Wozniak to Judge American Idol-Inspired Mac App Contest

cmundhe writes "Mac entrepreneur Phill Ryu today launched My Dream App, a new American Idol-inspired online competition where contestants can win the chance to have their killer app idea realized by experienced Mac developers. Over forty industry luminaries, including Apple founder Steve Wozniak, have signed on to My Dream App as guest judges to help contestants hone their ideas."

Smart move

[Denial93]

This is a not-so-expensive method of asking the userbase what it wants, and getting their ideas. I'm willing to bet a number of entries (especially of those which didn't win, or didn't even make it into the round of 24) will end up as features in the next MacOS.

I believe we will see more ventures of this kind in the future, even outside software. The ideas that "little people" never had the resources to implement are a resource that can be valuable and is easily tapped. What is funny is that the whole model started not in some corporate think tank, but in FPS mods. Final Doom [wikipedia.org] is the first instance I can think of.

Don't be so crass

[LKM]

Look, if you're not a programmer, your idea is basically worthless. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Programmers who actually implement your idea cost money. Now, you can either participate in this contest and (if you win) not only see your idea realized, but actually get a price and royalties if the app sells.

The choice isn't between owning a great idea which will inevitably make your rich, and giving it away for nothing, as you make it out to be. The choice is between nothing and seeing your idea realized while making money.

Obviously, if you're a programmer who has an awesome idea, don't participate in this contest. Implement it yourself. But I don't think there's even one programmer too stupid to realize this.

Re:An Ipod for IP

[NMerriam]

You get more than just an iPod. Winners get a Macbook as well as royalties over the shareware that will be developed for them. That sounds like a pretty good return for just providing a good idea.

Indeed, ideas are cheap and plentiful. Finding people who can implement them and work out the details is the hard part. As a PR move, this is great for publicity, but I don't think there are many talented [programmers|authors|artists] sitting around just wishing they had a new idea to use their skills on. Usually talented people lament the fact that they'll never get to finish one in every hundred ideas they have in the short time they have on Earth.

But hey, it's still a cool idea and might very well result in some novel new toys. I know I'll be tossing around concepts in my mind for the next few days!

Re:So much for Appley originality

[kirk__243]

Have you looked at the banner on the website? It's practically imitating American Idol, with a pencil, paintbrush and rule under a spotlight on an American Idol-like stage, with an watching audience and using what appears to be the American Idol font. It's such a blantant imitation that American Idol would have reason to be upset at the plaguarism.

Re:An Ipod for IP

[whyloginwhysubscribe]

I disagree - programmers are two a penny, but a good idea is incredibly valuable.

Why do you think patents are so valuable? Will the winner of the competition get the patent?

Re:An Ipod for IP

[NMerriam]

I disagree - programmers are two a penny, but a good idea is incredibly valuable.

If you're just talking about code-monkeys, then I'd agree they aren't particularly rare. But the guys involved in this project are developers who it seems will be expected to work out most of the actual *workings* of whatever "idea" is presented, and they have histories of coming up with useful and usable interfaces.

Saying "I want a program that will automatically fix the tags of all my MP3 files" is not hard. It's coming up with an algorithm or system to analyze song files successfully, or an interface to efficiently present songs to the user for identification, that would be the hard part.

Obviously if the entrants of this contest have already worked out the implementation details and interface for the idea and just need a programmer with Objective C experience to get it working, then the idea man deserves the major credit. But that's not what this contest sounds like to me.

Re:I wonder...

[argent]

While OS X isn't perfect by any means, and while most of the actual hardware sucks, the main advantage of the Mac is that it lets you get so much closer to treating it as a tool rather than a lifestyle...

Re:Don't be so crass

[Shaper_pmp]

Bad programmers are a dime a dozen, which is why so are bad programs.

Good programmers are worth their weight in gold, or at least 10 [joelonsoftware.com]-28 times their weight in bad programmers. [utexas.edu]

Anyone could hire some teenage VB6 script kiddie out of school to bodge up something similar to what they were thinking for dollars an hour, max. The trick is in finding someone who'll take on your vague idea[1] and develop it into something beautiful, functional and usable that you can take credit for.

That is neither easy nor cheap to outsource.

Footnotes:

[1] I'm sorry, but if long experience developing has taught me anything, it's this: If you don't know how to code, and have no experience of coding, you have no idea what you want.

You might have the vaguest inkling of what you desire, but you won't have considered 90% of the edge cases, it'll be wrong in at least three ways and the whole requirement will need re-writing by the developer once he understands what you actually do want.

Native Hypercard for OS X

[Old.UNIX.Nut]

This is a no-brainer.

Re:I wonder...

[TomorrowPlusX]

... a whole lot of not-funny ranting from some asshole

How about 10 shocks for Windows/Linux users who are constantly angry at Mac users simply because Mac users can't get it in their heads that they should just give up and use PCs? I mean, come on? Don't you arrogant elitists realize that your computers are worthless and that you're assholes for even using Macs?

You know what? I'm an "artist", a graphic designer. I use macs because, well fuck] I've used Photoshop, Quark and illustrator -- on macs -- since the early/mid 90's. I like the platform. I know the platform. The platform fucking works. I don't need to justify being an elitist asshole if your definition of being an elitist asshole is that I'm a guy who makes a living, you know, eating, paying rent, etc by using a computer you clearly disapprove of.

Also, I'm a programmer. I've done professional embedded systems programming on Solaris ( cross compiling to embedded hardware ) and I used linux exclusively at home for several years. I've also done Win32 programming, as well. You know why I have a Mac at home now? Because they're so goddamned well designed, at the API level that they're a dream to program for. And the hardware works. Quite well, too.

And you know what? I've not had a virus on any mac of mine since maybe 1993 or 1994.

So I say you get 10 shocks for being a dismissive PC user who insists that everybody do things the way you do, because clearly you know better than us how to do what we do.

Re:Don't be so crass

[TheBogBrushZone]

[1] I'm sorry, but if long experience developing has taught me anything, it's this: If you don't know how to code, and have no experience of coding, you have no idea what you want.

I have to disagree here, if only about the way you express this. It's not that you don't know what you want it's just that you don't know how to express it in a way that a developer will understand. Customers talk in vague high-level terms and we talk in terms of testable cases and conditions. It is such a terrible terrible mistake to think you know better than them what they want because you will often be wrong - badly wrong - and have to spend a great deal of time and money fixing it (then blame them for changing their mind). This is not a new concept but a well understood principle of engineering [businessballs.com]. It is important not to try to interpret someone else's first expression of their idea into workable software. You have to discuss it with them. Find a common ground in which to communicate (this is where languages like UML come in because they can be used at all levels of development for different purposes). Tell them what is and isn't feasible and find solutions. Don't just dismiss what you have been asked to as impossible or unreasonable because you are the 'expert'. You may be the expert coder but you aren't the expert in someone else's business or in their idea.

Re:apple only

[Anonymous Coward]

For years? That's enough time to learn to program and do the damn thing yourself.