Dr. Dobb's | Mashups: Networks for Collaborative Logistics

Mashups: Networks for Collaborative Logistics

Microsoft and British Telecom's Connected Services Sandbox Mashup competition let developers collaborate and compete

July 12, 2007
URL:http://drdobbs.com/web-development/mashups-networks-for-collaborative-logis/201000419

We're talking with Deepak Sharma, a Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services who is responsible for managing .NET projects. Deepak also won the first round of Microsoft and BT's Connected Services Sandbox Competition.

DDJ: Deepak, can you tell us about the Connected Services Sandbox Competition? What was its goal? Who could enter?

DS: Microsoft and British Telecom, in association with TopCoder, are running a series of Connected Services Sandbox Mashup Service Design and Assembly competitions. In these competitions, developers from Sandbox member organizations like my company TCS, as well as freelance application developers, can collaborate and compete to generate new mashup service designs and then build functional prototypes of those designs. The sandbox is a runtime environment, based on Microsoft Connected Services Framework provides the environment for creating these managed network mashups. The sandbox will provide the necessary components needed to integrate with and trial Microsoft Connected Services Framework, along with all other components within the broader ecosystem.

The competition goals are to:

Fuel the creative development process and encourage collaboration among the wide range of Connected Services Sandbox participants and freelance application developers.
Develop an experienced pool of resources able to meet the growing demand for new service development using the Connected Services Framework.
Excite customers by providing resources that can reduce time from concept to market.
Deliver a broad range of new services that will help consumers to tie together office, home and mobile data to meet the growing demand for information regardless of location, device or platform.

As I said, the competition is open to the Sandbox Partner organizations which are mostly System Integrators, ISVs as well as freelance developers. So, you can say, anyone can enter.

DDJ: Okay, and you won the first round. Can you tell us about your entry? What was it and what was unique about it?

DS: Yes, I won the first round of the competition and subsequently I have also won the second round which was to develop assembly around the idea which one the first round. My entry was titled "Collaborative Logistics Mashup." Collaborative Logistics is achieved when two or more companies form partnerships, or work with existing supply chain partners (customers, suppliers and carriers) to optimize transportation operations by sharing truck capacity to cut the high costs of less-than-truckload shipments and empty back hauls. So in my mashup idea, we are talking of small/medium-sized businesses who want to lower the operation costs. The mashup I proposed takes into consideration these SMBs need of lowering costs and optimizing inventory. The idea is to share unused capacity in trucks. Trucks which are not full can communicate the available space to the Mashup Service which will then broadcast the same to Mashup service subscribers using SMS service. Similarly a Truck Owner can broadcast his unused space to subscribers through the Mashup service. The uniqueness of the idea was it targeting the long tail of SMBs.

DDJ: What other projects are you working on?

DS: Currently I have submitted another idea in the BT Wireless Cities CSF Mashup competition and also have submitted an Assembly in the CSF Session Manifest Tool competition.

DDJ: Is there a website where readers can go to find out more about your projects?

DS: Yes, I have been trying to maintain a Weblog which you can find www.webjives.org. Also, another great resource to find out about these competitions and know about the winning entries will be the Network Mashups website.