Calling on all XQuery Enthusiasts – Apply for an XQuery Award

New XQuery Award Program Recognizes Innovators in the XML Developer Community

Stylus Studio http://www.stylusstudio.com), the industry-leading provider of XQuery development tools, today issued a call for entries for the first annual Stylus Studio XQuery Innovator Awards. The new award program offers enterprise IT developers, systems integrators, and consultants engaged in building applications solutions based on new cutting-edge XQuery technologies the opportunity to gain public recognition as pioneers in the XML developer community. The winners of the first annual XQuery Innovator Awards will be announced in the Stylus Scoop Newsletter, the industry-leading developer newsletter for XQuery and XML data integration issues, in a comprehensive special report that will also be published online at www.stylusstudio.com. Additionally, a trophy and commemorative memorabilia will be awarded to the winning teams. To apply for an XQuery Innovator Award, XML developers should submit an online application at: http://www.stylusstudio.com/xquery_award_form.html

An application must describe the XQuery application, and specifically address the following points:

-- What was the business problem that the XQuery application solved (suggested 300-word limit)?
-- Provide a high-level technical description of the application's architecture (suggested 500-word limit).
-- Describe the XML tools, servers, databases, languages and other application infrastructure that were used during the project, and how they were used (suggested 500-word limit; include figures if necessary).
-- What were the key benefits of the new solution compared to the system that it replaced? What alternative solutions were considered (suggested 500-
word limit)?
-- Who was involved with the project, and what were their roles (suggested 300-word limit)?
-- Background information about your company and its services -- include technical and marketing contact information (suggested 300-word limit).

Entries will be judged by a panel of XQuery experts including Stylus Studio product engineers and other industry XQuery experts. Criteria used to evaluate entries includes, but is not limited to:
-- Technical vision and scope of the project
-- Innovative use of XQuery and related technologies
-- Overall business value to the customer

XQuery Innovator Awards will be awarded in the following categories, each of which represents an industry leveraging the power of XQuery to solve problems today: Academia, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Publishing, Transportation, Retail, Telecommunications, Computers, Aerospace, and Internet Services.

Applicants may enter any number of projects; projects can be new or they can be XQuery enabling of existing systems. Due to the early-adoption status of XQuery technologies, projects that are currently in development but have a planned launch date sometime in 2005 will also be considered for the Stylus Studio XQuery Innovator Award. Please see the official contest rules posted at: http://www.stylusstudio.com/xquery_award_form.html.

"XML developers are beginning to fully comprehend the tremendous potential of emerging XQuery technologies and are now applying XQuery to solve a diverse mix of enterprise data integration challenges," said Jerry King, Vice President of XML Products at DataDirect Technologies." By showcasing innovative real-world XQuery use cases, the XML developer community can learn by example, and the innovators themselves get the recognition they deserve."

For more information about XQuery, including XQuery development tools, components and valuable learning resources, visit the Stylus Studio XQuery Zone at: http://www.stylusstudio.com/xquery/

The deadline for entry is March 31, 2005 -- No Entries will be considered after that date.

About Stylus Studio

Stylus Studio®, a product from DataDirect Technologies, an operating company of Progress Software Corporation, is the industry's most innovative XML IDE providing advanced support for XML and its related technologies: XSL, XSLT, XML Schema, DTD, SOAP, WSDL, SQL/XML, XML mapping and XQuery. Used by leading software developers worldwide, Stylus Studio simplifies XML programming and enhances developer productivity through innovation. For more information, visit: http://www.stylusstudio.com.

Stylus Studio is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. Any other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.