Progress on the Full Proposal

So as I have been trying to put together a full proposal here is some of the things that we have been asked to cover.

I.	Introduction	Intro
II.	Motivation
III.	Background
IV.	Previous Work
V.	System Description	Body
VI.	Challenges
VII.	Time-line
VIII.	Budget
IX.	Conclusion

These things are pretty detailed but also very realistic things that need to be considered. What similar products have been done before? What makes you think that your idea will be better than that which has been established? What is the project going to do and how?

The most surprising topic that is listed here is the budget. How big is your team? How much are they getting paid an hour? Where are you doing the project (Office Space, garage etc)? How much do benefits cost for your employees? Are there going to be legal fees? Do you need to hire a lawyer to make sure that you aren't treading on someone else's copyright or patent? It is a pretty scary thing.

In my previous programming I used programs as a tool to help with mundane/repetitive tasks, such as parsing through a document and gleaning the information that i need, formatting spreadsheets, etc. So thinking about starting a project as an outside business is a daunting task. One of the hardest things about this class is thinking about the project. It is very similar to inventing something. You have to take consideration about what people need, or want, and if you are able to do something that they like. If not your reputation goes downhill and there isn't much that you can do.

Research

I was able to do some further research today about creating applications as a money making opportunity. AdWhirl is a free server-client program that basically allows the developer to put advertisements into your application. Almost all of the free applications out there aren't created because the developers just wanted to make a game, they make money too! AdWhirl created a report that talked about applications that break the top 100 list can make anywhere from $400-$5000 dollars a day! The tricky part of that is getting an idea that can make it to the top 100. In the free market it seems a lot easier to do that since 70 % of the apps on the App Store paid 30% free.

Overall from this research I think it would be neat to get an application out in the app store as a hobby or past time, but trying to create a business that is dependent on success in the app store appears to be extremely difficult. It is like trying to put all your money in the stock market, you really don't know what is going to happen, and you don't have much control on the success. The average app can cost in between $15,000-$50,000. And less than half of the apps only make $685 a year. That is pretty rough! Well back to researching and writing! The proposal is due tomorrow night so you will be able to see what Thaumaturgy looks like.