Philip Moyer Joins Judging Panel on XBRL Challenge, Contest Seeks Most Useful, Creative Open-Source Apps to Analyze Finance Data

NEW YORK, July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- XBRL US announced today that Philip Moyer, Managing Director in the Technology Group at Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), will join the panel of judges for the XBRL Challenge, a newly announced contest to identify the most useful and creative open-source apps to analyze corporate financial data using XBRL.  

Before joining Safeguard, Mr. Moyer was CEO of EDGAR Online, Inc., where he led the transformation of the company from a traditional dot com into a leading provider of SEC XBRL compliance and high speed XBRL data and analytics for investment firms.  At Safeguard, he focuses on Financial Technology and Enterprise 3.0 technologies.

The XBRL Challenge, launched on July 12, 2011, is designed to encourage the development of more analytical tools that consume XBRL data.  Entrants have an opportunity to win a $20,000 grand prize which will be awarded for the most inventive and useful application leveraging XBRL-formatted data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) EDGAR database.  Every publicly traded U.S. company is now required by the SEC to tag their financial data in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format.  The XBRL Challenge is sponsored by the CFA Institute and by WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services).  

"Momentum behind XBRL has been growing for years but now that thousands of public companies are reporting in XBRL format, we've reached the tipping point," said Mr. Moyer. "Technologists and software companies have a real opportunity to use this contest and the tools available through it, to vastly increase their skills in a technology that's the future of business reporting."

Mr. Moyer joins a strong panel of respected judges with diverse perspectives on financial data from the venture capital, technology, data and information, and academic communities.  Since the contest was introduced on July 12, XBRL US has received 13 Challenge entries -- ten from North America, two from Europe and one from Australia.  Four are being developed by companies, four from academic institutions, and five from individuals.

"The entries we've received so far range from desktop applications to mobile devices, in terms of the delivery systems employed," said Campbell Pryde, President and CEO, XBRL US, "and the analysis they plan to offer shows a lot of creativity, from simple comparative analysis to corporate scorecards to unique methods of database development."

Submissions will be accepted through January 31, 2012, with final judging and awarding of prizes -- including the $20,000 grand prize -- on February 29, 2012.  To help with development, participants will be given tools and support from XBRL US, including access to a database of XBRL financial fundamentals from all public companies and technical documentation on how to work with XBRL data.  Entrants will also have access to XBRL expertise through a series of in-person and webinar meetings to help in working with the XBRL data.

Individuals, teams or organizations can learn more and enter the contest on the XBRL Challenge page on Facebook at xbrl.us/challengefb.  Updates will be shared on Facebook and on Twitter at @XBRLUS using the hashtag #XBRLCHALLENGE. 

Developers and other prospective contestants are invited to participate in a special briefing on August 3, 2011.  Go to xbrl.us/challenge and click on the link on the right-hand side. 

About CFA Institute

CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals. It administers the CFA and CIPM curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs; and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has more than 105,000 members, who include the world's 95,000 CFA charterholders, in 135 countries and territories, as well as 135 affiliated professional societies in 58 countries and territories. More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org.

About WRDS

Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) is the leading, comprehensive, internet-based data research service used by academic, government, non-profit institutions, and corporate firms.  WRDS provides the user with one location to access over 200 terabytes of data across multiple disciplines, such as Finance, Marketing, and Economics.  WRDS provides flexible data delivery options, including a simple but powerful web query method, and provides researchers with the ability to reduce their research time and execute strategy development on the powerful WRDS Cloud.  Developed in 1993 to support faculty research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS has since evolved to become the leading business intelligence tool for a global research community of 30,000 users at over 300 institutions in 27 countries.  http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu

About XBRL US

XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XBRL business reporting standards in the U.S. and it represents the business information supply chain. Its mission is to support the implementation of XBRL business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration. XBRL US has developed taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, credit rating and mutual fund reporting under contract with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is developing a taxonomy for corporate actions. For more information, go to http://xbrl.us.

SOURCE XBRL US