My Dream App (Updated)
Monday, October 02, 2006 — 23:56
The My Dream App contest is, for want of a better word, interesting. It gives users an even bigger voice, which is always (well, almost always) good. However, I’m a little concerned about this scenario: 10 years down the road, someone develops an application that just so happens to be a replica of one of the ideas listed in the My Dream App Forums without knowing it. Then the person who posted that idea sues the developer and uses the forum post as proof.
However, that’s not what this post is about. For My Dream App, they got some pretty big name judges; most notably Steve Wozniak, but also Ken Case (The Omni Group), Scott McNulty (TUAW), Merlin Mann (43 Folders), Brent Simmons (NetNewsWire), Cabel Sasser (Panic), and Allan Odgaard (TextMate), just to name a few (and that’s only the first two rounds).
However, despite all the big name judges, all they really do is comment on the application proposals. Shouldn’t these judges be doing something more tangible than simply telling us what they’re thinking? If it were me, I would split the voting in some way. Maybe have the judge’s decisions count for half and the user’s count for half. Maybe the judges decide every other round. Maybe the judges and the users both get to eliminate 3 every round. Something.
Just my $0.02.
Update: Wow. Now I feel stupid. I only looked at the judges commenting on one of the posts. Turns out there are many more big name people involved. To name one, John Gruber of Daring Fireball. None of this changes my main point, though.