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Fishing for Ideas
FyreWyr writes "Whether Microsoft is searching for new ideas, or supporting inventors outright is up for grabs, but they're stabbing at it with $300,000 for 12 spanking ideas (that's $25k each). But as with everything Microsoft, the devil's in the details, or rather, the fine print. At first, you'd swear it was "Brought to you by VISA" - the logo is ubiquitous - but the very last statement in the contest rules reads: "The sponsor...is Microsoft ... VISA...have not sponsored or offered this contest in any way". They also retain a spectrum of rights, and responsibily suggest that you go out and patent really good ideas first. Okay, how much does that cost again? (see end of this article)."
At least MS is honest and tells you to go and patent your idea, or they'll steal it from you. An honest thief, one could say... ;)
How about security for Microsoft? Now there is an idea.
http://www.maximum-cars.com - My little hobbie.
Step 1: Give idea to Microsoft.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
Software with frickin' laser beams on its head
Write decent software!
I think MS is being quite clever here (can't believe I just wrote that). The way I'm seeing it is that they are basically doing product development on 12 new products for $300,000. If you actually look at the amount of time/development that goes on in big coporation you will find that 90% of the things reasearched never come to fruition. Going from what MS is offering is that if they can just get one of these ideas of the ground then they might have a killer product for very little investment.
As for the rules well that is another discussion totally
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
'offer expires 1983'
By entering, each entrant forfeits to Sponsor all rights to content of his/her entry (including the essay) and the concepts embodied therein. Entrant unconditionally assigns and transfers to Sponsor all rights, title, interest and claim, which it now has or may in the future have to the entries or any element(s) thereafter including, without limitation, the copyright therein. Sponsor shall have right to use, alter, assign or dispose of such entries however it sees fit without approval of entrants. Permission is also granted for Sponsor to publish entry in perpetuity in any medium it may see fit including, but not limited to, website, television, radio and/or printed materials. Entrants shall not receive any compensation or credit for use of entries, other than that disclosed in these rules. Entrants agree to be bound by the terms of these Official Rules.
The idea must be new and unpublished, but at the same time, all your rights are belong to Microsoft. So, even if you own a patent or trademark on it, by entering, you are:
What a concept! Win by losing! That's the Microsoft way!
"Eustace? Eustace? Are you there? Are you there?" = John Leeming
Most of the people are going looking to win the money to do something with it. Mostly it falls into two categories.
:P Unless they put Windows computers in the library and bring the kiddies and people up using their software of course!
1. Help myself
2. Help others
Not sure how MS is going to make more money by building libraries in Ghana.
Microsoft finally ran out of things to steal from Xerox Parc and Apple!
From what I can tell from the entries so far the competition isn't for technical ideas. It is mostly social ideas, like starting a school program or helping out in a third world country. I would not expect to see their target audience submit an idea for developing a new video compression technique.
I personally would not bash Microsoft or Visa for this one. The aim is promote MSN and Visa, not a way to get ideas for free. Besides, I highly doubt Microsoft would be able to patent a method for paying off Grandma's medical bills.
The sponsor...is Microsoft ... VISA...have not sponsored or offered this contest in any way
Not only that, it also states: "Puerto Rico... to... become the property of Microsoft Corporation"
I thought Microsoft was the source of all good ideas and they needed to protect their "Freedom to Innovate" from the wrath of the DOJ?
$300,000 for 12 spanking ideas
.NET Enterprise Servers
I suggest the following list all be spanked. I'll take the $300,000 thank you very much. (I know there are more than 12, just consider the rest freebies.) Actually, I think that a few of them be sent to bed without supper too, like Gates, Ballmer, Allchin, and Mundie.
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer
Jim Allchin, Group Vice President, Platforms
Orlando Ayala, Group Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Marketing & Services
Robbie Bach, Senior Vice President, Home & Entertainment Division/Chief Xbox Officer
Doug Burgum, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions
David Cole, Senior Vice President, MSN and Personal Services Group
John Connors, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Jean-Phillipe Courtois, President, Microsoft Europe, Middle East, & Africa; Senior Vice President
Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice President, TV Division
Rick Devenuti, Corporate Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Operations and Technology Group
Ken DiPietro, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources
Richard Emerson, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Strategy
Paul Flessner, Senior Vice President,
Bob Herbold, Executive Vice President
Kevin Johnson, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Americas
Pieter Knook, Corporate Vice President, Network Service Providers and Mobile Devices
Mich Mathews, Corporate Vice President, Marketing Division
Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, MSN Personal Services Business Group
Bob Muglia, Group Vice President, Enterprise Storage Division
Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, Advanced Strategies and Policy
Jeff Raikes, Group Vice President, Productivity and Business Services
Rick Rashid, Senior Vice President, Research
Eric Rudder, Senior Vice President, Developer and Platform Evangelism
Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Office
Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Law and Corporate Affairs
Brian Valentine, Senior Vice President, Windows Division
David Vaskevitch, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, Business Platform
Hank Vigil, Corporate Vice President, Consumer Strategy and Partnerships
This happens in other arenas, in particular book rights and movies.
Richard Bach spent a lot of time and money buying the rights of his first couple books back from his publisher, but as I understand it he wouldn't have been able to publish those books without having given the rights away in the first place. Not that he did profit from the books even though he didn't own them.
I want to say the same happens in the movie industry, but I'm not sure.
The only real difference is that people will always want to know who wrote a book or movie, and don't really care about the individual behind research.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
I'm 32, which is too old to have an idea. Apparently ideas come from 18-29 year olds...
It seems a far cry from the days of Q-DOS in 1981 when Gates and Co were trying to sell an operating system they didn't technically own at the time to IBM. They were a much more nimble company in those days and had plenty of ideas and developments to go scour and steal. Lately, however, the Standard Oil of the Computer industry is encounrtering the same problems as its turn-of-the-previous century counterpart: government is on its back, the "innovation" that got it where it is seems to have disappeared (Rockefeller consolidating oil pipelines and refineries together), and the public at large is disgruntled but left with few alternatives.
Microsoft is not run by idiots. They realize that if they are to compete against systems like Linux they need to innovate before Linux develops a truly AOL level interface that even Joe Schmoe can use...for free. Bad press and a worse reputation have finally gotten their attention, so their asking for ideas to investigate. It would seem that their age range (based on the prize offered) is 16-25, just the right age when people are thinking way outside the box and are not limited by knowledge of what should not be possible. These (maverick?) thinkers tend to give the most innovative ideas but also the ones that need the most work to come to fruition. If Microsoft can cull this source of innovation while reaping the profits from it, they could set themselves up as a potential warehouse for new tech ideas. A wiser plan would have been to offer 5-10% of all profits made from the idea in addition to the $25k since that would get more cynical programmers and worldly people interested, but the young and nieve seem to be the most easily exploited by definition. I have to wonder if this is not a sign of desperation by the Microsoft management though since they did drag in these same sorts of innovative thinkers by the truckload even 3 years ago. Even now they tend to snap up the best of the best offered by MIT and other major tech schools, but why would they need this sort of competition when they already have the best minds? Do those folks just have really good grades but an inability to think outside the box? Again, I have to wonder if this is not desperation for truly radical ideas as much as a desire to see what talent is out there.
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
A successor to SMTP, that would require validation of senders and not just act as a spam hub.... o.. wait.. nevermind...
Sure wish ISPs would use it...
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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
Don't get me wrong
I went to the site, wasted a bunch of time there, and got to the instructions/post an idea page, where they gleefully informed me that those over 29 years old need not apply. Oh, really? Well, fuck them too.
I'll keep my ideas to myself, thanks.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Here's my submission:
Wait for someone to have a great idea, then steal it.
Oh, wait, they already do that.
I submitted this idea... unfortunately it has to get past screeners before it goes public, but I thought I'd circumvent the process and post it here...
Idea #7141
Title - Exploting Creative Talent
Keywords - exploitation evil empire conniving deceitful
Essay - I propose to set up a contest to exploit the ideas of America's most creative college students by setting up a contest that seems to be supporting creativity and innovation. I will offer these students a sum of money that may be sizable to them but in the real world is chump change. I will get them to submit their ideas and in doing so yield all intellectual property rights to me. Then I can use their ideas to make myself multiple millions of dollars. And I'll make sure to bury this fact in contest rules so that it's not inherently obvious. It's a great idea because it saves me the expenses of actual research and development, despite its deceitful and conniving nature. It is the beginning of my evil empire.
What do you think. Do I deserve to win $25 g's?
-jag
http://starboard.flowtheory.net/