communications services, as well as aggregations of these services in network
    mashups, Microsoft has established the Microsoft Connected Services Sandbox. The Connected Services Sandbox
    is a live, proof-of-concept and demonstration environment that unites developers, partners and service providers
    around a common goal: to rapidly develop and bring to market innovative new communications services.
    The Connected Services Sandbox is a runtime environment, managed by Microsoft and hosted by a hosting
    partner. In the Sandbox, Microsoft Connected Services Framework provides the environment for aggregating,
    provisioning and managing service mashups. With Connected Services Framework as the foundation, the Sandbox
    features other Microsoft products and solutions such as Microsoft Customer Care Framework , Microsoft Solution
    for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration, and Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting, and will be updated
    regularly as new Microsoft technologies and solutions become available.

    The environment will be accessible via the Internet to facilitate and encourage integration with publicly available
    Web services. Examples of such services include Microsoft Windows Live™ services and MapPoint® Web service,
    as well as services such as eBay, Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo and others.

    Participants in the Sandbox are provided with the components necessary to create innovative services that can
    be taken to market rapidly. The Connected Services Sandbox offers the following key benefi ts to its participants:

    • Products – early exposure to Microsoft products and solutions
    • Developers – access to trained Microsoft developers, designers and architects
    • Services – feedback mechanism for the reporting of usage trends, scenarios and popularity
      of published services
    • Business opportunities – new business and collaboration opportunities through the Microsoft Communications
      Sector Partner Network, as immediate exposure to Microsoft field sales organization and customers
    • Marketing support – promotion of the Sandbox through press releases, industry events, marketing and
      sales collateral, and community-based support tools including newsgroups, newsletters, white papers,
      announcements, how-to-articles, etc.

    Fuelling Innovation through Competition
    In order to stimulate the development of new services, Microsoft, in partnership with BT, will launch a series of
    design and development competitions to identify innovative connected services that can be taken to market.
    Participants will collaborate and compete to generate new service designs and build functional prototypes of
    those designs. The competitions, which begin January 2007, will be managed by TopCoder, a leader in online
    programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development.

    For more information on the Microsoft Connected Services Sandbox, please visit www.networkmashups.com.
    For more information specific to the competitions, please visit http://csf.topcoder.com/