WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- XBRL US, the national consortium for XBRL business information reporting, announced today that it will be holding two free XBRL Challenge Webinars to provide entrants to the XBRL Challenge contest and other developers with insights into working with XBRL data.  The first webinar, on December 8, 2011 will provide an interview with Christine Tan, formerly XBRL Project Manager at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and currently the Head of Product Development at Prime Aim, an XBRL data provider.  The second webinar will take place on December 16, 2011 and will feature Microsoft's Mark Schnitzer who will discuss individual investor demand for analytical tools and the outlook for XBRL. 

The XBRL Challenge is a contest designed to spur innovation and development of analytical applications that consume XBRL financial statement data.  The Challenge seeks to reach developers and technologists, both individuals and teams as well as companies to get educated, share ideas and create original, useful tools for investors, researchers, regulators, economists, watchdogs and academics.  A $20,000 prize will be awarded to the top applicant.  Final applications must be submitted by January 31, 2012 and the prize will be awarded on February 29, 2012.

What/When:

Using XBRL Databases, December 8, 2011, 2-3 pm ET

A look into XBRL databases available in the market; will also cover how changes are made to the taxonomy (dictionary of terms) and how that affects analytical tools and the analysis they provide.  Speaker Christine Tan will share her experiences at the FASB and on the XBRL development team that created the first releases of the US GAAP Taxonomy.

Individual Investors and XBRL, December 16, 2011, 2-3 pm ET

A conversation with Microsoft's Mark Schnitzer about the outlook for analytical tools that consume XBRL among institutions and individual investors.  Mark will discuss XBRL in the context of his work at Microsoft, and his previous experiences as Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, Founder and CEO of FreeEDGAR, and his experience as a securities analyst.

Where:   Register for both programs at http://xbrl.us/challenge