Topcoder Reflections: Observations from a Decade of Crowdsourcing with the Public Sector

1. Topcoder Reflections
MICHAEL CONTRERAS | CROWDSOURCING WEEK GLOBAL | 10 / 25/ 2018
A Decade of Public Sector Crowdsourcing

2. Topcoder was founded with a simple goal: identify the best
developers in the world through competition.
Over the past decade, Topcoder has been a catalyst for
public sector crowdsourcing, reframing the way the US
Federal Government develops software and conducts
R&D.

3. Topcoder
Community
Topcoder is home to the
world’s largest network of
Designers, Developers, and
Data Scientists.
The Topcoder Community
includes more than 1.3
million members from every
country around the world.

4. Community members in
over 190 countries
More engineers than
Microsoft, Facebook,
and Twitter combined
Challenges
per quarter
New members
per week
Paid to the
community
Logins every
90 days
1M+ 5x 1400
1800 $80m 35k

5. Where we have been . . .
2001
Topcoder launches gamified
platform for computer
scientists to demonstrate
skills and gain notoriety.
First Topcoder Community
member ratings are published.
2010
The NASA Tournament Lab is
formed. Topcoder begins to
work on app dev and
algorithm projects for many
Federal agencies through
Harvard.
2005
NSA begins to sponsor the
Topcoder Open for recruiting
purposes.
Full application development
stack capabilities added in
2006.
2004
Harvard publishes its first
academic study on Topcoder.
First commercial offering for
software components.
2011
Topcoder is onboarded to the
GSA Schedule for Challenges
and Competition Services.
DARPA taps Topcoder to
launch STEM education
community for teens.
2015
Topcoder is awarded a spot
on the NASA Open Innovation
Services contract vehicle
through 2020.
Topcoder and Apple partner to
launch the iOS Community.
2007
First commercial Marathon
Match conducted to develop
an enterprise data science
solution.
Topcoder Community expands
to include UX design.
2017
Topcoder has run challenges
for CMS, I-ARPA, EPA, Air
Force, DOE, VA, PTO, OPM,
USAID
Topcoder and IBM partner to
launch the Cognitive
Community.
2016
Topcoder surpasses 1 million-
member mark.
Topcoder and GE partner to
launch the IoT Community.
Wipro acquires Topcoder to
transform its business and the
IT services industry.
2009
The NSA “Enigma” Marathon
Match is hosted on Topcoder
based on the famous WWII era
decoding of the Enigma
machine, a cryptographic
security system.
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It started with recruiting…

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15. Algorithms and R&D

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DATA SCIENTISTS
450K
AVERAGE # COMPETITORS
PER CHALLENGE
78
AVERAGE #SUBMISSIONS
PER CHALLENGE
578
Topcoder’s Data Science Community

18. 18 Algorithms and Analytics Sales Enablement
Algorithms and Analytics Overview
Products
● Algorithm Optimization
● Predictive Analytics
● Image and Pattern Recognition
● Objective Optimization
Crowdsourcing Contests
● Marathon Match
● Banner Match
● Mini Marathon Match
● Data Science First-to-
Finish (F2F)
● Data Science Sprint
● Data Visualization
● Data Science Ideation
Objectively scores with an automated scoring function that feeds the Topcoder live leaderboard.
Restricted to the following languages: Java, C++, C#.NET, VB.NET, or Python.
Objectively scores with an automated scoring function that feeds the Topcoder live leaderboard.
Competitors are allowed to use any language and libraries to write their solution.
A shorter duration, more straight-forward version of the Marathon Match. Has the same structure
and rules of a regular Marathon Match but a smaller prize purse for competitors.
Objectively scores with an automated scoring function that feeds the Topcoder live leaderboard.
Restricted to the following languages: Java, C++, C#.NET, VB.NET, or Python. A predetermined
threshold is selected for the match, and once a competitor reaches the desired threshold score
the match ends and the first place winner receives the one prize available.
A series of smaller, more rapid data science challenges with a manual scoring function and no
leaderboard. Competitors are allowed to use any language and libraries to write their solution.
A hybrid project completed by a series of data science tasks to find the unique qualities or
“highlights” in the data, followed by design challenges to visualize the data. The output of this
kind of project is static screens.
Looks to discover or learn new approaches, data, and ideas from the community.

19. Predictive Toxicology -
Environmental Safety
Predictive Analytics
Every day we come into contact with common pesticides. Which chemicals,
in what dosage, can cause us harm? See how the EPA used crowdsourcing
to deliver more accurate predictive analysis.
Learn More

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a Brand New Approach
discovered, tested, and shared with their scientific community
REGISTRANTS COMPETITORS
804
SUBMISSIONS
3
CHALLENGE DURATION
WEEKS

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Offering Design and
Development
Outcomes?

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Topcoder Studio circa 2009

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Application
Wireframe

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Translate your mobile or web app idea into a structured design brief
that includes a description of the design concept, use case scenarios,
design guidelines, and a low-fidelity mockup of basic UI/UX elements.
What’s Included
Application design brief crowdsourced in the Topcoder Marketplace.
A Topcoder copilot manages all logistics.
What You Receive
Written visual design brief for up to five screens of a single application.
You pay only for the winning brief, not hours, and you own the final
deliverables.
Design Brief
Plan the UI/UX design of your application
Application Wireframe

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Code
Development
Code
Development

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Code Development packages make it easy to add the people and skills
you need to round out your team, free valuable time, and accelerate
development.
Crowdsource specific phases of your development process or end-to-
end application builds.
What’s Included
Code or task crowdsourced in the Topcoder Marketplace.
A Topcoder copilot manages all logistics.
What You Receive
Ready-to-deploy code, interface, or service built to your specs. You pay
only for the winning code, not hours, and you own the final deliverables.
Code Development
Enterprise-grade code for every stage of the dev life
cycle
Code Development

28. POWERED BY
Eight month
challenge
Multiple concurrent
development work streams
Third round
of human
testing

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New HorizonsVA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
This is footer and you can change the content or delete if you wanted to

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What is the TCVC?
The TCVC is Topcoder’s Veterans Community
● The VA has 3 projects in motion at Topcoder via NASA - web, analytics & mobile
● Each VA project includes funding for the TCVC
● Topcoder teams with OperationCode, a veterans 503(c) to source members
The TCVC is a place for US Veterans and Active Duty to learn and compete
The TCVC is hosted as a private community within Topcoder’s platform
● Challenges run inside the TCVC are open only to US Veterans and Active Duty
● Challenges types run from “Hello World” style to complex multi-challenge series
● Challenges also come to the TCVC via the VA’s projects as well
● Topcoder challenges can be cross-posted to TCVC with different prizes On veterans.topcoder.com, Vets compete
against each other, mentor each other, code
solutions for paying customers, earn
prizes and payments, and build their
resumes by working on actual customer
solutions.

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What are the goals of the TCVC?
VA Goals
Cultivate and Prepare veterans for entry into the tech world
● Give veterans the opportunity to PROSUMERS
● Provide opportunity for veterans to demonstrate current, marketable tech skills
Topcoder Goals
Use the TCVC as an incubator for new community members
● Cultivate new members
● Train and grow new copilots who will eventually lead projects in our regular
community
● Create a compelling story for Topcoder

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33. Our moment . . .

34. Army Air Forces

35. ARPA
BBN
Telenet Inc.

36. Harvard Topcoder | Wipro
?

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Special thanks to . . .
Andy LaMora
Clinton Bonner Rashid SialJessie Ford
Mike Morris Brendan Wright