Question 3 & 4

TopCoder Inc., CEO, Jack Hughes, believes that project demand will lead to creating more programmer supply in the long run but will have to face some problems. Jack Hughes believed, “that contest demand would spur the supply of TopCoder participants, who would in turn create high-quality software solutions”.  In addition, he views "the hours-based services approach to be a broken, inefficient model.” One reason to agree with the statement that project demand will automatically create programmer supply is that Mike Morris, vice president of sales, saw unlimited potential: “If sales grow at a linear rate, membership grows at an exponential rate. The supply of community members is not going to limit growth. If you throw enough money out there, you will get enough programmers.” Mike believes if you have more assignments and money you will have more programmers.

Hightail formerly known as, YouSendIt, is a cloud based service that allows users to receive, send, digitally sign, and synchronize files. Early on, Hightail's main objective was to assist users in sending files that were too large for email. Now due to their large expansion, their application can be used through a “mobile device, web, a desktop client, or from within business applications with a Hightail plugin”.  Hightail is a global company that offers services to customers and to businesses. According to Hightail.com, collaboration starts with your files. When using HighTail, you “[u]pload your project files to create a Space then share the unique link to bring your project team together in one place. Everyone can view images and stream videos instantly or download the files". Hightail uses a feature called space. Space is a “visual project folder where you can upload files and then share a unique Space link with your team. People with this Space link can add comments, approve and download files and upload new versions”. Hightail offers two version; a lite and pro. The lite version is free, however, you are only allowed 250MB of space per month. The pro version is $15/month but you have unlimited space. Some additional features of Hightail are: high-resolution previews, contextual comments, visual versioning, and access code protection.

Source:

TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

HighTail