As a client I feel some of my major concerns would be dedication, continuity, and security. I would be concerned that a prize may not be suitable or provide enough motivation for a coder to go above and beyond to really produce his or her best work. If that same coder is also working on other projects and competitions to try to win contests they may not be dedicated to my needs and I may not get the best possible result. Also, if in the near future I need edits or additional work done on my software and the same engineer isn't available someone else will have to work backwards to figure out how to access and edit the software, costing more time and money. Thirdly, if someone is creating my software and wins the competition and does a great job, and then goes and uses this successful code on another project and creates near identical work for both of us; someone who accessed the other companies network would find it easy to then access mine due to the similarities. I think the idea is great for coders to be able to drive themselves to better than one another, similar to the sporting field or a competitive workplace, competition challenges the competitors to be better versions of themselves. However, I don’t feel I could ever be entirely confident in the product i'd be receiving
4.Find an example of collective action or an information sharing app. Describe and link to the digital tool. Explain what it does, how it works, and the types of problems it is working to solve. Do not use examples from those discussed specifically in the article (e.g., Airbnb, Lyft, Uber), but there are NEW examples of these and others that you can discuss.
Dropbox service is file sharing and document collaboration app which can be performed on multiple platforms. It is basically a cloud storage service. If someone create a file, Dropbox let him put the file in one place, which people can later access it on their cell phones(Android and IOS), computers or on the Dropbox website. So that people can bring whatever kinds of documents and files wherever they want. The sync service makes everything saved in Dropbox automatically synced to all the devices connected with Dropbox. It also let people share information with everyone. Whenever you edit a file, people in your team that you share the file with will get automatic update on the file, so they save the time to announce they made changes and email the changes back and forth, they can just work on it together.
source: https://www.dropbox.com/business?home=true&_tk=sem_b_goog&_camp=sem-b-goog-us-eng-top-exact&_kw=dropbox|e&_ad=48169009662|1t1|c&gclid=CPeR1JyKnMsCFQlafgodyzMMag
I don’t think customers should be concerned, TopCoder is able to provide clients with programmers that will fit their needs no matter the destination. If the project demand didn’t supply enough programmers, TopCoder was able to provide their prize earners with over $20 million in prizes. “Top 5% of prize earners received approximately 80% of the total prize pool, while majority of TopCoder community members earned little or no money from competitions.” For clients this may be a concern about the type of outsourcing, because if their project doesn’t have a high prize there’s a possibility that not as many programmers will work on it. For the prizes to be more evenly distributed, TopCoder should work on how much to price the projects at based on difficulty of project and not on the tallied amount of points at the end of the month.
ReplyDeleteAnother view point from the client would be that even though TopCoder is extremely competitive internally, members often times collaborated over forums. These forums allow novice TopCoder members to ask for assistance on projects and are able to receive feedback instantly. Overall TopCoder has done a great job building relationships between their clients and programmers. Clients should not be concerned with their projects since programmers are motivated with prizes to complete the project efficiently.
2. There is an additional level to security that has not yet been mentioned. The software is created through patching catalog pieces together and adding in new code from competitions. The catalog software is already widely available, and the writer of the code could intentionally leave an opening in the code for a breach later on. A third party with malicious intent could also offer to purchase the code from the programmer. The programmer, having no loyalty to TopCoder other than their profile scores, could easily be enticed for the right price. There are multiple ways for the system to be taken advantage of, even if the code is error-free. For this reason, clients should be hesitant to allow TopCoder to be their source of software that handles sensitive information.
ReplyDelete4. Slack is another app that has recently become popular for information sharing, especially in project management. It runs off a model that is similar to Dropbox's with group-centric cloud storage, but also incorporates a greater emphasis on communication. Slack also allows for the incorporation of other tools and services, with Dropbox being among them. The ultimate goal of the app/service is to allow for greater collaboration within teams without the need for countless emails.
https://slack.com/is
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ReplyDeleteThe prize idea is also a concern for me. Some people would do just enough to get the prize money and not try and satisfy the customer. They can add all these fancy bells and whistles and flashy neon signs but they may over look what I as a customer want. The company will probably look at it and see this amazing thing and decided it is the best, when it doesn’t even fit some of the requirements I would need. You can modify the body of a Prius to make it look like an Audie, but under the hood it is still a Prius. No one wants to pay for an Audie but really get a Prius.
ReplyDeleteI did not even think about this when reading the article but this is a great point. Editing software designed by someone else is no easy task. Then think of all the money and cost being put back into this project. So TopCoder paid one person to design it and now they are going to pay someone more money to figure it out and then fix it, and if they can’t figure it out the company has to develop something new which means they spend money and the customer has to buy something new so that is your money. Then because of all this the price goes up for the customer because the company has to get their money back somewhere.
The other idea with identical software is all the legal battles this would leave companies with. If TopCoder was to find that some code they decided to use was already sold to another company they could be in hot water. This would cause a legal battle between the companies of who could use the code and who is copyrighting. This is again more money from the companies’ pocket.
One concern I had that developed from reading your post was what if someone developed a code for TopCoder and won and the code was implemented. Then when its goes out and people start using it this person starts hacking his own code and stealing information and things. What would stop him? He is not an employee of TopCoder he couldn’t lose his job. Also they might never find out it is him, so he might not face legal trouble. As just a freelancer, I feel like they have no loyalty and ties and this in the end could cause a problem.