Looking for a programmer..

cormie

Hi,
I'm looking for a programmer for a web and windows (and other OS) based software application. I don't know the first thing about programming so please reply here with any previous experience and your payment expectations so others can voice their opinions of your work because my opinion wouldn't be of any value. The program to me, sounds quite simple and there are programs out there in open source applications that do pretty much the same thing so maybe it would be ok to copy certain aspects of them?

Any feedback would be appreciated:)

Adam

Whats the program?? Did you mean to leave that out?

cormie

Yep, leaving it out for now.

amen

so no indication of the program, what its meant do, the os, target platform, specification etc yet you want people to post their payment expectation and have a peer review by other programmers who don't know them.
are you looking for the cheapest or the best (sounds like the cheapest)
more info please

Mutant_Fruit

Well, considering the lack of information, how could anyone possibly give a payment expectation?

I'd say anywere in the region between €100 and €10,000 would be a safe bet As for past experience, i've written a cross platform Bittorrent library library (still under development but fully functional) a few small - medium sized GUI's and a DC++ file cataloger (which consisted of 2 GUI's, a P2P app and SQLite).

cormie

Sorry, I've never requested such a thing before. Here's a summary of what I want:

I'm looking to get a program made that will be able to cast a live stream over the internet both to a public and to a private audience. What it will be streaming is a section of the desktop (size is chosen by broadcaster) and also the option for the broadcaster to commentate on what is being broadcasted, mainly from a microphone I'm thinking.

Users will just have to download the applet and they will then be able to broadcast their desktop to either a private, password entry audience, or to a live stream via a website. Broadcasters and viewers should also be able to chat vis instant messaging. Viewers should be able to view the broadcast on a webpage and broadcasters should be able to connect to this particular webpage with their broadcast to reach the audience of this particular page.

I wouldn't be surprised if such a program exists already but I can't seem to find one online. If anyone knows of an existing program, please let me know. I know there are streaming programs about which could may be used to aid the development of this.

If you think you are capable of making this application, please reply with a cost estimate, some references to previous projects you have worked on or created and a time estimate for making the above project.

I look forward to any feedback.

Kernel32

www.webex.com is pretty much what you are talking about. There are many other clones of this as well.

cormie

Thanks for the link. That looks a bit too heavy and business orientated for what I'm looking for though. One of the main problems though, is I'd like to be able to offer the program, not send people to another site where they have to pay to use it. Would programming something like in the first post be a simple enough job? When you talk about webex clones, do you know of any in particular?:)

Mutant_Fruit

Thats a *lot* of work... a *lot*. You'd be talking at least 6-8 weeks of work for a fully tested solution. And that's if there are freely availably open source video encoders/decoders and audio encoders/decoders which you can splice into the program. On top of that you'd either have to roll your own IM chat or include another OS library (which may or may not exist) which takes time. Then you need a cross-browser applet which can also display you're video (of which i'd have no experience with at all).

And of course whatever libraries you end up finding and including must be cross platform aswell

Depending on availability of OS libraries with licenses that are compatible to your needs, you're talking anywhere from €1500 - €6000 i'd say.

cormie

Thanks for the input.

€1,500 - €6,000 would hardly be a good wage for a programmer to spend 6-8 months on something though When you say 6-8 months, do you mean a 40 hour week for each of the weeks in these months?

I found a site called www.rentacoder.com, seems pretty good, I put up the request so I just have to wait and see what comes in. It recommended I put a deadline on the project, I said 55 days. I wonder what responses I'll get:)

Mutant_Fruit

Whoops, i meant 6-8 weeks. That's assuming that you can get an OS audio and video encoder with a license that's compatible to your needs. while an IM chat library would be handy, a roll-your-own could be done fast enough. I'm not quite sure what is available out there, it might be case of grabbing a few OS libraries and just needing to write a GUI, in which case the project might take a week or two. But i did look at this kind of thing before and decided that it was far to large an effort.

pH

Not particularly easy :

The screen scraping/audio cap is almost certainly going to have to be done in native code. This will probably limit the source machines to windows (this may not be a problem) You may be able to do it in .net if you were so inclined, but it's going to be a downloaded app.

There is no multicast turned on anywhere on the net. This means that each person viewing needs their own tcp/ip stream of exactly the same content. This doesn't scale well, especially if people(senders) are on asymmetric connections like ADSL. You may well need a server on the net itself, which takes a single stream from a sender and broadcasts it to all the listeners.

For the listening application to be non downloadable (browser based) it's going to need to be an applet (java - completely different code to the sender) or an OCX or Shockwave . The choice you make dramatically influences the skills the developer needs and the technical capabilities/limitations.

Realtime encoding of video is not easy also Streaming needs to be able to drop frames if the client lags behind. Choosing the correct encoding is going to be hard and from then on it's a tradeoff between quality and bandwidth.

One possible option, if you used a video-conferencing application like Skype-video and had a 'virtual' webcam, a piece of software that showed up to skype as a webcam, but in effect broadcast a section of the desktop, would that work?

[EDITED TO ADD]
Something like this :
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/WebCam/WebcamMax-Full.shtml

daymobrew

Would VNC Free Edition help? It does have a webserver (Java) interface to the broadcasting desktop (though no sound). It would be one part of the solution, with IM provided by Yahoo/AIM/MSN (why reinvent the wheel).
In our office we've had conf calls for audio with VNC providing the visuals.
I would search Download.com for existing apps that could be provided as a group to get most of what you want.

cormie wrote:

Users will just have to download the applet and they will then be able to broadcast their desktop to either a private, password entry audience, or to a live stream via a website

Why will the viewers of the broadcast need to be able to broadcast their desktop? (BTW, VNC server will allow this - that's how the original broadcaster will be transmitting).

cormie

Thanks for the above replies everyone, very useful.

6-8 weeks is a lot shorter than I expected really. I wasn't surprised when you said 6-8 months, but 6-8 weeks is great:)

When I said: "Users will just have to download the applet and they will then be able to broadcast their desktop to either a private, password entry audience, or to a live stream via a website" I actually meant to change users to broadcasters Only the broadcasters will be broadcasting, the viewers wont be:cool:

The two programs mentioned above; webcam max and vnc seem to be what I'm looking for, but not exactly what I'm after. Would it be possible to use these two programs to aid the development of the final product that I'm after? I like the idea of doing broadcasting through AIM/MSN etc but I'd still like to be able to have it broadcast off a webpage too. When you mention a dedicated server, is this costly?

I'd imagine there are video and audio and instant message applets available in open source? Could these be pieced together to form one program? I'd also like the audio to broadcast what the actual soundcard is transmitting to the broadcaster, to the viewers too.

Just looking at the VNC features, I see "scaling". This would also be a desired option for the program I want too.

I'd prefer to keep everything in the one program rather than requiring users to download an open multiple programs to get the broadcast. I'd like The Instant Messenger program compatibility to be more of a very nice add on then the way it has to be done.

This is sounding more hopeful than I first thought anyway:)

pH

There are a number of apps that partially get you there:

VNC/PC anywhere/Remote Desktoop were primarily designed to allow users remote control a PC. They can be used in view mode just to watch a desktop but this isn't their primary purpose. They give you the functionality of detecting changes in a desktop/compressing and transmitting, but they have severe security implications if not installed correctly. I'm not sure is viewing just a portion of the desktop is available in them, it may be.

The next problem is publish/subscriber functionality. How are people located, how do you publish your stream, how do others find you, who can view your stream - all these questions that things like skype/aim/msm can contribute to.

Firewalls cause another huge problem, 2 firewalled users cannot communicate directly, and many peer to peer apps implement quite technical workarounds.

On another note I've never used webcammax, I found in in 30 secs using google, there probably are more apps like it.

amen

before you go spending your money are you sure that there is a market for your product?

ressem

Streaming to a server and rebroadcasting to multiple listeners is a whole other ballgame. How many people need to be able to listen and stream to the same server? Will you need to apply limits and priorities on each stream?
Are you looking to purchase servers and locate them within a suitable ISP or just look for an ISP that supports streaming media hosting already.

A microsoft centric approach would be to use Microsoft's windows media encoder SDK to grab the screen section and audio. It would be streamed to a server running windows 2003 server and built in windows media services. This can be used to rebroadcast.

If your rentacoder goes with this method, it should be done a lot faster, but you need to investigate the ongoing costs.

I've only done this sort of thing as a toy, so am not aware of the CAL costs for a real service.
Edit:

Licensing for Windows Media Services is covered by the Windows Server 2003 end-user license agreement (EULA). A separate client access license (CAL) is not required for Windows Media Services. If you are using Windows Media Services to deliver unicast or multicast streams from a server running Windows Server 2003, you are only required to license the server product.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/serve/prodinfo.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

broadcasting a live stream to a windows media server.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmencode/htm/broadcastingalivestreamusingthepredefineduicsh.asp

Turning an area of the screen into a video source
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmencode/htm/workingwithsourcesandsourcegroups.asp

stevenmu

Have you looked into Microsoft NetMeeting (if it's still around). Should handle everything you want, and may already be installed on a lot of machines.

professore

cormie wrote:

Thanks for the above replies everyone, very useful.

6-8 weeks is a lot shorter than I expected really. I wasn't surprised when you said 6-8 months, but 6-8 weeks is great:)

When I said: "Users will just have to download the applet and they will then be able to broadcast their desktop to either a private, password entry audience, or to a live stream via a website" I actually meant to change users to broadcasters Only the broadcasters will be broadcasting, the viewers wont be:cool:

The two programs mentioned above; webcam max and vnc seem to be what I'm looking for, but not exactly what I'm after. Would it be possible to use these two programs to aid the development of the final product that I'm after? I like the idea of doing broadcasting through AIM/MSN etc but I'd still like to be able to have it broadcast off a webpage too. When you mention a dedicated server, is this costly?

I'd imagine there are video and audio and instant message applets available in open source? Could these be pieced together to form one program? I'd also like the audio to broadcast what the actual soundcard is transmitting to the broadcaster, to the viewers too.

Just looking at the VNC features, I see "scaling". This would also be a desired option for the program I want too.

I'd prefer to keep everything in the one program rather than requiring users to download an open multiple programs to get the broadcast. I'd like The Instant Messenger program compatibility to be more of a very nice add on then the way it has to be done.

This is sounding more hopeful than I first thought anyway:)

Speaking as someone who has 12 years programming experience with the last 5 of those working for myself, so if I get timescales wrong I don't eat, I would say 6-8 weeks is wildly optimistic for this, unless you can use lots of existing components & libraries that do exactly what you want (which is almost never the case). As a wild guess (since I only have a brief outline) I would say 3 months (60 days) minimum for an experienced programmer in this area. You need documentation, bugfixing and testing and more bugfixing.

Another thing is you need a detailed spec - this will take at least 1 - 2 days to complete - only then can you give an estimate. You wouldn't build a house with no plans now would you - and a house is easy compared to developing new software.

As with all software, if you have customers queueing up for this with lots of money then go for it - otherwise it's a money pit.

As for open source - in a lot of cases (i.e. GPL license) you HAVE to give away the code to others - thus making the idea very easy to copy.

Good Luck!

BTW check these guys out - they may be able to help you www.sharedvisions.ie

lphchild

this crowd are good: http://www.interwise.com Can be rebranded etc. have worked with them previously

ressem

Netmeeting is included in XP, just not displayed. Type "conf" into the run dialog.
Not meant to be in vista though.

Draupnir

6-8 weeks development for one person? Fully tested in that time too?

Mutant Fruit, you are having a laugh, a serious laugh.

Minimum 60 days development to get this working if its one developer on his own in my opinion. Testing could be constant because these types of applications are not scalable at all usually.

secret_squirrel

How do you expect to recoup the 5 figure sum to do this? If its under 10,000 I would fall off my chair tbh?

What the unique selling point your program/service is going to have above other similar solutions like webex?

How is it going to handle firewalls and all the rest of the guff that gets in the way of a connection?

How is it going to scale?

How much have you budgeted for the hardware to run it on?

If you think you can replicate something as professional as even the poorest OSS product that does something similar you are talking 10's of thousands.

Things to consider :

1. Dont be naive about how much it will cost you to develop.
2. Whose going to write the functional spec (eg how you want it to work?)
3. Whose going to write the technical design (how its to be coded and structured).

Without out 2 and 3 put together by a competent business analyst or similar you are going to be screwed by a 'rentacoder' either because they are out for a good pile of cash, or simply because you cant communicate your requirements clearly enough for them*

*Most IT projects go bad because of this.

And you will be doing all this just to replicate 95% of the functionality that is already out there in commerical and OSS products.

Why fgs? why??

Forgive my harshness but I dont think you have a clue what you're getting into - and I dont mean that in a bad way.

Mutant_Fruit

Draupnir wrote:

6-8 weeks development for one person? Fully tested in that time too?

Mutant Fruit, you are having a laugh, a serious laugh.

Minimum 60 days development to get this working if its one developer on his own in my opinion. Testing could be constant because these types of applications are not scalable at all usually.

minimum of 6-8 weeks of development assuming you already have a preexisting video and audio capturing/encoding layer which requires little to no modification and has a compatible license (odds of that are slim). I didn't factor in any time for the browser based video display thingy as i have no experience whatsoever with that kind of thing. It's quite possible there is an OS applet that you can plug straight in, then again, maybe not. Something like VideoEgg might be insertable with little to no effort (but probably incurs licensing fees, but they do seem to offer that service).

If you need to roll your own video solution and audio solution, you'll need to treble the time (if not more). Especially if you want a cross-platform solution.

cormie

Thanks for the above replies. Some points to be considered alright.

Would something like this be hard to replicate and build around the way I want it?:

http://www.adobe.com/products/breeze/

Smoggy

There appears to be an SDK , which is always a good start

"Adobe Acrobat Connect Collaboration Builder SDK
To develop applications for use with Acrobat Connect Professional, you must install the Collaboration Builder MXP plugin for Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8. The Collaboration Builder SDK system requirements are the same as the requirements for Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8. Collaboration Builder applications should be compiled for Flash Player 7 and ActionScript 2.0."

"Customize and extend the functionality of personal meeting rooms with the Collaboration Builder Software Development Kit (SDK) "

secret_squirrel

Have you budgeted for these prices?

https://service.breezecentral.com/cfusion/bots/purchase/index.cfm

On that subject what kind of budget do you have to spend?

We talking bank loan/savings or serious VC money?

You need to make sure your ideas and ambitions are workable within the resources you have to hand.

{edit} If your budget is very limited then you have to pare the functionality you are looking for down to the very basics that will still provide a workable product or service. You can always add functionality later when your idea starts making you money. (assuming making you money is part of the aims)

cormie

Yea them prices for Adobe are crazy alright. But my post above was not asking to use adobe as the product, but to basically copy it and tweak it to the way I want so I can distribute it myself

secret_squirrel

cormie wrote:

Yea them prices for Adobe are crazy alright. But my post above was not asking to use adobe as the product, but to basically copy it and tweak it to the way I want so I can distribute it myself

But do you not get it?

Look at the prices Webex and Abobe charge.

At the very least they believe they are charging what the market will bear, plus no doubt trying to generate a significant revenue stream to keep improving their product.

Does that not tell you that what you're looking for is going to be incredibly difficult (ie expensive) to do well?

Im sorry to be harsh but unless you can find an OSS project that already does 99.9% of what you want it to do - you are living in a dream world with regards to thinking a single programmer can replicate something like that.

Forgive my bluntness but Im trying to stop you píssing money up the wall on this idea. IMO its just not practical.

cormie

I plan to take a different approach with my product though. That is all I can say.

I was wondering, with the likes of breeze by adobe, and the other programs to go by, can codes be replicated to be worked into my own product to make the build easier, quicker and cheaper or would the whole thing have to be worked from scratch and only open source products be available to use? I have been quoted $430 for the job on rentacoder, which seems very cheap I know. What is the average pay in Pakistan per month does anyone know? With an international user base like rent a coder I could be getting cheaper quotes as the cost of living in other places wont be as high, meaning they can give a cheaper quote. $430 does sound a bit dodgey though.:o

Mutant_Fruit

I was wondering, with the likes of breeze by adobe, and the other programs to go by, can codes be replicated to be worked into my own product to make the build easier, quicker and cheaper or would the whole thing have to be worked from scratch and only open source products be available to use?

Thats pretty much it, except a little more complicated. If you want to make money from your application your choice from open souce components is limited to ones with a license that allows you to do that. If you use a GPL'ed component, you must release your sourcecode (which makes it hard to make people pay for your product since they could just compile it themselves :P)

Basically, you have to be very careful that you have full knowledge of where all the code comes from when you are getting someone to write your application. If someone starts ripping parts from VNC, then you will (sooner or later) end up in a situation where you either release your source code or get sued.

To be perfectly honest, anyone who quotes less than €1000 for the job is dodgy. 6-8 weeks would be (what i consider) the bare minimum to get this job anywhere near complete. I don't believe there are sufficient open source componants available to let you finish in that timeframe either.

EDIT: Where is your rent-a-coder listing?

HelterSkelter

cormie wrote:

...The program to me, sounds quite simple...

Ha ha ha, that's what the difficult customers always say where I work! Avoid this man like the plague!!

pH

On the reuse, yes there's plenty of code available to get you going, but a lot of it is under a GPL style license. If you want to use it, you must make your new code available as well. However reusing GPL'd code at a binary level is normally acceptable, and there is plenty of BSD style 'free to do anything with' code out there also.

Yes there are cheap coders available in eastern Europe and India/Pakistan among others. Take any quote with a pinch of salt until you have produced a reasonably detailed functional spec for your software. This should describe (in detail) what the software does (not how it does it).

As soon as you get into a rentacoder situation you're in an adversarial relationship from day 1 (if it's a fixed price). His only concern is maximising his profit. Your money is in escrow, and all he has to do is do enough to convince the escrow judge that he's fulfilled your spec - you don't get final acceptance. He (AND HE IS RIGHT TO DO SO) will take the narrowest implementation of your functional spec that he possibly can. Say he produces something that requires 256Kb to transmit - unless you have a specific point in your spec then that's acceptable. And that is only one tiny example of exactly what needs to be tied down.

Also you've got to think of maintenance and changes. Software always evolves - when it's written and people are using it you get new ideas, see problems and get change requests from users.

You need to understand if you're entering into a long-term relationship with the coder, if not what tools/toolkits he used, how he commented, tested and documented all become hugely important if you will want to hand the codebase to other people for ongoing changes.

I've worked on big projects that outsource large chunks of coding to big Indian players and communication of requirements was always a huge problem.

This needs so much more work before you could accept a bid
http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/misc/BidRequests/ShowBidRequest.asp?lngBidRequestId=542569

secret_squirrel

Unless either the product has some sort of free Licensing (like some but not all Open Source software), or has an SDK (software development kit) or API kit) or has a licensing scheme for uses in other products, you cant use somebody elses code.

So for example you cant cut chunks out of breeze and use unless Adobe say you can.

If you are determined to do this (I think you are mad btw) do the following:

Talk to someone trustworth and knowledgable (not your mates unless they know the software area) about your idea, ask them to critique it. Take their comments on board.

I can understand you are protective of your idea but you will have to let go at some point.

Write a business plan setting out objectives, costs and revenues.

Write a high level specification of what you want your program to do.

Line up 3 rentacoder quotes based on the Spec. (Make them sign Non disclosure agreements if you can)

Ask for examples of previous work (and preferably the source code). Possibly get them peer reviewed by a programmer you know.

Agree a Contract with Payments based on milestones - eg the delivery of certain functionality - not on days worked.

Make arrangements for scope creep - which is one of the banes of every software project.


EDIT : spent so long typing this that Fruit and pH beat me to it. I agree with all their points as well.

Mutant_Fruit

This program should create a "live" video stream of a section of the desktop with audio that can be viewed by numerous users over the internet via a web page.

That's nowhere near detailed enough. You'd need to be able to control the bitrate of the stream. You need security/access control so you can limit who sees what stream. You need it to be cross platform (i believe), which HUGELY affects what you can use.

Cancel that listing and write up a much more detailed overview of *everything* you need to be done. Then post it here (or private PM to someone) and let them review it and help your clarify the document. You need to literally spell out each and every function you want your program to be able to do.

It'd be relatively trivial to complete a program that does what you stated in the rentacoder listing. Of course, the trivial program would be windows only and would work by emulating the "printscreen" key, reading the screenshot from the clipboard and then sending that image 30 times per second to a website. That'll probably need > 512kbps upload though. Then i could use ajax to get a webpage to update itself with each new image. E.T.A: 2 weeks including full documentation, commenting and testing. Does it do what you want, no. But does it fulfill your requirements, yes.

secret_squirrel

What he said ^^^^^^^

cormie

Some great advice everyone, thanks a mill.

I have what I think is a great idea and has the potential to become very popular in the online world. I've been an internet user for 10 years and I do believe based on what has worked and what hasn't worked, that this will work. I know exactly how I want it to work and what users can and can not do.

The problem is, I have no programming knowledge at all and I don't know about different license complications or any of that. Another problem is I don't have the money to make a big investment.

So what can I do? What do I need to do from here?

This is what I would think:

Step 1: Write a detailed description of what the program will actually do, the ins and outs, exactly how I want it to work, diagrams, drawings, sketches, everything that I can possibly do with my knowledge as an internet user.

now what steps I should take after that I don't really know. I'll need a programmer to tell me what it will involve, how much it will cost, how long it will take. I need funding. I need my idea safe and secure so it will not be robbed.

What order I should do the above in, I don't really know. Once all of that is done, I'll need a programmer I can trust to build it, then it will be complete and will need to be marketted.

I will need to talk to people who will not steal my idea, I will need to avoid people who will.

originally posted by HelterSkelter
Ha ha ha, that's what the difficult customers always say where I work! Avoid this man like the plague!!

If your business specialises in a certain field, especially something like programming, your client base will, in most cases be people who don't know the first thing about programming. The client should always have some kind of opinion on the matter, if it's wrong, it's up to you to let them know. I came here looking for advice. I haven't disputed any of the advice given as I know nothing about it myself. I had a first opinion which has changed thanks to the helpful replies of those I'd be far more likely to start a business relationship with than somebody who wants to avoid me like the plague.

pH

You have a number of options for moving forward:

• Raise capital, and buy a coder. Convince people (with money) you've got a good idea, get them to invest some money and use this to pay a coder or company to build your idea. Bounce the idea off business people you trust, promise them a nice return and maybe some SSIA money will come your way.
  
• Try to do a deferred payment to the coder, if the job costs X, pay them 1/2X with the promise that if it takes off then there'll be a huge bonus (5X?). This lets you into the market at a reduced cost, and incentives the developer to be on your side. His/her success is tied to your success.
  
• Enter a partnership (in company terms) with someone with the technical skills to build it.

Just to add, it's very easy to be cynical of those with brilliant ideas (but don't have the skills or the cash to implement them).

HelterSkelter's comment reflects a very typical experience a lot of software people have on projects, people (users) who admit they know nothing about software development but still have strong opinions on how difficult the job is and how long it should take.

cormie

More good ideas thanks.

One question I haven't asked yet...

What is the most this could cost? To get a program that works great, exactly the way I want it, that I will own all the rights to and wont have to share the source with anyone?

secret_squirrel

How long is a piece of string?

In most cases its not a case of how much it costs, but when to stop money being thrown at it. Its perfectly possible for even a minor project to grow to a scale where it can swallow 10's of thousands without blinking.

As the project principle one of your duties would be to decide the point at which the plug should be pulled if it all goes wrong.

Thats what worries me most about a site like Rentacoder. Get an unethical programmer living on the other side of the world (or atleast in an unreachable location) and they could easily milk more and more cash from an inexperienced project principle. - Of course there are plenty of Major IT consultancies (we all know who they are) that will quite happily milk the cash cow until it is dried up and dead.

The HSE systems and other Government computer projects would be good examples of bottomless money pits.

TempestSabre

What you have here is a business idea. Outsource the software development, its not a one man job, and you nothing about it. You need to look into what it take to get a product to market and start up a business. If the business plan makes financial sense, and a bank manager or similar agrees with you, then its worth pursuing.

What you are suggesting sounds like the usual elearning, desktop mentoring, remote working, tele conferencing platforms that have been tried many times and that really haven't taken off. Over the years I've been in a few companies that have tried to do something along those lines and I've never seen it be a major success, but it consumes resources like you wouldn't believe. Still you might be bringing a new twist to it, who knows.

What I'd suggest is if you can get a business plan that makes sense, and where you've worked out the numbers. Only then get a proof of concept protoype built that you can take to the bank and raise the funds that you'd surely need.

cormie

"proof of concept prototype built"

How useful would tihs prototype have to be? It wont work the way I want it to until the thing is fully built.

I believe my idea will have a good enough edge to make this a great success if done properly.



Would anyone have a ballpoint figure of the max it could cost if it all went according to plan and I got a reliable coder, or coding company? Just taking into consideration of the time required to build the product and the average price for this time a coder is likely to charge?


Also, are there any coders here who would be interested in taking on this job? Any idea of a price figure or is it far too early to suggest?

TempestSabre

I have no idea, you're asking "How long is a piece of string?". An application might take a few hours and cost nothing, or take a year of two and cost hundreds of thousands or even millions. Who knows where your "idea" fits in that. You either need a company that specialises in building web streaming applications or just a talented student or graduate. I'd guess your looking at a couple of months, and 2-10k depending on who you get to do it. Ryan Air used a couple of students to get started on their website.

amen

Ryan Air used a couple of students to get started on their website

maybe to do their first static webpages but their online reservation system
Don't belive everying Michael O'Leary tells you.
The Ryan Air website is extremely good at what it does and costed millions with teams of programmers not just a few students.

TempestSabre

Thats why I said get started. Rome wasn't built in a day