Next Generation Shopping

PayPal is ready to give away $25,000 to seven Facebook developers who create innovative applications that utilize the Facebook platform and the PayPal API.  The following is a break down of the awards:

• Grand Prize (1) - $10,000
• Second Prizes (2) - $5,000
• Third Prizes (4) - $2,500

Check out the comments on this Mashable post as their has been some controversy over the rules of the contest, which have just recently been updated (better for the developers).  More about the new terms on AuctionBytes.

The CSK development team recently announced that CSK beta 3 is out. And I must say, their Commerce platform, the CSK community, and their website itself looks like it is coming along quite well. I love seeing quality, open-source ASP.NET web applications. CSK is licensed under the Mozilla Public License (1.1).

They recently highlighted an e-commerce website built on CSK (1.0.2) called TieSource.com, as pictured below.

Personally I think the site looks really nice.

To followup with my previous CSK post, Dave had answered my question as I spoke with him about it briefly about CSK at Mashup Camp 2. To reiterate, my question was “Is there an easy way to calculate tax and shipping charges?”

The answer was that there is Yes, through StrikeIron web services. I believe depending on how much information you require, and how often you need to call the service it is eithier free or a charge per call. But I’ll have to double-check with him.

Technorati Tags: Commerce Starter Kit, StrikeIron, PayPal, ASP.NET

Blog entry from the eBay Developer Conference - Day 3: The Unconference

When I wasn’t with the Shopping.com team, I checked out the Commerce Starter Kit presented by Dave Nielsen of StrikeIron.

ASP.NET Developers can grab the Community Starter Kit for free, since it is an open-source e-commerce store. It is all ASP.NET 2.0 and uses SQL Server 2005 (Express Edition is fine) as the backend database. Modification can be done with Visual Studio 2005 (Web Edition is fine). It also integrates with the PayPal API to allow seemless checkout for consumers which is a very significant feature and also a great usage of the API. The backend admin features need improvement for any type of serious e-commerce merchants… But its open-source so the possibilities are endless.

Small e-commerce business owners can checkout some CSK hosting plans here at: Ultima CSK.

Developers can get the latest build and help in the development by heading over to the CodePlex Site.

I only had fifty minutes with Dave and the group so I didn’t get to ask all the questions I wanted. My main question was: Is there an easy way to calculate tax and shipping charges? (Eg. For shipping contact UPS / USPS / FedEx web services) Or is will it be possible in the future?

Technorati Tags: asp.net, visual studio, e-commerce, paypal api, web services, open source, commerce starter kit, strikeiron, asp.net 2.0