IDUG®, the International DB2 Users Group, today announced seven 2008 winners of its global competition, “The Search for the XML Superstar” which awards and recognizes outstanding talent among current or future software developers.

Renzo Nuccitelli of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, captured first place in the global “XML Programming” competition for the top-scoring entry among the eligible applications.

Top developer and winner of a Lenovo® laptop computer in the “Ported Application” segment of the global competition was Anil Mahadev, Karnataka, India.

Yasuhiro Nonaka, Tokyo, Japan, winner of the “Query Challenge” contest, was awarded an iPod® Touch. Dual winners of the 2008 “Gadget Challenge” competition were Ontario, Canada’s Zaidan Alaoui and Maharashtra, India’s Vibha Pandya. Both will be awarded Zune® MP3 players.

Rahsheen Porter, Grayson, Geo. (USA) and his video entry and Rendra Setiawan, Jakarta, Indonesia, were winners of the “Video Mania” contest and will receive Apple iPod® Nano players.

"The Search for the XML Superstar" covered North America, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and India and sought to locate, recognize and award top XML developer talent. The more than 70,000 who competed last year included university students, faculty and professional developers, regardless of their individual skill and experience levels with XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and its related database technologies.

"IDUG was impressed with the outstanding work we saw emerging from bright individuals such as Renzo and our other seven global winners,” says Julian Stuhler, president of IDUG and also principal consultant, Triton Consulting, Norfolk, United Kingdom.

“The worlds of business, government, health care and academia are already benefiting from their exceptional XML developer talents.”

The XML superstar contest was open to those with all levels of XML and database management experience. For those with no prior knowledge, "The Search for the XML Superstar" provided an opportunity to learn about these important technologies.

Numerous workshops, events and ceremonies held regionally are recognizing contributions of winners, Stuhler added. He noted 2008’s competitors benefited by joining contest groups formed at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Orkut.

The contest was spearheaded by IDUG, an independent, user-run organization of data management professionals who use DB2 and related technology. IDUG's mission is to support the information services community by providing education and services to utilize IBM's DB2 family of products.