Tuesday June 2: End Game, Part One

As of this moment, we have only two full weeks before the onset of the exam week, which is scheduled to begin June 18th. Because of the nature of our class, and due to the fact that I never like waiting to the last minute anyway,we are going to commence work on your final projects, beginning right now.

Before we begin, allow me to give you a very simple outline of what we will be accomplishing over the next two weeks:

A) What makes a "killer app"? Details to follow quite soon

B) "You've taken your first step into a larger universe" Details to follow

C) not so random research : each of you will be researching a particular topic that has something to do with computer programming. Details to follow

D) "year in review" Details to follow

E) "speak,hands, for me!" Details to follow

In any event, let's get down to what you will be doing today:



The term "killer app" was coined long ago in the 1980s to describe a computer program that was so important and influential to how computers were developing that they crushed all the competition. At one point or another, every computer geek dreams of making their own, just like every politician dreams of becoming President and every dog dreams of waking up in a world where all the cars are slow and they're made of Beggin' Strips.



So here's your chance to dream out loud. Please describe what your killer app would be like, if only you could invent one. Your description must include the following:



1) what general category would this app fall into? Would it be a utility program, something that would help make your computer work better? Would it be some kind of instant messaging or email software? Would it work with databases? Would it be a game of some sort? Would it be used to test network security ("pen testing")?



2) What kind of person would you try to get to use this software? Think about things like age, gender, lifestyle, income bracket, what they do for a living, what their hobbies or interests might be.



3) How would you distribute it? In other words, how would an interested party get a hold of a copy of your software?



4) Would you attempt to patent it and make it propietary, or would you go open source, let the world see how you did it, and try to make money on its usage?



5) For that matter, would you be trying to make money from this, or would that not be a consideration? (Remember, there's no one right answer to this)



6) How would you get this "before the public"? In other words, how do you plan on getting people's attention long enough to TRY your "killer app", bearing in mind the "MTV syndrome"



7) What if someone wanted to buy the rights to this software of yours, what would you do? How would you respond? Again, there is no one right answer to this.



8) Finally, who do you feel would be the first and most important consumer of this software? Who's it really for, anyway?



That should do it. For today, please create at least a complete paragraph for each point as a rough draft. When you are finished, please email it to me with your name and "my killer app" in the subject line



Cheers,

Uncle Paulie