The Marketplace offers users a central access to extensions.

The Marketplace will permanently replace the RapidMiner Update Server and offers both developers and users a central access to extensions.

Dortmund, 06. September 2011 - Rapid-I, a leading provider of open source solutions for predictive analytics, data mining and text mining, has created the first platform for algorithms with the Rapid-I Marketplace. This replaces the RapidMiner Update Server and serves for improving the exchange between Rapid-I contributors further. It is possible for developers to upload new features over this which are then available for the entire community.

The Marketplace (http://marketplace.rapid-i.com), which was presented this year for the first time at the user conference RCOMM, serves as a central transition point for RapidMiner extensions and analytical algorithms. The Rapid-I Marketplace will soon replace the RapidMiner Update Server and is already available as a beta test version for all community members at http://rapidupdate.de:8180/UpdateServer . The Marketplace can be used both by users (for downloading extensions) and extension developers.

Numerous new extensions have already been developed over the last years, which can be integrated into RapidMiner very easily (through downloading and placing in the plugins folder). The challenge however was to seek these out in the broad expanse of the internet. In answer to this, extensions created by Rapid-I itself were made available via the update server, making them easy to find and meaning they can be directly installed in RapidMiner. So that these advantages can also be offered for the extensions created by the community, Rapid-I has opened its update server as a marketplace for the public. Users can browse through, comment on and evaluate the extensions over the web interface and use the update function of RapidMiner. Developers can register with the Marketplace in order to get permission for uploading their own extensions. The functions of image processing, SemWeb, feature selection extension and anomaly detection are among the top downloads so far.

New features are to be accessible as a bundle or in the form of a product code. It is also planned for algorithms and extensions to be offered at a charge with one of the next Marketplace versions, like in an app store. Package or algorithm developers will therefore receive financial remuneration for their trouble for the first time with the Marketplace. RapidMiner, as one of the first providers, has created a forum for open source apps with its marketplace and is therefore very far ahead in terms of analytical applications.

"Many developers and users are interested in a central marketplace for extensions, as we noticed at the RCOMM for example", points out Dr. Ingo Mierswa, managing director of Rapid-I. "Enterprises which use data mining software need perfectly tailored software solutions for their businesses cases - and this is just what they get via the new Marketplace. Moreover, we give our developer community something back for their commitment with this new platform, for they can increase the visibility of their extensions on it. After all, developing a new algorithm normally requires more effort than creating a nice app for the mobile phone!"