Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Monday 6 April 2009, 8:01 AM
Coders compete for kudos, cash & Cairo
Back in the days before the ‘global economic slowdown’, Microsoft used to host fancy parties atop London’s Telecom Tower to celebrate its student developer competition known as The Imagine Cup. The competition still runs in 2009 with finals in Egypt this summer, but with slimmer budgets to go round there may be less of a fan fare this year.
So while I’ll be more likely to go to Egypt with Thomson Holiday’s than Microsoft this year, I had a look around for other developer competitions this weekend. Magic Software’s web site lists April 6 as the launch date for a competition to develop a Rich Internet Application (RIA) using its own uniPaaS application platform, which uses metadata rather than hard code.
Given the typical developer mentality of (how can I put this politically correctly?) feeling that their own latest achievement negates the development of other similar competitors and pretenders, I would have thought that these contests would be very popular.
By a strange twist of fate, the developer who does win the aforementioned competition will receive £1,500 worth of Thomson holiday vouchers. So if you’re desperate to see the pyramids and fancy developing a “basic” RIA application using Magic Software’s uniPaaS Discovery v1.5, it is free to download from this link right now.
Oh, almost forgot to say, the closing date for entries is 30 June 2009, you have to be 18 and your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan secured on it etc.
PreviousComments on this post
Coding competitions. I remember them well. There is always some really neat small print in these things. Like about who owns the IP of the winning entries.
This usually goes in the direction of the competition organizer who for as mentioned in original post gets a potential application to 'shine up' for £1500.
For up and coming talent, this might seem as a great opportunity to get a holiday in the sun. Yet the contest holder gets a product that they could sell for minimal cost and will likely yield multiple times the £1500 it cost them.
Oh yes, IP ownership... I didn't think about that when I wrote that blog Mr 64Bitz... good point.
You know what? Having seen the students who line up for the Microsoft competition; they are SO excited, that I bet they aren't thinking about it either.
That's a positively cynical comment you make there - and it's an excellent one.
I wish I had taken a wider angle on the whole story and said this at the time. Thank you very much for broadening it with your reply post.
Regards - AdrianB
Maybe I was a little cynical but I remember entering a number of these in my 'younger' days. In fact I remember creating an application for the optimized cutting of wood which had been posted by a company interested in this area of business. I created the application and it worked well, and the £5K prize money was in my head. I was discussing my creation with a friend who said, you don't need to stop at wood, you could use it for glass and metal. He was right. So, instead of giving up my pride and joy for the possibility of winning £5K, I kept it and sold it on to another company for £35K. Then I created a new version that worked in 3 dimensions. WOW!
The possibility of winning far outweighs the fact that you might just make a pile of money with your creation if you went to a suitable backer. The kudos is not the same as winning a competition run by the likes of Microsoft though, but does kudos pay bills?
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Wise words sir,
Wow - 35K for optimzed wood cutting software? Is this available at B&Q these days?
Seriously, good "leveling" words of guidance from your good self.
I do hope that students thinking about Microsoft's Imagine Cup or even hobbyists looking at Magic Software's competition do some Google searches and pick up on this discussion to arm themselves with a little bit of your shared knowledge.
Thank you again - Adrian
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Magic Software Enterprises UK Ltd would like to confirm that the RIA competition that is currently advertised on our website is a genuine competition to encourage developers & "would be " developers to have a go at developing a Rich Internet Application using our latest uniPaaS Application Platform.
The winning prize for the best RIA application as judged by Magic Software is £1500 in Thomson holiday vouchers.
The IP ownership remains the sole property of the developer & not with Magic Software Enterprises.
Julie Murphy
Magic UK
