Appirio introduced a unique coding challenge called Cloudspokes and the unique key of this contest are the problems. They are original and real time issue which is actually outsourced to public by Appirio and in other words CloudSourced to public

Participants are required to submit the application hosted on cloud with the source code, the best application will be awarded with cash prize. See the video at end of post to find what factors are considered to declare the participant a winner

Coming back to cloud technologies, the competition is not limited to Salesforce Cloud but also other platforms, ranging from Cloud Foundry, Heroku, Amazon Web Services, Google Apps to a wide gamut of API covering LinkedIn API, Facebook API , Box.net, DropBox, DocuSign and Google docs API.

What is Cloud Spokes - Demo Video by Appirio

Besides prizes, individual participant receive a badge for his/her contribution and achievement. Jeff Douglas in the video below explains how the competition is judged and some of badges you receive on submission are listed, which adds recognition to your profile. Clouds spokes also regularly post the series of video on their YouTube channel covering technologies, challenges and demonstration of technologies, presented by rock-stars in cloud computing domain

Sample Badges by CloudSpokes

Boxer
Get this badge by generating a Boxer API key and submitting your API key in the Boxer badge challenge..

Force.com Master Chef
Get this badge by winning five challenges that require a force.com app which incorporates all the major capabilities into an app that tests its own performance and evaluates itself!

Cloud Foundry Journeyman
Get this badge by winning two programming exercises which test various programming principles and your ability to use various data storage mechanisms in Cloud Foundry.

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