ESRI Offers ArcGIS Server Developers Serious Cabbage

I first spotted this on the James Fee GIS Blog.

ESRI is offering ArcGIS Server developers some serious cabbage in the 2008 ArcGIS Server Code Challenge.

It works like this: write some cool ArcGIS Server code, post it to ArcScripts, and fill out an entry form, all by February 29th (scripts uploaded after February 28, 2007 are also eligible). The first place prize is $15k, second place is $7,500, and you get $2,500 for bronze. Cha-ching.

This is a really smart move on ESRI’s part. I don’t think the uptake of ArcGIS Server is what they hoped it would be by this point, so they get a bunch of free code samples for what is for them basically nothing. Free code samples, increased interest by the community, all for what amounts to maybe 1.5 ArcGIS Server licenses (and probably for less than they could have done it in-house). Brilliant.