The XML Challenge - IDUG sponsors a big contest

The International DB2 Users Group (IDUG) is sponsoring a big contest - the XML Challenge! The IDUG contest is looking for the XML superstar.

If you're already a master of XML, XQuery or DB2, then this contest will be the perfect platform to present your XML-knowledge to the world. The XML Challenge addresses students and hobbyists as well as professionals. No matter if you have great XML experience or if you are just a novice, you can participate in the contest. The contest offers five different parts of varying difficulty. The 'Video Contest' and the 'Query Contest' is for beginners, because you don't have to be very skilled in XML and developing. 'Gadget Contest', 'Ported App Contest' and 'XML Contest' is for experts in software development. I think the XML Contest is the heart of the XML Challenge, since you have to develop useful, user-friendly XML apps from scratch. You can participate in all five contests and collect participation points. The contestant with the most participation points will be given a special prize and the title 'XML Grand Master'.

Beside the fame you can win a lot of nice prizes like a iPod Nano, a 80GB Zune or a new notebook. Maybe there are some job offers and internship from IBM in it for the contestants. After all this is more than just a contest, this is a chance to achieve popularity among the developers all over the world.