Alas the time has come and gone ... as per my previous post I didn't win the €10k. prize in this competition run by a Dublin I.T. consultancy firm. The whole idea, just to re-cap, was that someone would forward an idea which would "kick start the economy".
The winning idea, 'Decisions for Heroes', amounts to glorified Excel. It has innovations, but no one thing that I can see which is truly outstanding ( other than the fact that it's a noble thing to do - probably not lost on the founder when entering the competition ) Even the name is a rip - off of 'Help for Heroes', a British charity founded in 2007.
Of the other 8 shortlisted 'ideas' we had 'Our Writers Bloc'. This idea cuts out the middleman in online publishing: the writer publishes via this site, and readers pay to read it. Only one problem: IDG launched exactly the same thing a couple of years ago ( blurb.com).
Myhotel.ie was apparently an amazing way to book hotels, but no detail was given so I will have to fall back on the default position of assuming it's more of the same. The other entries comprised of stockmarket investing online, mental games for the mentally challenged, paperless bills filing service, and 'Plink'.
The idea behind Plink is a bit confusing, but it does sound exciting. It has to do with mashups, and garnering information to link to, for example, a photograph taken ( pertaining to the subject ). Sounds very interesting, but would probably cost a fortune to develop, not to mention the possibility of legal action from Plink.com - a social networking site parked since 2006. It always pays to check these things!
In a nutshell, as I said before judges in some of these competitions set out with a rough idea of what they want before anyone even enters. I also suspect that this competition had more to do with personalities and gloss than real ideas. I didn't think that I had the best idea - I didn't think I would win either to be honest - but I would have fancied my chances against a data entry product which relies on the goodwill of users to build a database!
I was keen on the idea of some feedback on my site - www.deadpc.net - from the people who ran the competition, but now I'm not so keen. I got an email telling me to register by the 24th. if I wanted 15 minutes of opinion. As an added bonus, the founder of 'Decisions for Heroes' will also be on hand to give advice. I feel that taking advice from someone who can't think of an original name is beneath me.
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Hi, Robin Blandford here from Decisions For Heroes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your initial feedback on our service. Meet for a coffee sometime? I'll give you a proper demo of what we do and you can tell me about your entry.
-Robin.
Imagine trying to whittle down 250 entries down to 8. That's say- 8 judges- each with their own backgrounds,prejudices and preferences, being asked to understand and digest a range of markets and business models and select the best one. Of course its not going to be perfect or objective. That said, you shouldnt be knocking the entries or the competition. We entered the competition too also btw- and didnt get shortlisted. Rather tha getting bitter about it we are getting on with it. Congrats to all involved and I hope you get over your sour grapes soon. If your idea works maybe you wont be so angry.
ReplyDeleteI see what happened here. You entered a competition, didn't win (or even progress to the final stages), and now you are whinging about it and bashing the winner. That's pretty classy.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly was your idea? Is it http://www.deadpc.net/ ? or something different
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWow! excepting the first post, a bit of spam happening here. I'm not bashing the winner by the way, I think this comes down more to the description of the competition being inaccurate at the outset.
ReplyDeleteirishstu: thanks for the query. Actually would you believe my idea is in fact something different - in the Irish context that is. Yes, hard to believe. It's completely beyond me why no one's done it before.
I never claimed to have the best idea or indeed the most radical, I would have been surprised to make the shortlist and certainly never thought about winning.
I'm taking the long - term view that my site may, with development, inspire kids who are into computers and provide a basis for Irish interest. Obviously 'innovative' is a term as long as it's broad, but against this backdrop I felt that the shorlist followed a very definite line. It was a useful experience in terms of defining ideas, but it could have been better structured.
I am sure that I am entitled to express an opinion, however much putting people in boxes may currently be in vogue. My OPINIONS were that of the shortlisted entries, about 3 were of merit. In the case of some entries - such as myhotel(?) either the detail isn't given, or it's the very same as what Sarah Newman was doing in the 1990's.
It is somewhat ironic that of the replies, the only one which doesn't pour any angry smoke from my monitor is that from Mr. Blandford himself, for which I salute him. I reiterate that, having dug into his idea somewhat, I fail to grasp it, or how it differs. Is that okay folks?
I'm also sticking with what I said about the name: the site is excellent, and surely the easy part would have been the name. Again, an OPINION. In conclusion, I wish Robin all the best, he can obviously take criticism, and his site is very good. Beyond that I have an opinion, and I think we're all entitled to assuming that we still live in a Democracy ( though I do admit to not listening to the news this morning )
Lee: "I see what happened here. You entered a competition, didn't win (or even progress to the final stages), and now you are whinging about it and bashing the winner. That's pretty classy."
ReplyDeleteYou mean classy like commenting from a Blog with nothing on it?
Just one last thing, if this isn't too impolite or upsetting a question for anyone. Does anyone apart from myself actually blog on blogger, or is this just political?
ReplyDeleteEh, Mr. Fromwithinthebowl ( interesting name ... is that Irish? ) ... there's a bit of your post I don't understand: "Congrats to all involved and I hope you get over your sour grapes soon. If your idea works maybe you wont be so angry."
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by "if your idea works?"
I've been looking at the little groupie bitching session going on on twitter, saying my site looks like it was designed with paint ... and so on ... mostly from people with no website or just a thrown together 4 - pager.
It was fun checking the stats on these sites. Admittedly some of them look better than mine. And admittedly, my site attracts more visitors by a ratio of up to 13:1 over these 'websites'! You see I went for content, I have brilliant content.
Oh, and they aren't my words. That's according to one of Nth. America's biggest I.T. sites. A few immature gombeens who don't know anything other than group gombeen-ism, or someone at the cutting edge of one the World's biggest I.T. websites? Hmm, I know which one I go with ...