Atlassian Announces Java Developers Competition

Plugin Competition, dubbed Codegeist, boasts $10,000 in Cash Prizes and Cool T-Shirts

Sydney, Australia (18 January, 2006) - Atlassian Software Systems, the makers of JIRA professional issue tracking software and Confluence enterprise wiki software, today announced their first Atlassian Codegeist Plugin Competition. Over $10,000 USD will be given away in prize money and all entrants will receive a free competition t-shirt.

Individuals or teams of up to three people can develop Java-based plugins for either JIRA or Confluence. The coolest, most useful, most elegant plugins will win fabulous cash and prizes; entries will be judged by the votes of the Atlassian Development team.

"The more people and organizations who might actually find your plugin useful, the better we'll like it," hinted Johann G. Herder, one Atlassian judge. "But we like tricked-out stuff, too."

Contestants are allowed to extend or enhance an existing plugin (even one written by Atlassian). However, the entry will be judged only on the additions you've made, and not on the entire plugin.

If you're stuck for a good idea, check out the Plugin Wishlist page (http://www.atlassian.com/c/PR/10951/wishlist), which has a load of suggestions for plugins that someone, somewhere thought would be interesting and useful.

The Atlassian developer community has already developed some great plugins for both applications, but there's always room for more. All plugins submitted to the contest will be added to the Plugin Library for others to use and expand in the future.

Codegeist prizes include:

• Winner (1st place) - $5,000 USD
• Commendations (x2) - $2,000 USD
• Best Hack - $1,000 USD

In addition, all official entrants will receive a contest t-shirt.

The competition begins on January 19th 2006 and will run through March 19th, 2006. A description of the competition and complete rules can be found online at http://www.atlassian.com/c/PR/10952/codegeist.

Ready. Steady. Start hacking.

About Atlassian
Atlassian Software Systems is an innovative Australian software company providing enterprise software solutions to the world's leading organisations. Recently recognised as Australia's fastest growing software company by BRW magazine, Atlassian's mission is to build a different kind of software company - one that listens to client needs, values innovation in development and solves customer problems with brilliant simplicity. Their commitment to legendary service provides consistent, high quality support for all their customers. Atlassian has offices in Sydney and San Francisco, with all research and development being done in Sydney. For more information on Atlassian please visit: www.atlassian.com/trackablecode