IBM has formed a partnership with Topcoder, a global software development community of designers and developers, to harness the power of Watson to create the next generation of artificial intelligence apps, APIs, and solutions. This partnership also benefits businesses that gain access to an increased talent pool of developers through the Topcoder Marketplace with experience in cognitive computing and Watson.
"This partnership expands the Watson Developer Community and Watson’s capabilities to the more than one million Topcoder contributors, creating a collaborative and competitive environment where individuals can learn and advance their careers while accelerating next-generation technology development for all,” said Willie Tejada, IBM chief developer advocate.
Topcoder challenges are submitted to the community, and collaboration, competition and peer review ensure the best innovations and solutions rise to the top. Topcoder hosts 7,000 code challenges a year and has awarded $80 million to its community. This disruptive model for learning and delivering new solutions is highly regarded by developers and businesses alike for its ability to motivate through competition and peer review, resulting in coding confidence and new career opportunities for individuals.
The IBM and Topcoder partnership will make Watson and IBM Cloud services available to the Topcoder Community. Through Topcoder-run hackathons and coding competitions, participants will be able to access a range of Watson services – such as Conversation, Sentiment Analysis or speech APIs – to build new tools with the help of cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. Developers will have the opportunity to showcase and monetize their solutions on the IBM Marketplace, while businesses will be able to access a new pipeline of talent experienced with Watson.
For more information on Topcoder visit www.topcoder.com.