The Case
The TopCoder case is intended to provide you with an overview of how a platform-based firm uses contests to create software. It provides an introduction to the application of crowdsourcing for the relatively complex and important task of software development.
From the case, the slides presented on the topic (to be posted) and readings articles like the Wired article ("How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other" on information sharing apps, consider other collective action/information sharing applications that are used to solve potentially complex problems.
Because we are commenting and posting ideas on a blog, the goal is to be interactive (see D2L rubric). The questions posted are mostly to provide a way to respond to the case and other readings. Finally, please read what others wrote. Do your best not to post a "new" comment or post, if it has already been mentioned previously. Rather, add to the post/comment. Please consider the questions posted below, and address the ones you want to answer according to the cases, but also add your opinions and/or experiences. You do not need to answer all of the questions; perhaps explore one or two in depth. Comments count.
I realize that this may not be typical of the way you write-up cases, but that's ok. Maybe we'll learn more from each other this way.
Instructions: Answer one question or comment from TopCoder (Qs 1-3) and one post or comment about collective action/"sharing economy" (Q4).
- If you were a senior manager at TopCoder, what are the main capabilities you would need to develop to succeed at running the firm? Are these capabilities similar or unique from managing a more traditional firm?
- As a client of TopCoder what would your main areas of concern be with this type of outsourcing? Has TopCoder done enough to overcome them?
- The CEO believes that project demand will automatically create programmer supply. What are the reasons for doubting or agreeing with this core assumption of the business model?
- 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.
1. According to the article, clients and employees alike believed the sustainable value of the company was dependent on their ability to facilitate community participation and foster community growth. As a Senior Manager at TopCoder, I would be overseeing a community of over 200,00 members and direct the process of competition-based software development.
ReplyDeleteA main capability important to the success of the firm is attraction of new members into the community, which can be done by algorithm contests or paying for Google keyword searches. For a company like this, its imperative the have access to a critical mass of talent and coding capacity and one way to do this is through these competitions. To establish and maintain norms, corporate must follow their philosophies of integrity and fairness during the coding contests.
Top Coder has a variety of large clients including Amazon, IBM, Facebook, and Microsoft. To retain clients, a senior manager should establish a standard procedure and evaluation methods for projects to ensure customer satisfaction.
Overall, the TopCoder Senior Management position is unique because the company is rather separated, there are outsourced employees all over the world. Technically, the coders they hire are not long-term employees. This means it is the job of a SM at TopCoder to take on a different management approach to attract and retain talents.
Hi Sarah,
DeleteI would agree with you that TopCoder is in a unique position since the company outsources most of their employees. They are known for their high quality solutions that they produce in a timely manner so I would agree with you that main area that a Senior manager needs to focus on is attracting and retaining the talent. This is what is really keeping the company going since they are the ones producing the real solutions for customers. I also believe that TopCoder needs to focus more on the evaluation methods as you pointed out compared to a more "traditional" company.
4. Wikipedia is one of the largest and most popular information sharing methods on the Internet, which allows anyone to edit its articles. It is owned by a non-profit foundation. Overall, WIkipedia comprises more than 40 million articles in over 299 languages, but only 40,000 articles are considered of high-quality. Due to increasing popularity of this site, Wiki has implemented editing restrictions in some cases as well as a "review of changes" system both meant to prevent false/inappropriate information.
ReplyDeleteThere are some key issues that come along with this company because of its openness and ability for anyone to edit. The two main issues they currently struggle with include false information and vandalism. I've already touched on how Wiki is working to solve problems with false information in the above paragraph. Unfortunately, they are still struggling with vandalism which is any change or edit that compromises the integrity of Wiki, the most popular types are obscenities and crude humor. Wiki is currently working to fight against vandalism on the site by increasing the severity of consequences of violating their content policies.
I think Wikipedia is doing a pretty good job of eliminating the risk of vandalism and even if it happens, they seem to respond to fix it quickly. Wikipedia is a highly used resource for uncovering quick information about thousands of topics so it will be important for this company moving forward to get a handle on preventing false information from appearing.
DeleteSarah - I think it is interesting you spoke about Wikipedia's openness and ability for anyone to edit. I too think this is a big issue for the credibility and usability of this website. I have noticed while in school that most teachers do not consider this website to be a reputable source or something that can be utilized in an argument. I think this is an issue for Wikipedia because although it is somewhat helpful to find initial information on a topic, students ultimately have to "re-find" the information elsewhere in order to cite it and use it in an assignment. So while Wikipedia does have some value it ultimately requires extra work for users, especially students, and this makes it a non-ideal source. I think Wikipedia will eventually become obsolete because of this.
Delete2) In the first part of the case, it is noted that clients paid based on the hours spent in designing the needed project. This would concern me because I know how long development phases can take, especially when there is back and forth between the client. However, Hughes was also dissatisfied with this approach and made even those stages of product development into contests. Now, the concern I have lies with how well thousands of people will be able to understand what it is that I need created. While there is a manager overseeing the process of creation for me, I wonder if the community will understand my needs as well as vote on the proper software to move forward in the competition. This is remedied by TopCoder as it hosts a conceptualization contest before letting a clients project even begin development.
ReplyDeleteThe next concern I would have as a client regards intellectual property. With so many people looking at and working on a project for me, I would be concerned someone would take the developed system and use it for their own profits elsewhere. This is addressed in the middle of the TopCoder case. The company has strict contracts and policies that regard the safety of information, in addition the company allows clients to be anonymous and provides test data to ensure sensitive data is not leaked. This helps me as a client understand that TopCoder is indeed looking after my company's safety and rights.
4) Google recently added a pilot app to the Google Play store called Croudsource. As this is a pilot, Google has not made any major announcements regarding it. However, the app is designed to help Google with the translation as well as map features. It asks for people who speak that language or live in that location to help improve their related technologies. This will help the Google technology be more reliable in terms of translation and locating yourself in other countries. However, Google is not rewarding participants yet for helping with this, so it has not seen a huge following.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.village.boond&referrer=utm_source%3D42matters.com%26utm_medium%3DWidgetWeb
Hi Emma,
DeleteIt is interesting to see how Google has decided to keep this pilot application under wraps so far. With an application like this, it almost takes the approach of scaling down a big picture into much smaller and more manageable features in regards to helping improve technologies. A crowd sourced translation application that is backed by Google and feeds off the knowledge of locals who speak it fluently, with map capabilities built in to it would certainly be a game changer.
Hi Emma,
DeleteI completely agree with your answer to question one. I think that if someone is coding for my business, they would start doing it for their own benefit. That is concerning for me. It seems as though TopCoder does not have a huge incentive for coders to be loyal to the customer. It would be interesting to see how many people who have created code for their own benefit?
Hi Emma,
DeleteI agree with the fact that TopCoder individuals were paid on an hourly basis and the concerns associated with it. Program development does take a lot of time and it needs to be done in an efficient manner. There was also a section in the article that talks about people loosing interest after two weeks on a project. People need to be motivated to get projects done and not stall.
Hi Emma,
DeleteI agree with the concerns you raised in your response to question two. Another aspect of the programming outsourcing to TopCoder that would qualm a company's nerves is the fact that in many contests participants are required to sign competition confidentiality agreements. Although the program development is being outsourced to these contests, it would ease my mind being a company knowing these documents of non-disclosure and confidentiality were present initially to protect IP and security.
3. One reason to doubt that increased project demand will automatically create program supply is because TopCoder is not considering the issues with code quality and consistency with scaling up. The case stated if you increase the number of contests that there is now a higher chance of inexperienced programmers entering and then TopCoder must deal with inconsistency and quality in the code. The company faced this issue in 2007 during their last large scale-up and suffered for a few months because of it. It also left TopCoder scrambling to find replacements for their reviewers because the experienced programmers wanted to participate in the contests instead of review others’ code. TopCoder must take this into consideration if they are preparing for another large scale-up, these issues are bound to happen again.
ReplyDelete4. A good example of an information sharing site/app is Yelp. Yelp is a crowd soured review site that has been around since 2004. Anyone can post reviews about local businesses on the site and businesses have the option to reply to reviews as well. There are pages within the site that are devoted to specific areas such as restaurants or schools. The site struggles with legitimacy and blocking reviews to increase ad spending. This site solves the issue of people searching all over the internet for reviews or information about specific businesses and offers a centralized resource for them. People have one place they can go to receive valuable information, a “one stop shop” for reviews.
https://www.yelp.com/tucson-az-us
Hi Natalie,
DeleteI agree with your response for question 2, in that TopCoder needs to carefully assess the available market for experienced programmers. As you mentioned, it is critical for Topcoders to have an appropriate project to (experienced) coders ratio so that they have enough people to both develop code and review code. I think a way that they code mitigate the risk of having too many projects is by developing an algorithm based on previous online participation through supply and demand. The algorithm could take into account the elasticity of experienced coders in regards to prize amount and work demanded to come up with the correct amount of projects to host on their website in real time. I think that this mathematical calculation would help measure and regulate a proper project - to - experienced coders ratio to avoid the issue faced in 2007.
I agree that TopCoder needs to consider how large their venue is. Bringing in more contestants definitely brings up the issue of watering down the overall quality of the event. I think they should test the experience and problem-solving skills of their coders in order to fulfill the spectrum of talent they need.
DeleteHey Natalie!
DeleteI agree with you here. The article also discuss losing out on some of the community after it lowered their monetary reward for each project. I feel as demand grows, they will need to do something to incentivize coders with top ratings onto these projects. I imagine if they were not able to meet demand or deliver a viable product, it would increase negative word of mouth and companies will start looking elsewhere.
Hi Natalie,
DeleteI think Yelp is great example of collective action/information sharing website. Although, I do agree that it struggles in many areas such as the legitimacy of the sources and accuracy. With so many people using this webpage to provide their input and opinions about a particular place, it is certainly hard to believe on what they have to say. As we don't know whether those reviews come from credible source/person. However, overall it is great app to use to see the reviews for a restaurant before actually visiting it.
Hi Natalie,
DeleteI agree that more programmers equals more inexperienced programmers, but it also means more experienced programmers as well. And, while these inexperienced programmers compete, I imagine the experienced programmers will as well and their quality code and solutions will win out against the lower quality code of the inexperienced programmers. I think it is a problem, but perhaps not one that should be too concerning.
Yelp is a great example of an information-sharing application and is an important one to address because it was one of the first of its kind and has really paved the way for online reviews. the popularity of Google Reviews and Facebook Ratings did not come until after Yelp's big successes. As the owner of my own photography business for the past few years, I have experience with all of these. Yelp! has sort of died down in comparison to Google Reviews, Facebook Ratings and other sources such as The Knot and Wedding Wire for wedding vendors. But I have seen them make advances to come back and are still a great resource for business information and customer reviews and photos. Yelp! does take their reviews very seriously and if a user is new and/or does not review often they may remove the review as being suspicious (which has happened to me and can be very frustrating).
DeleteHi Tyler M I agree with you an think an experience and problem soling test would be every beneficial. There is lots of armature coders but these beginning coders would not be very beneficial to the company without gauging their level of knowledge first.
Delete2. As a client of TopCoder, a number of concerns have already been raised as described in the case. “For new clients unfamiliar with TopCoder’s model, IP and security concerns can be an initial point of resistance." As a client, it could be difficult to trust the way TopCoder works. Who is to say that the members who actually created certain software for a competition wouldn't divulge proprietary information, business plans, or more to a client's competitors. Another issue that clients raised, and understandably so, is with the implementation of certain software. What if they integrate a great product, and once they rely on it the original creator decides to prohibit its use? Lastly, it is mentioned that clients worried about regarded if the information ended up on an open-source page leading to intellectual property disputes. All of these issues make sense and could be incredibly difficult to overcome.
ReplyDelete"To ease clients’ intellectual property and security concerns, TopCoder produced a white paper that detailed confidentiality policies, intellectual property assignment rules, and TopCoder’s modular approach to software
development. In addition, TopCoder allowed clients to keep their company names anonymous during competitions and helped clients generate test data sets to avoid the exposure of sensitive information. At the client’s request, before a community member was allowed entry into a competition, all competitors could be required to sign a standard competition confidentiality agreement." Based upon these additions, as well as a few others, I personally feel that many of the issues raised as a client have been resolved. If I was a client, I feel that TopCoder would be liable if any issues did end up coming to fruition. Most of the issues raised, however, are with the members of the competition - not necessarily with TopCoder. Basically, it seems as if the clients are really just using TopCoder as a middle-man for the systems created by the team members in the competition. This seems to be a good option since TopCoder is in charge of dealing with keeping information secure and staying in good standing with clients while the teams are just in charge of creating software for the competitions.
Overall, I believe that TopCoder made it possible for clients to feel relieved of their concerns regarding security, proprietary software, and making sure the clients are given the software they need. I think that TopCoder did a fairly good job with easing client concerns.
I think security is a top concern that cant always be fixed with a code review. I understand TopCoder is working to prevent security issues but talented coders can create back doors by just knowing the code. I think it would be very hard and have a high level of security risk to use this type of platform for anything relating to sensitive information or company secrets. You just don't know who you are allowing to write code for your company and frankly TopCoder doesn't really know them either.
DeleteHi Stephanie,
DeleteProprietary information is a company's most valuable asset and needs to be protected at all costs. There needs to be a strong implementation of the company's security policies so the CIA of information is preserved. Management should take the time to reviews the standards of their organization.
Marc - I found your reply on this to be really interesting, especially regarding the concept of "back door" coding that could benefit the coders and ultimately hurt the clients in the end. I also like your comment in which you stated, "you just don't know who you are allowing to write code for your company and frankly TopCoder doesn't really know them either". This is an interesting point that highlights a key weakness of Topcoder's online community and business model over. The coders within Topcoder are what make this business valuable, but no one involved knows who they really are. A potential client really needs to stop and consider if they are willing to "go in blind" before engaging with this company.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1) If I’m a senior manager at TopCoder, the main capabilities that I would need to develop in order to succeed at running the firm would be determining client interests and designing specific contests to meet the client’s specifications. Beginning with determining client interest, this capability is very similar to the functions of a traditional firm. Learning about what exactly your customer wants when operating a business is an essential part of why a venture exists in the first place. If I’m a senior manager, this would be one of the first priorities given that some firms may want software applications to include certain features or be easier for their employees to access. Despite companies submitting requests for TopCoder competitions and competitors, it is very important to understand what a client is looking for in particular, especially if I was supervising over 200,000 community members.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this process could prove to be difficult, especially for an organization like TopCoder, as software continues to grow. Crowdsourcing a competition for programmers to design algorithms for organizations is a very unique business practice and would be challenging to implement in most traditional firms. As a manager, I would be concerned with the prize value as several people left the TopCoder community in 2008 after the prize value decreased. It would be very difficult to provide a stable source of income for TopCoder members other than competition and the digital run, given that there had been an unbalanced payout for competitors between 2001 and 2009 (80% of the prize pool going to only the top 5%).
4) Two traditional examples of collective action and information sharing that I personally have become familiar with over the years are Yahoo Answers and Reddit. Beginning with Yahoo Answers, although this application seems outdated compared to other collaborative, information sharing tools, it has grown into one of Yahoo’s more utilized features, creating a user-friendly community in which people can ask and answer questions. Launched in 2005, Yahoo Answers quickly contributed to the Web 2.0 movement where user presence and interactivity characterized the future of the web. The types of problems Yahoo Answers works to solve (and facilitate) are those for which it’s users cannot solve for themselves. Allowing users to reach out to one another whether it’s for help on a homework problem, advice on a personal conflict, sharing tips, or even knowledge, Yahoo’s crowdsourcing platform established the basis for other online collaborative tools.
Moving forward, Reddit is another example of a collective action and information sharing app. Founded in 2005, like Yahoo Answers, Reddit was also another large contributor to the user-focused, Web 2.0 movement in the early 2000s. Users of Reddit are able to follow and post to niche pages while sharing opinions and other information among each other. Posts that resonate with users typically receive “good karma” or upvotes of approval while posts that users may not agree or find useless typically receive “bad karma” or down votes. Reddit’s community is very inclusive and the significance of information shared is determined by the users themselves.
In my opinion, TopCoder should have dispersed the winnings more proportionate to their members, but also keep the venue from getting too large where the prize money wouldn't be enough to attract experienced. programmers.
DeleteI found it interesting in the article that there are a good number of people who are using TopCoder competitions are their sole source of income. I would always want to know who these people are a senior manager because these members are clearly going to put more effort into the competition as they want to be that top 5%.
DeleteHi Tyler. I would argue the opposite. Disbursing the winning would make it attractive to more people but it would also reduce the incentive for top coders best coders and could lead them to go to different sites.
Delete2) As a client of TopCoder, my main area of concern would be when it comes to property that is exclusive to the company. An organization has to know that it can trust the TopCoder community to responsibly handle the confidential information that we are giving them. The article notes that "Until they understand and the documentation and process we have in place with the community members, they see IP and security as potential barriers to working with a community”. Speaking on this, TopCoder has been able to establish itself as a reputable crowdsource organization by putting a number of preventive measures in place. These include utilizing a detailed white paper that outlines confidentialities, rules for the clients IP, and TopCoders own approach to software development. Furthermore, clients can exercise the option to keep names of the company anonymous to reduce the exposure of sensitive information.
ReplyDelete4) An example of information sharing application would be Waze, which is a GPS application that operates on users phone and those around them using the application as well. How Waze works is that it turns each users phone into a real time sensor that updates and sends out information to users (“Wazers”) around them. When those who are using Waze are planning to drive somewhere, they can see based on everyone’s phone acting as a sensor, how long it will take, alternate routes, accidents, hazards, where the police are, speed traps, etc. And this is all updated in real time because the users are out there on the road transmitting all of this information. Problems that Waze is looking to solve is how to better keep the app up to date, and reduce the risk of drivers posting updates while driving. With keeping the app up to date, it takes a lot of processing to ensure that users get the most accurate information they expect from a real time updating application such as this. With users posting updates while driving, Waze is still working on how to best mitigate this, but one possibility is that users cannot post an update unless they pull over and the app senses that the car is no longer moving.
https://www.waze.com/livemap
Hi Ryan,
DeleteI think Waze has a unique issue regarding drivers updating while driving. The concept of this type of information sharing is great though, I think it's solving a real problem that people face everyday. No one likes being stuck in traffic and Waze found a way to ease that pain with info sharing. It'll be interesting to see how they can quickly and safely keep their data up to date.
Ryan,
DeleteI personally have used Waze and I absolutely love it. There exist some caveats. As much as I like being informed that a police officers or accidents are up ahead, some of the information displayed becomes irrelevant within a few hours. I really wish car manufacturers would integrate Waze into their applications to take advantage of sensors that are placed in the modern cars and then have the vehicle act as larger sensor.
1. Another main capability senior managers would need is the ability to make programmers feel like they are a part of the company. Fostering that connection to the community is going to be vital in keeping quality programmers. Some top-level programmers have stated they are happy and see no reason to leave while others only see this as a good revenue stream but if offered more money else where would leave. This signifies the fact that they don’t feel a connection to the community. Without feeling connected to the community or company members are vulnerable to be drawn away by offers of increased revenue. The community has shown signs of some connection, from mourning the death of some members to holding socials for top programmers. Amplifying this connection is needed in senior management to increase their competitive edge.
ReplyDelete3. I agree with Natalie’s statement. One of the ways in which I can see project demand increasing programmer supply is if prize money and money paid to reviewers was increased. When they reduced their contest prize amounts they lost programmers because it was not worth the effort. Their workforce is made up of many programmers who do this on the side to make extra cash. This means increasing the contest amounts would increase their output. The sales manager Mike Morris stated he saw unlimited growth potential and if more money was offered more programmers would compete leading to more accomplished jobs. Quality is a concern and to address the quality problems they encountered in 2007 they can subsequently increase the amount reviewers make. This would keep them as reviewers and not contest participants. They could also break down the contests so they are easier to complete leading to more programmers being able to complete them and easier code reviews for reviewers. Smaller contests and easier code reviews would lead to less quality issues. While code quality and consistency is a very valid issue if the money paid per contest was increased more quality coders would also participate leading to an increase in programmer supply.
Hi Marc,
DeleteI absolutely agree with your answer to the first question. Company culture is essential to any type of business that is trying to grow and thrive. It doesn't matter if the business model is traditional or non-traditional, such as in the case with TopCoder. In a study done by Shiva Rajgopal, an accounting professor at Columbia Business School, and associates, they surveyed more than 1,400 executive level employees to determine how strongly they felt about the importance of a healthy company culture. In the report from the Forbes article, "Corporate Culture Matters A Lot, Says New Study" by Susan Adams, "92% said they believed improving their firm’s corporate culture would improve the value of the company." Adams also goes on to point out that the executive and high-level management team are the ones responsible for establishing and nourishing company culture. I really like the idea of
creating socials for programmers that you noted because it would increase a feeling of community so that they would feel more connected. Another positive outcome of these socials could be that they could talk about projects that they have/are working on at TopCoders, which could generate more interest and excitement around taking on more projects for the company.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/11/12/corporate-culture-matters-says-new-study/2/#1b03e2da5fda
You bring up a great point on the fact that TopCoder needs to allow community members to actually feel apart of the community. It would be interesting for the company to look into mailing out TopCoder material and having get togethers with local coders in order to foster this aspect better. While the company is looking to bring people from all over together online, that concept can be lost once people start coding and get really focused on a project.
DeleteHi Marc!
DeleteI completely agree with you when you say the programmers need to feel like are actually viewed as a part of a company rather than just some contest winner. Company culture and employee engagement is huge and it is what keeps the employees coming back time after time.
2. One of the major concerns as a client, is what if my code is stolen? Since, more than 225,000 programmers compete to provide the best solutions, they now have an insight of what I am trying to do with this software. In other words, as a client I have never met these programmers who are located all over the world, so there is an issue of confidentiality here. As a client, I would like keep certain things confidential and would prefer to know who exactly is writing the code for me. Security is also a concern, these programmers are going to have the code in its entirety saved onto their computers, which they can use at their discretion any time as they are the ones who wrote it. So who does this code really belong to (Intellectual property)? Does it belong to me because I paid for the service, or the programmers who wrote the program for me?
ReplyDeleteHowever, TopCoder makes an effort to protect my identity as a client by giving me the option to remain anonymous to the programmers. They also allow us to test and evaluate the code in the back end to check for any discrepancies or any potential security risks.
4. An example of collective action, which is very similar to the TopCoder concept is Zooppa (https://www.zooppa.com/en/). Zooppa is a platform which allows creative users and brands to come work together. Just like TopCoder, a client through Zooppa can provide a summary of their problem and users part of the Zooppa talent community submit their creative solutions to them. After which, the best solution is picked and the creator is rewarded. Zooppa is mostly for marketing purposes, where brands are seeking for print and video-based solutions.
Hi Miral,
DeleteI answered number two as well and had some similar concerns as you. As I client I would personally also know who was writing my code and would prefer to have those individuals be my internal employees. I had a similar concern about who's intellectual property the code would become. If the programmer wrote the code, what would stop them from writing extremely similar code for a possible competitor of mine that was also using Topcoder. Topcoders confidentiality agreement did not seem like it would address that and it wouldn't really even seem that unethical for a community member to use very similar code for similar project later on, as the code that the individual had wrote for me.
Zooppa is an interesting concept, especially as it is mainly for marketing. It seems like an organization can either get a real win from something like this like the Doritos and the dogs Superbowl commercial or a real bust. It seems like it would be a challenge to have those participating really understand the values and the message a company wants to put forth in their marketing.
DeleteHello Miral,
DeleteZooppa is an interesting idea, but what is to stop companies from just cutting them out by have their own contests, like Doritos has does in the past. What value does Zooppa bring to these companies?
2. As a client of TopCoder, I would have multiple concerns with this type of outsourcing. If I was a new customer, and did not understand their way of business, I would be concerned with the level of quality of code, ethics behind the coders them selves, and overall business practices that drive the company. Similar concerns were addressed in the article, stating previous clients worried about Intellectual Property and Security measures, internal job security for their company, and integration challenges of the code constructed by TopCoder. As far as security goes, new clients worried about TopCoder employees releasing private and sensitive data to the public that could ruin them. Employees working at the client company feared that outsourcing coding projects to TopCoder could rid them of a job, as they were no longer needed to perform these coding tasks. Lastly, once the code was finished by TopCoder it was sent back to the client, where one would have to figure out how exactly to integrate this into their system. If the code had been created on site the developers could have already worked out the kinks and integrate the code into the system without having to send back the code when it needed changes. These are some of the current concerns that a client would face, however there are obvious efforts that TopCoder would implement to ease the clients pains, such as a detailed white paper that runs through the confidentiality agreement made by Top Coder, the rules in place for its coders, and their internal approach to coding.
ReplyDeleteTop Coder is trying to make a trusting environment for its clients, so they can continue to grow and gain market share. There is competition emerging, however TopCoder has a jump start in this race as they have been working in this space for a number of years now.
4. A very popular and often used application utilizing information sharing is Google Applications. The wide array of apps that are hosted on the cloud for anyone to access, where ever they are is a great example of this new type of technology. Readily accessible information that can be accessed on any device is extremely convenient for the user. Applications such as Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Slides are working to solve the problem of lack of accessibility. The old way of collaborating was work separately on documents or projects, and then sharing that with a colleague or partner. Now we can seamlessly work on tasks simultaneously with others, all thanks to Google applications.
Hey Josh,
DeleteI really enjoyed reading your thoughts on being a client of TopCoder. I too agree there is a little uncertainty in the product you are receiving but I wouldn't offer up a project to TopCoder unless I had done my research about the company, gave them specifics of exactly how I plan on integrating this project into my system, and got it for the right price. I think your point of internal software developers losing their jobs is a harsh reality of outsourcing, but at the same time, there is a reason the company/client is not asking them to do this project. I think TopCoder kind of opens up the playing field for all to serve the clients with the best possible code.
Hey Josh,
DeleteIn regards to your response Question 2, I think my main concern would be regarding the quality of code. With the uniqueness of this type of outsourcing, it is important to monitor not only the quality but the consistency of the code throughout. TopCoder has been able to assure that the quality of code will still be spectacular, as this is the largest concern in reference to clients. I think that if TopCoder can assure its clients that the quality of code will be consistent, their method of outsourcing will be considerable for clients.
2. As a client of Topcoder, there are some areas of concern with outsourcing of certain software development projects and processes. First of all, Topcoder is a rather unusual and innovative method of software development that I have not had experience with before so as a client, I would not really know exactly what to expect. One specific area of concern that I have as a client is how my organizations intellectual property will be protected. I trust my internal employees with my organizations intellectual property as they have been through an in-depth interview and screening process and are a part of my organization. However, I do not have this level of trust for the community members of Topcoder, as I do not know them or have any method of determining their level of integrity. It is concerning to think that a community member who worked on a project for me, could sell my proprietary ideas and plans to my competitors. Topcoder does however have some initiatives that helps put some of my concerns with intellectual property at ease. The detailed confidentiality policies and IP assignment rules provide some sense of security and reduce the risk of having my intellectual property stolen. The fact that all competitors also must sign a confidentiality agreement is also reassuring and shows that they are taking the initiative to protect their client’s ideas.
ReplyDeleteEven though these measures help put my concern at ease, my competitors would still be able to use Topcoder and if they had a similar project to the one I just completed, a Topcoder community member who worked on my project could easily do the same thing a second time but with knowledge from the prior experience of working with me. Also having experience of completing my project and the knowledge they gained from working with me could even allow them to do a better job than they did for me on their second attempt giving my competitor an advantage over my organization. I don’t know how Topcoder would be able to address this issue. I would feel more comfortable having my internal employees do a project for me because that way I could feel more confident that it would not be reproduced allowing me to keep a competitive advantage.
4. An example of a collective action application that I have experience working with is Dropbox. I used it in my internship last summer when I was working on projects in teams where we all needed to access, files to complete projects. Dropbox takes the files from your computer and syncs it to all devices that are connected to your account which allows people to easily share files from their computer to others who would need to access them. It also allows users to comment on files, add or delete files and makes changes. I used this to communicate with clients and other team members remotely on files that were necessary to the completion of projects.
Hi Garrett,
DeleteI had not considered the point you bring up about competitors having an advantage if coders have worked on a project for you and gained experience and knowledge from that that they take with them to competitor projects. This is an interesting thought. I feel like this may not happen too often but it is still something to consider. The coders may do it better the second time around if the project is similar, but I think the marginal improvements, if any, would be few.
Hello Garrett,
DeleteI think Dropbox is a great example of a sharing site. I use it all the time to share photos with my family and to share files across my devices. I do not have experience with it in a professional format but i think it would work great.
3. I do agree with the statement that project demand will automatically create programmer supply. Most people that know how to code really well like to show off, and in the case, it said that profile of a person working for TopCoder are "single, highly competitive males in their 20s." These guys want to compete against people that think they are better at coding than them and they want to compete for the highest/largest prizes. These are the people that can solve the most complex coding projects and want to get rewarded for it.Their business model works perfectly for the egos and types of personalities that they are dealing with, so I firmly believe that project demand drives programmer supply.
ReplyDelete4. Another example of an information sharing app is TripAdvisor. (https://www.tripadvisor.com) My mom loves to use this website when we go on vacation because people can post just about anything. What restaurants they ate at, what hotels they stayed at, what they did, where they went, etc. She is considered a "Top Contributor" because over 20,000 people have looked at her reviews of our vacations. This website is attempting to just create a forum for people to gain knowledge about cities they are visiting or things to do in their own town.
Jack,
DeleteI answered the same question as you and agree with the fact that project demand creates programmer supply. Aside from what you said, I think this statement is also supported by the fact that TopCoder has paid out over 20 million in reward money between 2005 and 2009. This shows TopCoder's increased growth from new projects completed. Also, the number of members on their website has increased each year since the companies creation.
I also like you example of TripAdvisor. My mom also loves using this website when she plans vacations. Almost 100 percent of the time this website has recommended something it has turned out great. Trip Advisor reminds me of Yelp but with more insights included.
Hi Jack, I also answered the same question as you and I also agree that project demand creates programmer supply in TopCoder's business model. You brought up a good point: That their business model aligns with the egos and personalities as a coder. I have noticed that people who are very good at code tend to make it noticed. Also, I also enjoy using TripAdvisor for when I plan to travel. It is a good, trusted app that comes in handy when trying to find a hotel that is suitable for my needs.
Delete3) I agree with TopCoder’s CEO that “project demand will automatically create programmer supply”. As shown in exhibit 7, from 2005 to 2009, the average submitters per year increased from 5,565 to 11,122. When coders across the world started to realize they could earn good money from submitting code, some people quit their jobs to work 40 – 60 hours a week for TopCoder. Another point that supports project demand will create programmer supply is that “between 2001 and 2009, TopCoder paid out over $20 million in prizes and peer review money to its community of developers”. The $20 million paid out to participants shows that TopCoder was so successful with crowdsourcing projects that top companies such as Google and Microsoft were willing to pay money for improved or new working code. The case also spoke about different participant groups earning different amounts. The higher end projects were more attractive to participants in developed countries while the easier projects with less pay out were more attractive to participants in less-developed countries such as Africa or Australia. This shows that there is a wide variety of projects to work out depending on your talent level. Even if you are wanting to learn and get better at coding, TopCoder provides feedback and insights on how to improve. Overall, I think project demand creates programmer supply since TopCoder has seen community involvement growth and larger payouts / contracts from corporations.
ReplyDelete4) An example of an information sharing app is Khan Academy. Khan Academy is a non-profit website where anyone can get free access to educational videos and tutorials. On Khan Academy you can learn about topics such as chemistry, coding, math, physics, law, and so much more. The website has been adding new content almost every week and is funded by educational institutions and individuals such as Bill Gates. The problem Khan Academy is trying to solve is providing education to anyone in the world as long as they have internet access. The tutorial videos provide a clear an in-depth understanding of the topic.
Khan Academy Website: https://www.khanacademy.org/
Hi Jakob,
DeleteYour insight and evidence has convinced me that project demand will automatically create programmer supply. Is the programmer supply of high quality though?
Can anyone post on Khan Academy or do they hire teachers for frequently asked topics?
Hello Jakob,
DeleteI am not so sure it is project demand as much as the amount of money that ultimately drives the increase in programmers. I make this distinction because there could be a large volume of project demand that pay relevantly little for the work that would not drive up coder supply. However if you pay more for projects more coders would see the benefit of quitting their day jobs to code on top coder full time.
1.
ReplyDeleteAs a client of TopCoder the main areas of concern I would have with this type of outsourcing consists of intellectual property and the quality of the code I am receiving. I know TopCoder attempts to address the first concern of security in the case but as a client I would be hesitant to use them if I believe that my idea or software is unique or rare.
The white paper that they issue is of course supposed to protect me and my business. I understand that my business name could remain anonymous and these participants could end up signing confidentiality agreements, however software is especially tricky in the patenting process. There are several ways to write a solution for a problem. I think TopCoder has done all they can to ease the doubts that their clients might have but it is still risky in my opinion.
Furthermore, whether they have done enough to ensure that I receive quality code remains to be seen. I understand that I only pay for the code that I want, but that doesn’t mean I will receive the solution I need. TopCoder says that with an increase in projects there will be an increase in coders, I do not doubt that but how many of these coders are quality? Again, I understand I only pay for the code I chose but if nothing is produced that meets the requirements I have then I have wasted time and that is a valuable resource in itself.
4.
An example of an information sharing app that I have used is Rate My Professor. Users can log and post what they liked or disliked about instructors or specific classes. This makes creating a class schedule far easier, and you can even rate things unrelated to course content like the attractiveness of a teacher. I believe you have to have a student email to be allowed to post, so it excludes outsiders from being particularly mean or nice for no reason. A problem they could potentially experience might be professor privacy, where information they would rather not be shared is public for the world to see.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/
Hi TJ-
Deletei really like you use Rate My Professor as an example of sharing app. It was really helpful in my college experience..However, i heard there are students who personally don't like the professor and slander the professor on RateMyProfessor. This similar situation gives other users a hard time.
TJ - I think that you brought up a good point in number 1. The biggest issues that TopCoder faces is attracting quality coders and producing quality code/solutions for their customers. As a Senior Manager I think they are facing more of a unique challenge compared to a 'traditional' company. With the traditional company they've done more vetting of their employees, with TopCoder they have to invest a lot more into the review of code since the coders they use are outsourced and not TopCoder employees. They have to continually figure out ways to produce and show they are producing quality code for their customers.
DeleteHello TJ,
DeleteI agree with Zhipeng, I have used Rate My Professor every semester when picking classes. However i do take the rating of other student with a grain of salt. Not all the reviews are accurate but it is at least a start to provide some knowledge about classes.
TJ,
DeleteRate My Professor is an excellent example. This is an application that identified an unmet need and found an excellent solution for it. I have used Rate My Professor every semester. This is a great way to sort of alleviate the problem of Adverse Selection / Asymmetric Information and know what you are getting into with different professors since, unfortunately, not all are created equal and courses across professors are not always consistent. The only caveat with Rate My Professor is there needs to be more incentive for students to post reviews. There are often not as many reviews as I would hope despite the fact that plenty of people have been in the classes. I also think Rate My Professor would be a great way for professors looking to improve to review the comments made (in addition to the University TCEs).
2. As a client of TopCoder, my main concern would be security and intellectual property. If one of my requirements is keeping customer information confidential, leaving the coding to a crowdsource competition creates uncertainty on how my software could be exploited or if the coder left any back doors open for hackers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the intellectual property issue seems to raise more questions than answer them. If components developed by a coder became a key design in the client's success, it could open the floodgates for anyone who took part in the coding to claim intellectual property. If I saved a large amount of money by outsourcing, I could also be spending a lot more on legal fees.
In the article, TopCoder stated they addressed their client’s security concerns by having their competitors go through a documentation process that guarantees their intellectual property rights. Also, the clients names are anonymous, so they can't be targeted for espionage or sabotage.
4. One of the most useful community hubs on the Internet is StackOverflow. Anyone can login and get help with their coding questions in nearly every language. The website works very similar to a voting based forum design. Users submit a new discussion thread with their questions and the user community can upvote or downvote the thread and responding posts. The community is given incentive to help posters based on awarded reputation (essentially imaginary points). Having a community driven StackOverflow also goes beyond helping new coders learn syntax, but it also drives competition between experienced programmers and drives innovation.
Link: https://stackoverflow.com
Hi Tyler!
DeleteI completely agree with you about protecting intellectual property. Although I am unsure of the legal ramifications if someone were to attempt to get royalties for writing the software. I cant imagine getting one of these tasks done, then having to go through a court battle just to get it implemented. Seems like the safe route is to do it in-house with your own coders to avoid this. The article does not discuss if they have ran into this issue yet. Wonder if they encountered this or will in the future?
Hello Tyler
DeleteI think TopCoder did have some blocks to protect against coders trying to obtain things like royalties but it is and interesting point to bring up.
Hi Tyler,
DeleteAdditionally I love Stack overflow. It is a great site that I use tremendously. It is nice to have a community like stack to help de-bug or code programs from a new or different approach.
Tyler,
DeleteYou have identified an excellent point when you say developers could want to claim intellectual property for their solutions. This reminds me of a problem I have faced as a photographer. I have worked with other photographers before where they hire me to shoot a wedding under the name of their photography business. This poses the issue of who has the right to use that image for marketing purposes and so on: do they get to? Am I allowed to? Could we both? This has resulted in arguments and disputes in my own career and I can imagine this may happen in a similar fashion with TopCoder. They likely have a clause in the contracts or policies that address this issue. If so, I am interested to know what it is.
StackOverflow is an incredible example. Really, it is so useful to developers everywhere. In my own work I know that people of all technical areas often turn to StackOverflow forums to solve problems they are working through. Myself, my team, and others I know during my internship at PetSmart all used StackOverflow at various times. It truly is an amazing crowdsourcing and information sharing platform!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. A senior manager at TopCoder must foster unique business practices and abilities in order for it to be successful. The first is proving that your concept works in the beginning. The case indicates there is no competiton that mimics this buisness model. Understanding that this business model is now proven to be successful, I imagine it was a difficult task to get clients to buy into this software development approach. To be successful, a senior manager must sell this new concept to potential clients, and continually prove that model is better at solving the clients problem than using traditional methods.
ReplyDeleteGiven the unique business model, I would find it extremely risky to make changes to it. The case discusses that lowering the monetary prize caused a reduction in of coders in the TopCoder community. Additionaly, the case discusses the importance of having enough coders to meet the demand. I find it incrediablly risky in deciding to reduce the reward for projects, with the potential of loosing community members. Further, these distraught community members may stand up their own competing business after realizing the potential revenue. With this unique business model, there is no playbook or best practices causing each decision to be extemely risky.
A senior manager at TopCoder also must possess typicall business skills. They must ensure the company is making adequate revenue to keep their company running. They must practice customer relationship management, ensuring their clients get value during their venture with TopCoder. Finally, this article discusses changes made to keep the company’s vision. In some companies, this can be the driving force of why they do business.
I believe it is a much more difficult job to be a senior manager at TopCoder. I applaud the efforts and capabilities of CEO Jack Hughes to keep this unique business model afloat.
4. Task Rabbit is an app that allows you to find people in your community to help with tasks one is unable to complete on their own. The following is based on a true story. Imagine you have been asked your significant other to hang your daughter’s new curtains for three weeks. You keep telling her “I’ll get it done tomorrow,” but never get to the task because of your vigourous course work at Eller College of Management. With Task Rabbit, this problem is eliminated. You can simply sign into the app and post “I need to have my daughters curtains hung on the wall.” A vetted general handyman responds to the problem, comes to your house at the scheduled time and date, and completes the task. Once complete, the handyman gets paid his hourly rate all through the Task Rabbit app. Task Rabbit is not just for small tasks, but also for general contracting, yard work, furniture assembly, moving, and much more.
Link: https://www.taskrabbit.com/
Hi Scott,
DeleteI had never heard of TaskRabbit! It is a really interesting concept to have people come and complete tasks that are located in your area. I checked out the website, and it seams like a very modern platform. They try to make it seem like the new "trend." I wonder how the handle quality control of the people who are "Taskers," such as background checks?
Interesting find with Task Rabbit! It seems like we are really at the point where you can say "there's an app for that". I find it interesting that as the sharing economy continues to grow, people are continuing to let stranger's they don't know into their homes. For example, check out this article about how Walmart wants to deliver groceries straight to your fridge!
Deletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-in-fridge-delivery-beat-amazon-2017-9
I agree that TopCoder should not make any significant changes to its business model. Its focus is different from other sites such as those that are used to connect companies with freelance programmers for hire. I agree that lowering prize amounts of very risky and may not be a good idea. While you can argue that some users do it more for the learning or the challenge, I think money is the strongest incentive, especially for the more experienced programmers who actually provide high quality work in competitions. If prize amounts get too low and it stops being worth it for some or many of these programmers, it could mean trouble for TopCoder and it could spiral downward. First they would start to lose programmer interest, then competition may fall and code quality may fall and then clients will be less likely to use TopCoder do a decrease in its perceived value. While all hypothetical, I see this as a very real possibility. If anything, I would raise prize money to stimulate more community involvement and higher competition to get even better results and attract more clients, not the other way around. Any changes to the business model that TopCoder makes should be very carefully considered.
DeleteI agree managers at TopCoder should have what you describe as "typical business skills". I think they should be an all around great people-person for their client-facing responsibilities. I also think they should be very familiar with the software development process and should have a background in the field themselves. This would be ideal and would make them much more effective in their role.
TaskRabbit sounds like a great application. This reminds me of Angie's List but more broad and general rather than specifically for home-improvement services. Angie's list crowdsources reviews and information about various handymen of sorts to help connect people who are looking to get roof work, yard work, deep cleaning, etc. done! Angie's List does background checks on all of the service providers listed there; I am curious to know if TaskRabbit goes as far as to do background checks as well. If not, I wonder if the benefits of doing so would outweigh the costs. I certainly think there is some sort of social responsibility aspect to it that just shows they care about the safety of their users even if it does raise their costs a bit. Of course, however, I think using background checks can grow your user base to some extent for those are weary of using unverified service providers.
Hi Scott,
DeleteGreat post! I agree that TaskRabbit seems alot like Angie's list. One of the problems with crowdsourcing is not being able to verify employers. I think that by incorporating social media platforms like LinkedIn can help with this process. What are your thoughts?
Hi Scott,
DeleteI agree with you and Tyler, it does sound a lot like Angie's list but for more of a unprofessional network. Where Angie's list is all about certified professional businesses, Task Rabbit looks like it is more for the neighbor down the street who knows how to do the work and can help or do the work at a lower rate or convenience.
2.As a client of TopCoder, my main areas of concern would be following: security, quality of product, and community culture. A client will always have the best interest of their company in mind. All coders are outsourced and compete for a grand prize. Therefore, a code may be well written, but also the coder may have bad intentions such as stealing a business plan, idea, and coding so there is a way for that person who created the code to hack into my business. Overtime, if a code needs to be adjusted, I would be curious to see who would be responsible for altering it.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I would be very curious as to what the culture is like at TopCoder, if each person is working individually. A client wants to develop a positive relationship with someone who is handling the whole backend of their product. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how their work would translate to customer service. This is a huge thing for me, because I would want open communication with my software developer. Their code ensures my success as a client of TopCoder. At the end of the day, I want to be attracting sales and making money. What else if TopCoder offering its clients and how are they handling issues?
I think that TopCoder is trying to improve themselves by adding more benefits and improving retention by trying to improve prizes. In addition, a community is being developed with the mentality that people should only be with TopCoder if they really want to be. Coders have the freedom to do as they please and work with who they want. This is one way that the company culture is being improved.
4. Glassdoor is an information sharing site, also offered in an app, which is one of the quickest growing recruiting platforms. The company is headquartered in Mill Valley, California and was founded in 2007. It focuses on jobs, salary information, and interview questions. It is meant for users to figure out what job is right for them. The site also allows for employees to openly rate and comment about their experience with the company. Glassdoor’s moto is “Find the Job That Fits Your Life.” They want people all over the world to find jobs that they will love.
As a graduating senior at the University of Arizona, I have used this site multiple times to find jobs, salaries, and reviews regarding people currently working the job that I had been applying for. One of my favorite features is that you can find jobs based on cities. In addition, each entry is anonymous, which allows for those who comment to be honest. You can also apply through Glassdoor. I personally have a friend who applied for a marketing position at a top jewelry company, and received a call back through her submission on the website. Not only is it a great concept, but it actually works! One issue that Glassdoor faces is that people can post false information, or information that could harm the reputation of a company. This is the case with many information sharing sites. Therefore quality control of shared information is quite important.
Here is the website. If you have never used it, check it out: https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
Caroline,
DeleteWow, what an exquisite response you had for question 2!
I really enjoyed that you focused on the security aspect of outsourcing code. Having held a security role this summer at my internship, security measures when it comes to technology and data is always at the forefront of my mindset now. Great catch!
Marketing is also a huge aspect of any business, and not too much of it was covered in the article so I am curious how they handle PR, communications, and general marketing. What are those other incentives and what is the culture like in the organization and with the people it partners with?
I agree that I do love Top Coder's current business model but I just wonder how long it can sustain before investors shy away from the business model. Only time will tell but I wish them all the best!
Regards,
Troy Caber
Hi Caroline,
DeleteI think that Glassdoor is a great information sharing example. As you mentioned, I am graduating soon too so I have been on that website many times before. I think they are good at producing relevant information. One of my favorite features are the comments you can find about different companies or specific jobs. I think the site is also great since you can find industry standards and jobs in specific areas/fields.
3) To make the statement that project demand will automatically create programmer supply is a brash statement. It is partially true, but more so outlandish. How about this statement to put things in perspective, "You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Simply because you create opportunities for programmers to come code, does not mean that they will come jump on the opportunities presented to them. There are many reasons why they might not participate.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, time constraints. Many of the programmers that participate in Top Coder simply do it on the side on top of their regular day jobs. So they can only participate in some many projects.
Second, not every programmer will know how to tackle every project available to them. Think about it, there are varying skill levels between all the programmers who are a part of Top Coder.
Third, there is always just the human variable. Humans tend to follows general trends and patterns but only to a point, simply because you have a hypothesis about future participation rates, does not mean that the participating programmers will feel the same way and take part in your projects. Time and money seem to be some of the biggest motivators if anything, not the amount of available projects to work on.
4) A good example of crowdsourcing application is SoundCloud. Here, amateur artists can mingle and network amongst each other. This can lead to collaborations. In fact, some of these collaborations actually end up going mainstream and making SoundCloud artists famous. It follows a fremium model where you can download and use the app for free with sporadic ads during use. However, you can buy a subscription and have no adds.
SoundCloud works to solve the problem of underground artist not having a clear platform to go mainstream in the music industry. The music industry has a lot to do with networking, and unless you already have a well-establish network in the industry, you're looking at thousands of dollars and hours trying to create that network instead of composing music. By having SoundCloud available for use, artists can post their music for free and focus on creating new music without having to network too much.
SoundCloud also works from the music industry's consumer's perspective like myself. I do not use SoundCloud to promote or create music, but I use it to find good, underground music that I would never find in the mainstream music scene. Here, I am able to find totally, new-unheard of artists that I can follow, and even expand on the songs of artists that I already liked, but was not familiar with their prior music that was considered "underground" before they went maintstream.
Here is the link! Go check it out if you haven't before. It's free to use and you could make it big! Have fun.
https://soundcloud.com/
I agree with some of your points on supply being created just through the creation of projects. I think it does depend on how much spare time a coder has. However, it's important to note that some coders on TopCoder do this full-time because the money can be very lucrative. In the case, some coders were making 200-300k a year on winnings, with some earning up to 500k on really killer years.
DeleteYou're also correct on pointing out that it depends on the type of project. Project pieces that are longer than 2 weeks tend to lose interest and perform poorly in terms of quality.
So while the statement isn't completing outlandish, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Good analysis!
Hi Troy!
DeleteYour post was very nicely written and you made some great points! I loved you analogy of of how you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I believe in this situation this is so true. There are thousands of opportunities out there, not just for coders, but anyone, and you don't see everyone jumping on it. For most these coders, it is definitely a side job on top of their day time jobs. They never know what will come up at work that will allow or not allow them to continue to participate in a tournament or competition fo TopCoder.
3) I do not believe that project demand automatically creates programmer supply. There is definitely a huge lag between a new demand and a supply to adequately fill all necessary roles in a project like TopCoder. Supply will steadily increase but will not "automatically" be filled. For example, big data and data scientists are currently new buzz titles in technology. However, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2018 the United States will face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with data analytical skills and over 1.5 million managers who are data-orientated. People need time to develop skills before the supply and demand are at an equilibrium. It is not instantly done.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the case mentions "[d]ue to constantly evolving technologies, programmers' skill sets often became obsolete after only a few years of productive service, leading to high levels of employee turnover." If this is true, supply may never truly and one hundred percent meet the demand, since technology may be growing faster than the supply.
4) Although some shared information may be skewed, sarcastic or utterly wrong, Reddit.com is an information sharing platform. Users are able to post articles, opinions and images about science, entertainment, world news, finances, politics, and many more. For example, recently I have used the website to stream sporting events since I do not pay for cable. Reddit has created a platform for internet users to share information that users find beneficial, funny and/or informative. It is an endless supply of entertainment.
A main issue the website is facing is a moderator problem. This service has thousands of unpaid moderators who produce and curate the lion’s share of content for the site. If a controversy were to arise within the service, moderators have the power to close off their sections in protest, which poses serious problems for Reddit. A protesting moderator may have control over an influential and important part of the site, causing a huge portion of the website to be shut down for, potentially, a long spurt of time. The moderators are the sites biggest asset and liability.
Here is a link to Reddit: https://www.reddit.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete2. From the perspective a client, I have a few concerns regarding security and what it entails as a result. Had Top Coder not had any safeguards in place, this could limit what my organization can gain from it as no sensitive information can be placed on it such as client information, ideas, IP, business plans, etc. I don’t want our ideas to be copyrighted by community members. However, to their credit, Top Coder has created certain safeguards such as a “competition confidentiality agreement” for any community member who wanted to participate within a certain competition. For the most part, it does address consequences, but may not stop it from happening.
ReplyDelete4. An example of a collective action and information sharing application is a web based, crowd sourcing game called Fold It. It’s, in my opinion, an ingenious way of creating a game out of folding proteins. The way the website explains it: proteins are chains of amino acids (composed of 20 small molecules) and they form the building blocks to all life. An analogous way of looking at it is comparing them to Legos. You can stack them however you want to, following certain rules, and can make everything from a straight stick to a life size replica of a Ford Mustang car all while remaining stable, i.e. they don’t fall over and separate.
The creators provide all players with the basic rules in how they can manipulate proteins and how they can be elongated and stretched, but will always fold up into a shape to “Stabilize”. This is important because the shape of a protein dictates its function (About/Fold.it) An example of that given is a protein shaped to recognize glucose and whose amino acid chain contains properties to break down and release the energy within glucose for use within the human body. Good examples of common proteins include hemoglobin which carries oxygen in our blood supply or insulin which regulates the amount sugar in the blood.
The importance of this game is in the gamification of protein folding as companies and institutions often spend a significant amount of money in doing this. The website claims that even computers have a difficult time with it, and thus having players compete against each other and their data and processes logged, it could be beneficial to the curing of disease. For example, proteins are also a part of disease such as HIV. HIV produces HIV-1 protease and reverse transcriptase. Those proteins allow HIV to survive within the body by one acting like a production plant for replication the other to convert RNA to DNA allowing HIV to remain in the host.
The data collected within this game will go towards improving scientific and computer methods of folding proteins and contribute the cure/understanding of diseases.
http://fold.it/portal/
Hi Bryan,
DeleteI agree that safety is important for a firm. However, TopCode, as a technology company, saved most of the important information in the digital form. Physical safety is important indeed, but I would say cybersecurity is way more important than that.
Hello Bryan,
DeleteI completely agree with the fact that addressing concerns does not always mean they can stop them from happening. Given that fact it increases the risk of using places like TopCoder.
1. By reading the TopCoder case, TopCoder Inc. is an innovative company back in that time. Differ from the others technical company, they find a creative and innovative way of their business. The company's specialty on crowdsourcing, which is a comparatively "new tech" back in that time. Therefore, technical staffs who work for TopCoder Inc have to be creative and innovative so that TopCoder can be successful. As a senior manager at TopCoder, his/her management skill will be challenged under this situation. The senior manager has to be sure having the ability to keep those technical staffs motivated and working efficiently. Also working in such crowdsourcing company, the senior manager has to be capable to allocate resources on a huge platform and control the participation. Senior manger is required a higher skill in integrating the information clients and programmers efficiently.
ReplyDelete4. "sharing economy"
In China, there is a new trend of calling delivery food. There is such a company called Meituan Inc. Meituan has its app, customers can use their app to order different delivery food from over 40 different restaurants who collaborate with Meituan in their area. Other words, Meituan gathers all the restaurants, and based on the area, Meituan outsources all those restaurants' delivery services. This is an example of sharing economy. Generally those restaurants are competitors. While they all collaborate with Meituan, they have agreement among them, they all advertise on Meituan's app and provide service and products to customers.
You talked about basic concept about how important creation is for TopCode. I just want to add more detail based on your post. I agree with you that innovation and efficiency is important for TopCode. Those are also important for traditional firm though. I believe innovation is more important for a tech company like TopCode, but innovation is hard to improve. Compared to innovation, efficiency is not that hard to develop. I highly agree that senior manager is required higher skills, since they have sophisticated skills and related experiences to deal with the problems. If they find a right way, the process development can be done step by step. However, this is not adapted to innovation. From my perspective, increasing the investment in idea generation is a good idea to build the basic creative environment for the company. Also, to make sure they get their idea on the right track, understand customer and develop their needs is a good way to do.
DeleteHello Zhipeng,
DeleteAs a Chinese, I highly understand what you are talking about. Meituan is one of the biggest food delivery company in China. Actually, there are some company which do the same thing as Meituan like Eatstreet. Eatstreet is a online food ordering service. They do all the things Meituan do, besides Eatstreet is a website but Meituan is based on the app. Also, Uber created an app called UberEATS which is also a food ordering platform. When I was in China around 5 years ago, I can order McDonald's easily with one click. After I came to U.S, I was surprised that McDonald's doesn't have their own order delivery system. McDonald's now started to cooperate with the UberEATS, so that's more convenience for us to eat.
Hi Zhipeng,
DeleteYes, even I have heard about the food delivery apps/companies that have recently become increasingly popular. It is amazing to see how restaurants, as you mentioned are seen as competitors yet they all have come together to increase their sales by providing such a service.This has become a very common trend in other parts of the world. However, as Annabel mentioned in her comment we are just starting to introduce this concept in the US. Though I believe it will take some time for it to become popular because services like UberEATS is not yet available in most parts of the U.S.
2. One issue is IP and Security. Since TopCoder is producing the code through a community of coders, companies might fear this code to become open-source, stolen, or copyrighted. TopCoder also adds competition produced code to their catalog to help with other coding projects which raises additional concerns. Additional challenges are getting the code ready to deploy and use within the clients existing systems. While an optimal solution may have been found, it’s up to the client’s developers to implement the code and make it run. They will also need to keep the code updated and fix bugs or issues found much after the TopCoder community has finished the project. Finally, the culture of TopCoder can be rather strange to a new client. In order to ensure a project’s success, the client needs to provide enough detail but not all of the details. Projects must also have deadlines as those projects longer than 2 weeks tend to lose interest and have lower quality code. I think TopCoder has addressed security and IP by creating a very detailed documentation process, asking clients to provide dummy data, letting clients chose to disclose their name or not, and having TopCoders sign a non-disclosure form before entering a competition. However, I think issues around deadlines and making the implementation process of the code could use further work.
ReplyDelete4. GitHub is a tool to help web developers work together as a team when developing code. You can use GitHub privately and securely through their servers or deploy your own GitHub through your server, private cloud, etc. GitHub allows multiple users to edit and work on the same piece of shared code through a shared repository, or repo. Users can download and clone the repo onto their own environment if they’d like to make changes that doesn’t affect the shared repo. It’s a great tool for DevOps and patch management. The GitHub community allows GitHub users to collaborate on open source software projects or applications. GitHub is solving the problem of coding individually by uniting teams on projects and bringing a community of developers together on open source software.
https://github.com/
Jacob, I agree with many of the points you have made. As the article notes as well, Intellectual Property (IP) and Security would make up some of my biggest concerns if I were a client. TopCoder has put numerous measures in place to address these concerns, but I would still be weary. In my opinion, even if coders sign a non-disclosure agreement, they can still disclose or sell that information in secret and in breach of the agreement if they wanted to and were being paid for it. The fact that they sign the agreement would not make it impossible for them to disclose any information. The ability for clients to remain anonymous would give me a little more comfort, but I still think it would not be too difficult in certain cases for programmers to deduct who the company is, depending on what the project details and requirements are.
DeleteIn my initial reflection of this question, I did not think to consider the issue that a lack of deadlines can pose. This is a very good point you have made. As a client I would certainly not want to go through the process of getting a project completed through TopCoder only to have it be lacking in quality. This would be a waste of resources. To get the best responses from the community it would be ideal to have a timeline of under two weeks so as to not lose interest from much of the community. The more coders involved and competing, the better.
2. TopCoder provides the technology world with an innovative business model in respect to crowdsourcing. One area of concern I would have with this overall platform would revolve around the concept of "separation of duties" in completing a task. The main goals of TopCoder are structured around participating in a coding challenge and finishing it in a timely, efficient manner. As many programmers and developers know in today's world, coding takes a lot of time and patience in order to get it to work in the specifications that you choose. TopCoder cannot be the only reviewing the complexity of the code, but the client they are working for. In the article, "Even if TopCoder did all of a company's internal development work, the company still needed to have and internal staff to integrate the deliverable into the client's existing systems, review the code for security issues, and adjust and fix code as systems changed over time" (Lakhani). In order to overcome this issue, any type of proprietary information needs to be safeguarded as TopCoder works in alignment with an array of companies.
ReplyDelete4. OpenTable - This app/online website allows individuals to make reservations for restaurants around the globe, check on wait times, read restaurant reviews and even earn loyalty points (free meals) based on your interaction with the company's business model. This is a real-time app that allows you to efficiently enhance your dining experience at any participating restaurants. Consumers interact with the app by choosing their food preferences in a specific location and have the opportunity to schedule a reservation and even look at wait times. The current problems today that the company is focusing on are accuracy of tables available and wait times.
Link: https://www.opentable.com/start/home
2) Hello Andrew! I agree with you that "separation of duties" is a concern to me. I would be worried about the confidential information that I share only to TopCoder, what if its partner has access to those info? Even in today's school work, when we are doing a coding group assignment, we still need to communicate with other groups and professors, then we may need to run code in others' laptop. Therefore, personal information in laptops or other devices that we run code on should be appropriately safeguarded.
Delete3.) I believe that project demand does not necessarily create programmer supply. For instance, the article did state that coding challenges was one of the obstacles for some of the contests. First, there were things that needed in-depth testing and verifying the applications work. Second, if there was not enough information or if the project was too complicated, the coders would tend to stay away from those contests. The coding challenges alone affect both the supply and demand side of TopCoder. Some of the determinants of supply were resource allocation and retention. Between these two, it came down to having a certain amount of contests that could be reachable within a given timeframe, and keeping the contestants engaged. On the demand side, when a contest is over, platform managers were technically the support for the end product, but would have to reach out to the community if there was something that needed further support.
ReplyDeleteI think that for the supply side, something that is out of scope would definitely turn people away. Because if projects have a trend of being difficult at the start, it won’t keep people engaged. However, that would also keep some of those who are highly skilled, too. For instance, some classes “weed out” students, but those who can handle the class stay.
4.) One of the crowdsourced websites is OpenStreetMap. It allows people to contribute to the map data, and it is also accessible so that others can use in their own products, experiments, etc. However, unlike Google Maps, it gets constantly updated by the community itself, and each edit isn’t owned by a corporation. Plus, contributors can also add more detail to the map that may not exist with some of the current online ones. For instance, distinguishing the different types of green areas such as a park and cemetery would be helpful to some.
2. Like many of my peers, my main concerns as a TopCoder client are related to intellectual property and security. As a business, I want to keep my software development internal with employees that I can trust. When new employees are hired, companies will specifically state that any code written by them in the office or on company property belongs to that company. However, with TopCoder that’s not the case. Though TopCoder uses white paper to address confidentiality and intellectual property policies, that code still remains in the hands of the developer who wrote it, long after it was submitted. Even though the developers signed a confidentiality agreement, they might still choose to use that code in a variety of ways after the competition. As a client, however, I like that TopCoder allows you to remain anonymous. This makes me more comfortable knowing that the developers won’t know who they’re developing the code for. Moreover, I appreciate that TopCoder performs security and quality checks to ensure that the code I’m receiving is safe and won’t leave any backdoors open for hackers or even the developer that wrote it. To this point and given the measures already put in place, I believe that TopCoder has done enough to protect its clients.
ReplyDelete4. An up-and-coming application in the shared economy is DogVacay. DogVacay is a pet sitting, dog boarding, and doggy daycare application for dog owners to contact over 65,000 pet sitters and dog walkers. The application has even been described as the “Airbnb for Dogs” by the Wall Street Journal. DogVacay is extremely useful for owners seeking a pet sitter rather than having to pay a significant amount of money to send their pets to a kennel.To book a dog boarding, the owner simply searches in the application for a sitter, schedules an in person meet-and-greet, and then books the boarding and pays. To ensure your pets safety DogVacay also offers 24/7 customer support, premium pet insurance, and daily photo updates.
DogVacay: https://dogvacay.com/
Jonny, DogVacay sounds like an awesome application. I was actually going to post about a similar application, "Wag!". This is essentially the same type of application as DogVacay. It also connects dog owners with dog walkers, sitters, and boarders. It works through a mobile application with several great features such as being able to track your dog's walk via GPS, get an activity report after each walk, and get photo updates! These both sound like great apps!
DeleteDogVacay sounds like a great application. Having to trust someone with an animal can be a great concern. Having the ability to access all the information pertaining to the search sounds fantastic for dog owners. Im sure the ease of a app like this has to be very settling for dog owners.
Delete2. I think the concept of this company is very innovative and smart. As discussed in the case, there are many valuable things that Topcoder offers to their clients due to their unique business model such as creative input, cheaper costs, and often a shorter software development time. However, to form a company that works in such a competitive and dynamic environment, the business model is inevitably going to be non-traditional and unique.
ReplyDeleteThe main concern I have for Topcoder is the sustainability of their community “employees” as it is constantly changing and could hypothetically drop to zero at any moment. Programmers within the community have great power because of this and that could potentially put Topcoder in a somewhat compromising position. As seen in 2007 and 2008 during economic collapse, Topcoder had to make difficult decisions regarding their finances without full input or consideration of community members. This upset community members as they did not have a say in the matter after investing a lot of time in the community itself. Unless Topcoder can continuously expand and offer increasing prizes, incentives, and benefits to match the corporate offerings for software engineers and program developers they are in trouble. Additionally, there will likely be another venture that will come along whether it be similar or even improved that will steal these programmers which are Topcoder’s employees, greatest asset, and source of revenue.
I do not think Topcoder has done enough to overcome this. I believe Topcoder should create contracts that bind in programmers for extended periods of time or seek alternative ways in which they can increase employee loyalty and “job security”. This would give them safety in at least knowing they had a certain number of programmers for a certain period. If something were to happen there would be legal obligations in place and they would have time to react.
4. One example of an application that is like Topcoder and other “sharing” applications is Chegg. Chegg is an online resource for high school and college students that specializes in “textbook rentals, homework help, online tutoring, scholarships, and internship matching and it also owns various citation services” (“Fact Sheet”). Chegg has become widely successful because it offers so many valuable resources to students all in one application. Chegg utilizes collective action through its homework help forums. Students can post homework questions and Chegg “experts” post insight such as tips, solutions, or advice on how to find the solution. Chegg also utilizes information sharing through its tutoring services as well as its internship matching program as employers and student must communicate their expectations to generate a “match”.
Some problems Chegg may face include copyright and proprietary information (class content is often posted and may be protected) and concerns towards continuously meeting students fast-evolving needs. Chegg must also have community involvement from their tutors and solution experts or the site does not have any value. Chegg must also maintain relationships with internship employers.
Source: Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from https://www.chegg.com/factsheet
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete4. BringFido is a "pet friendly hotel and dog travel directory". This web-based service helps users find various dog-friendly places to take their dogs when traveling or just in the city in which they live. It has information about hotels, restaurants, activities, events and more that allow dogs. Each of these places can have ratings given by BringFido users. This app allows users to share information across the platform about new places to add to the directory. Users can share additional information through reviews and can even share their own photos. Many of the places listed have addresses, phone numbers, websites, and other information available to users, if applicable. There is also a forum for users to take their information sharing even further. These forums are all of the directory listings can be filtered by city or area to help users find what they are looking for. The application also allows users to make hotel reservations and has a partnership with Travelocity. The problem BringFido solves is the trouble of figuring out where you can go when you are taking your dog on vacation: what hotels you can stay at and what their pet policies are, what restaurants you can take your dogs, what events you can take them to, and what activities you can do with them while on vacation. BringFido brings all of this information together through one application and facilitates unbiased reviews, photo sharing, and discussion among its users. LINK: https://www.bringfido.com
ReplyDeleteHello Tyler,
DeleteI have not heard of this app but is sound extremely helpful. When we are traveling with our animals it has been very difficult to sort through the various google posting to find out if places are pet friendly or not. I will be using this in the future thanks for the post.
2. TopCoder has a very unique crowdsourcing-based business model, where software is developed through online competitions. The company does a good job of ensuring their clients feel comfortable with this model by offering them the same programs, but for less money and shorter development time. While those factors do make a difference to a client, I would still have a few concerns with this type of outsourcing.
ReplyDeleteThe concerns I would have for TopCoder are the retention rate of the software developers as well as the privacy of the software I will be purchasing. As far as the “employees” go, their interest and drive comes from the competition and contest demand provided by the company. At any point, these available coders could vanish and go work for another company where they are offered more money, which as stated in the case is an issue of concern. TopCoder needs to find a way to keep their coders coming back for more. As a client, a main concern I see with this business model is my privacy. Having so many different employees and things going back and forth, how will I be protected? TopCoder does did produce a white paper that explains the confidentiality policies, intellectual property assignment rules, and TopCoder modular software approach.
I feel like TopCoder has done a sufficient job of overcoming the main areas of concern and has definitely evolved. They have created a two-sided innovation platform containing over 225,000 developers from around the globe to write software, while protecting and discounting their clients. However, there is still room for improvement, as the software changes and evolves, the company will need to match it and make sure their clients are protected each step of the way.
4. An example of a collective action or information sharing application is Rover. Rover is the nation’s largest network of dog sitters and dog walkers. Whether you need your dog walked, day care, pet sat, or in-home dog sitting, Rover is there to connect these “pet parents” with dog lovers to take over for them. You sign up online or on the application and you can choose whether you are looking for a dog sitter or walker, or if you are the one that wants to do the walking. Either way, you build a profile, about you and your desired animal care, or your availability and personal qualifications such as why you love dogs so much. It connects those consumers that have needs, with those consumers who are willing to help!
Currently Rover is facing issues in big cities like New York, where they are starting to require you to have a license to walk your own dog. Rover dog-sitters are unlicensed individuals who are just trying to help out their fellow neighbors for some easy money. Places like New York are starting to fine people. To overcome this Rover is looking into figuring out how to get their dog walkers license at an easy and affordable cost.
Link: https://www.rover.com/
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ReplyDelete2) The case raised a lot of concerns for me as a client. The first being the risk of losing your confidential information. While the majority of the community may be working to help my needs, there could be a member of the community with malicious ideas. I would be worried that a member would try and steal the confidential information for their own personal gain. This would be simple for someone as any of the 225,000 developers would have had access to download the code. The anonymity option that TopCoder offers provides little relief to me because a unique company may still be able to be identified.
ReplyDelete4) My favorite information sharing app is Google Docs. When Google created this app it had found a way to take word processing applications to the next level. Google Docs allows simultaneous collaboration on documents anywhere in the world with as many people as you want. In addition, it essentially made the USB obsolete as documents could now be accessed wherever you had an internet connection. After the success of Google Docs, Google expanded the software to allow for collaborative spreadsheets, presentations, etc.
www.drive.google.com
2) There are two concerns I have with using TopCoder:
ReplyDelete1. The need for a company to still maintain an internal software team
2. The reusing of code parts
Having to maintain a separate internal software team to conduct security test and integrated the code to companies systems, is expensive and redundant. The TopCoders might be able to develop code faster, but if a company still has to keep a IT software team, then why would they chose to outsource and pay an unnecessary expense. Furthermore, The internal team could develop the code with greater integration to their current systems. Which brings me to the second issue, the reuse of code. It stated that up to 60% of the project could be composed of reused code. I understand that the reuse of code is essential in speed-up of the development process, but if I am pay top dollar to have a customized code then I don't want 60% of it to be the exact same as the company next-door.
4) I watched an incredible short about community-based and non-government national security analysts. The analysts found concerns with N. Korea's nuclear missile program back in 2014 when no one else noticed The sharing of information is the backbone of this non-sanctioned NSA type community. They are currently analyzing photos regrading the N. Korea missiles systems and can calculate the level of advancements made in the past few years, months, and days. Its amazing what they can achieve with such limited budget and a small concerned community.
http://www.wsj.com/video/north-korea-decoders-are-sounding-alarms-moving-upstream/68A62B40-08CF-4DD4-B366-91781FE17247.html
4) The information sharing apps that I am going to bring in are ofo and mobike. Both of them are pioneers of bike-sharing business in China. Each company has distinctive color and shape for its bike, and the process to use is pretty simple： a customer need download an app on smartphone for let's say the yellow bike, ofo, then he needs to scan the QR code attached on the bike to obtain the code(each bike has an unique code) to unlock the bike. When he finished riding, he still need to lock the bike and shuffle the code so that others who are not ofo's member can't ride the bike simply by inputting the original code.
ReplyDeleteBike-sharing business allow people to ride bike conveniently if they don't want to drive cars for a 10-minute ride. Another reason people enjoy using bike-share is the low cost for riding bike-share. Additionally, this transportation also help people keep fit.
Now you can see bike-share in almost every city of China. Moreover, in this year, bike-sharing companies in China are going to release 20 million bikes to the markets of mainland of China, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America.
Something that I touched on in my post is the concept of critical mass and I believe it applies to the bike-sharing app you have described here. For the bike-sharing concept to succeed, it requires enough bikes such that users are able to pick up and drop off bikes without wait and at locations which are convenient for them.
DeleteIf there are too few bikes and it becomes difficult to rely on the app for everyday transportation, users will shy away. In the case that there are a lot of bikes but few users, potential customers could be attracted to the app knowing there will always be a bike available for them where and when they need it.
A solid foundation of both users and bikes are required to reach the critical mass, and it sounds as if the pioneers of the bike-sharing business have done well to understand its implications.
Hello Jacob： I totally agree with you that critical mass concept is the key to the success of the bike-sharing business. No customer would like to engage to use the bike-sharing if there is too few available bikes on the streets.
DeleteThank you for mention this concept which I missed to discuss.
2) Being a company that already has an in-house programming/IT department, employees and executives alike would be very concerned with the concept of outsourcing current software dev projects to Top Coder. Being an employee, some concerns I would have would be first -whether or not these contest participants are close to my skill-set or even more adept than I at my own job - and two - if these participants bring a program to the table that far surpasses my abilities, am I out of a job? Although many companies are using TopCoder to outsource some programming projects, many companies are still keeping around their big picture thinkers and employees to help manage the TopCoder people and assist in managing the projects. In an executive's shoes, concerns that are raised revolve around the issues of protecting Intellectual Property (IP) and security. Luckily for them, a majority of these contests use test data rather than actual data, and additionally many companies' names are kept anonymous throughout the contests. That, and a majority of contests requiring confidentiality agreements further increase security of assets and IP itself. These efforts to protect a company would ease an Executive's mind if they were thinking about outsourcing software dev to TopCoder.
ReplyDelete4) Another example of an online collective sharing mechanism is Craigslist. Craigslist is an online classifieds sharing tool that many use to sell various random items such as cars, cacti, and instruments to also advertising service needs such as yardwork needed or even actual job offers. Although there have been many horror stories about Craigslist deals going awry or people being scammed out of money, efforts have been made by both Craigslist and users to make users more aware of these security threats to better protect themselves. Suggestions made by Craigslist and users alike include:
-Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person.
-Beware of offers involving shipping - deal with locals you can meet in person.
-Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) - anyone who asks you to is a scammer.
-Check to see if the image of the product/service is from a local source or just copied from google
-Insist on cash-only offers
These are just a few guidelines to acquiring things from Craigslist to better protect yourself. Craigslist can be a place to find great deals on a plethora of items and services, you just have to be sure to stay safe and protect yourself.
(www.craigslist.com)
Hi Evan!
DeleteI agree that the semi-anonymity of the companies and their data helps ease them into outsourcing talent from the TopCoder community. I think it’s even more important as more things become open and shareable. You did make a good point about job security with the client companies, too. Although, I think it the TopCoder community would be doing the less complex work, just to see if the product can be built.
Craigslist is definitely a good example. I’ve found some good things out of it (you just have to really look). The community does tend to make it safer with the reporting functionality. Sometimes, even their forums section can help.
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ReplyDeleteAs a CEO at TopCoder, there are a few key capabilities that need to be developed in order for the firm to succeed. First is the critical mass of both clients and programmers. For the concept of TopCoder to function efficiently, it requires a minimum number of clients to attract programming talent and a minimum level of programmers to complete the work. This critical mass of providers and clients is similar to other crowdsourcing business models such as ride-sharing apps like Uber, where users will only sign up if there enough drivers for the app be used conveniently, and drivers will only join if there are ample users who can be serviced. At TopCoder, each side of this relationship works to balance out one another – if there aren’t enough programmers, clients will increase prize pools; if there are few clients but a strong community of high quality programmers, clients will be attracted.
ReplyDeleteAnother key capability required for the crowdsourcing concept to succeed is well-defined requirements and procedures. TopCoder must work directly with the client to define system requirements so they can be explained to the crowdsourced coders and broken down into more manageable chunks to be worked on by multiple individuals. By bringing in programmers from around the world to work on a single project, there is inherent risk of inconsistency in the code and how it is developed. Well-defined requirements and procedures will help in keeping code consistent.
(3) I agree with TopCoder’s CEO that project demand will automatically create programmer supply. Programmers have an incentive to submit their work, and from 2005 to 2009, the average submitters per year increased from 5,565 to 11,122. Coders that are good at what they do are likely to spend a mass amount of time on TopCoder because they are able to reap the benefits of their work with money. Why would they stay at their current job where they earn a fixed rate when they know they can earn more through TopCoder? TopCoder has given out over $20 million in prize money, which goes to show that they are successful in their crowdsourcing efforts, and they will be moving in the future. The fact that TopCoder offers different amount of money for different project allows there to be competition within TopCoder, where programmers would enjoy the race while gaining knowledge along the way. TopCoder’s huge success in crowdsourcing shows that project demand will in fact create programmer supply.
ReplyDelete(4) An example of an information sharing app is Slack. Slack is one place to connect all of the different tools you use and you can streamline your workflows. Slack is the central place to gather all of your teams' conversations and keep everyone in sync, whether it’s a note, a call, or even a video chat. Conversations and files are fully searchable, so you can find information quickly and draw upon the collective knowledge of your team. It helps teams be more organized with their work, and allows them to use one platform for all information sharing. It solves the problem of miscommunication within groups.
2. If I was a client of TopCoder, I would have some reservations about using their service. My first reservation would be that I would be worried about having company information compromised. Even though TopCoder offers the service of randomizing and anonymizing client data, I would be concerned that people working on the project would be able to discern the purpose of the project, and could gain some insight into my company.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I would be concerned about is a developer going rogue. Even though TopCoder uses a rating system to make sure that trustworthy and competent coders are the ones who are handling your projects, there is always the risk that a big enough financial incentive would make one of these highly trusted and vetted coders turn on the company and sell secret information. I don't think this risk is addressed enough by TopCoder.
4. One of the best examples for an information sharing app is YouTube. YouTube has been around since 2005, and has enabled users to share information with each other, becoming the most popular video sharing platform. YouTube does not put out much content of its own (except for the very occasional video from the official account). It just enables users to upload their own information on any topic. The problem that YouTube is solving is an entertainment issue. Not many people are watching normal TV anymore, and instead would rather go and find content specific to what they are interested in. YouTube helps people find exactly what they want to watch, and the content is all crowdsourced.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to YouTube https://www.youtube.com/
Describe and link to the digital tool. Explain what it does, how it works, and the types of problems it is working to solve.
As a customer of TopCoder, the initial worry that I would have is that with so many different coders working on the same project, my vision for the application would be lost. The competition design of the site alleviates this fear because it will be up to me to decide on the winner of each competition. The only other worry that I would have from TopCoder would be programmers putting in a backdoor in the program or writing code that I wouldn't be able to understand and perform maintenance on. I think TopCoder should hit more on following up on the code after it has been implemented for awhile to allow the client to see if there are any last minute changes that need to be made.
ReplyDelete4. When I think of an information sharing system, Amazon's product review feature comes to mind. I know that many online shoppers use these reviews when making their purchase. They are able to look at the full spectrum of good to bad reviews for a product and able to determine for themselves based on the stories whether or not to make the purchase. This also gives direct feedback to the company about what customers think about their product and changes that they might want to make. Not only does it show the full spectrum, but it also shows which reviews have been deemed most accurate for those who are more looking to make a quick buying decision.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete3. I agree with the idea that project demand will automatically create programmer supply for a couple of reason. First, because technology is ever changing there will be a constant need to update and maintain and software system. Secondly, and thankfully to TopCoder old computer software systems have the ability to be re-used and added to so that there is less time taken than starting from scratch. The only thing that could doubt this concept is if there was a surplus of coders but with the way technology is evolving there is high doubt that could ever happen.
ReplyDelete4. One application that is very helpful is the Couch to 5k phone application. I have not alwaysbeen good at running and recently decided I would like to give it a solid try. I have heard overtime that interval running is a great way to ease into the process. This application does just that and allows you to learn at a pace and eventually able to run consistently for 5k. You are also able to share results on social media sites or add friends to compete and encourage. The only real problem I found is that some people may start at different levels so finding a level that suits one can either be challenging or discouraging. Another plus is you can listen to music on your phone while using the app and breaks will pause music while instructing runner.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/5k-runner-couch-potato-to-5k/id439852091?mt=8
I like topCoder.It gives a lot of confidence to all consumers.I am very glad that i am one of them.Keep it up guys.I really like your vission and i believe you will make it though you have a lot of project.More power!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway.If you could launched DAPP.
Start from December 6th to December 17th Dapp.com will be hosting a competition where players will have the chance to win 20 Heimdall Tickets to Alpha Test Imperial Throne.
#ImperialThrone is a multi-player strategy war game based on the Ethereum. Pre-sale started on December 3d, 2018. All the game’s assets and gameplay are on the public blockchain.
join and follow instructions bellow:
https://www.dapp.com/article/imperial-throne-exclusive-giveaway
Interested owners will be able to purchase Yummy-mix for Ethereum (ETH) using the Casa Tookan digital wallet on mobile, or an app such as Metamask on desktop.
https://www.dapp.com/article/a-table-yummies-pre-sale/
Join here on telegram discussion:
: https://t.co/6PGnrY17eS
I have discovered something the new decentralized technology application that we can use safety apps with a blockchain technology and it's called Dapp.com
ReplyDeletethey can relese some apps games with the a unique categories.
Currently, 60% of the dapps in the market are games. The creation of crypto collectibles, powered by ERC-721 standard, has given opportunities for
users to own and trade unique in-game assets. There is hype around betting dapps in Q3, demonstrating how dapps fulfill users’ eagerness for transparency and fairness.
to see more info about this Dapps just visit Dapp.com and join to their official telegram channel t.me/dapp_com
Thanks for this article.It helps me a lot.I have collected a lot of knowledge here.Im happy to be here as well.
ReplyDeleteAnyway,Are you looking for a very good platform or project where your money is very sure and confident to gather?Well,.i am sure you will like my recommendation about this project after reading my message.Check this out below!!!
Imperial Throne is a multi-player strategy war game based on the Ethereum. Provided by Dapp.com they will have Exclusive Giveaway start from Dec.6th - Dec.17th.
https://bit.ly/2SuEUcP
Dapp.com has also set in a whimsical food world with a group of lovable and tiny creatures called #Yummies.
“Yummie" are cute animals made from food-related items.
http://bit.ly/2UbmTln
Website: Dapp.com
Telegram: t.me/dapp_com