XBRL-based collaborative data product provider Calcbench has won the $20,000 grand prize for the XBRL Challenge, a contest for developers to build the most inventive and useful application leveraging XBRL-formatted data from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database. 

XBRL U.S. launched the XBRL Challenge in July to uncover the first generation of open source analytic tools that will mine financial data in new ways. It was sponsored by the CFA Institute, Wharton Research Data Service as well as XBRL U.S.  A panel of five judges was assembled to review the challenge entries to select the winner.

“The XBRL Challenge helped raise awareness about the opportunity today with XBRL, given the volume of data available and the flexibility and functionality of the XBRL standard,” said WRDS director of advanced initiatives Paul Ratnaraj. “Calcbench was selected as the top application because of its high functionality and strong user interface.  It offers a good model on which to build other analytical tools.”

Every publicly traded U.S. company is now required to tag financial data according to a XML-based business reporting standard known as Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL. Data produced in XBRL format is computer-readable which gives it greater portability, reliability, accuracy and timeliness, and can provide individual and institutional investors with better information for investment decisions.

More information about the contest and links to the XBRL Challenge finalists can be found at http://xbrl.us/challenge.