SEBASTOPOL, Calif. - June 22, 2010
Safari Books Online (www.safaribooksonline.com), the leading on-demand digital library for technology, digital media, and business professionals, announced today that it has launched the Learn Something New Team Challenge. The Challenge is designed to promote individual learning while encouraging teams to work together to deliver a finished project to their organization.

Entrants must describe a project they are planning or working on, including the challenges to be faced and essential skills or knowledge, and must use Safari Books Online as a resource to learn or sharpen those skills needed to deliver the successful project. Examples of projects include developing a new app or enhancing an existing one; creating a new Facebook app; setting up a blog for the organization; creating a project management training program (or any other training program that involves resources provided by Safari Books Online); rolling out a social media strategy; or migrating to an agile development environment.

Challenge participants are required to post at least two project updates to the Challenge blog, safaribooksonline.com/blog. The more information that is supplied, the more interesting the project will be to others. Those who don’t currently subscribe to Safari Books Online will receive 30-day trial accounts for themselves and up to three co-workers.

Participating teams can quickly enter and learn more details about the Challenge, by clicking on the entry link provided here. Entries must be received at least one week prior to August 16, 2010, when all projects must be completed. Details of all valid Learn Something New Team Challenge entries will be featured on the Safari Books Online blog at http://www.safaribooksonline.com/blog where the winners will be announced on August 30, 2010.

The winning team will have the opportunity to choose from one of two great prizes valued at up to $2,500: an eReader of choice for the entrant and up to three co-workers who participated in the challenge, or a Starbucks espresso machine for the whole team.

Winners will be chosen by a selection committee and community bloggers based on the following criteria:

• How complex or interesting the project is to the selection committee and the community, based on feedback via the comments section on the blog
• How much time (hours) it takes to complete the project, and how much time is saved by using Safari Books Online resources
• How active the participating team members are on the blog by giving updates and encouraging their friends and co-workers to vote or comment on their entries
• The impact the project has on the organization or industry
• The creativity and innovation used in completing the project

Safari Books Online will also award three $150 Reading Cinemas gift certificates, one to the team that receives the most five star votes on the blog for their entry/submission, and two additional teams selected as the most active, informative, helpful participants on the blog as it pertains to their entry.

"Many workgroups and individuals today are challenged to do more with fewer resources and they are pushed to take on challenges and projects that may not fit their current skill-sets," said Rose St. Clair, marketing manager for Safari Books Online. "That’s where the Safari Books Online Learn Something New Team Challenge comes into play. The Challenge will demonstrate how Safari Books Online can help individuals or entire workgroups learn new skills while delivering a tangible project for their organization. Entrants who are already subscribers know first-hand how valuable Safari Books Online is."

Last year Safari Books Online hosted two Coder Challenges which gave entrants from around the world a forum to submit projects they created. The Challenges were designed to identify outstanding techie professionals who used technology in creative ways or helped the community in novel fashion.

Winners from the last two Coder Challenges include:

• Arturo Fernandez-Sanchez who submitted the project Wind-ups GP32 in which a Korean handheld game functions like a PDA.
• Aral Balkan who created an iPhone app called ‘Avit especially for Safari Books Online subscribers.
• Narayan Raman, a developer from India and founder of Tyto Software, who submitted the project Sahi, a user-friendly automation tool designed to test web 2.0 applications.
• Ashley Aberneithy, a lead developer in the UK, who created an application which automatically scans a digital chest x-ray and detects calcified 'nodules.'
• Evandro de Paula’s winning project was Online Data Push.

Find out more about Safari Books Online’s contests and challenges.

About Safari Books Online

Safari Books Online (www.safaribooksonline.com) is an on-demand digital library that delivers expert content in both book and video form from the world’s leading authors in technology and business. Technology professionals, software developers, web designers, and business and creative professionals use Safari Books Online as their primary resource for research, problem solving, learning and certification training.

Safari Books Online offers a range of product mixes and pricing programs for organizations, government agencies and individuals. Subscribers have access to thousands of books, training videos and prepublication manuscripts in one fully searchable database from publishers like Cisco Press, Prentice Hall Professional, O'Reilly Media, Addison-Wesley Professional, Microsoft Press, Sams, Que, Peachpit Press, John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier, IBM Press, Adobe Press, FT Press, Apress, Manning, New Riders, Apple Certified, Course Technology, Splash Media and dozens more. For more information about Safari Books Online, please visit us online.

Contacts

Safari Books Online
Paige Mazzoni / Rose St. Clair » (707) 827.4100
rstclair@safaribooksonline.com
or
Rocket Science
Rich Mullikin » (415) 464.8110 x 216
rich@rocketscience.com