Blog: Microsoft Imagine Cup Boot Camp 2009

Last Saturday on 24th October, we went to Microsoft’s imagine cup Boot Camp! Not really a stay over camp, it’s more of a talk where they share with us Windows 7, Silverlight, Imagine cup and Augmented Reality. The trip was an eye opener for us, and we learned a few lessons about technopreneurship.

Firstly let’s talk about Windows 7, which many called it what Windows Vista should have been. Many have been frustrated over Windows Vista,and I am one of them. When I purchased my Macbook, I was on the verge of giving up hope on Microsoft, so I attended the boot camp to see whether I should just hop over to the MacWorld.

After the boot camp, I regained hope and now I’m stuck. I am a Mac yet a PC. I love Mac OS snow leopard and Windows 7. I love Mac’s spaces and exposé and Windows’s jump list and task bar. Hmmm, so now I’m a Mac + Microsoft which makes me a MACROSOFT!

Microsoft also showed us some technology that is coming to us soon. It is augmented reality which I find really cool and wanted to get my paws on the developer’s program. It’s basically using a camera which will detect a piece of card and it turns into a 3D hologram on the computer screen. Here a link on how it looks like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKw_Mp5YkaE .

Silverlight is another technology that I fancy after looking at the demo and the capabilities of Silverlight like Out-of browser, deep zoom, etc. I’m totally amazed by how much more interactive and convenient it will make a website to become. Click here for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ . Once you see it you will be amazed too!

Those are just some information that Microsoft fed us. The main purpose of the boot camp was to introduce and prepare the participant for Imagine Cup ’10. Imagine cup is a yearly international competition organized by Microsoft which started from 2003 till to date. This coming competition revolves around the United Nations 8 millennium goal.

Well you may ask what Microsoft Imagine Cup has got to do with our TIP project as we are doing iPhone application. Well it may not have a direct connection but indirectly Imagine Cup and TIP is similar in their nature. Here’s the website if you are interested in joining or knowing more about it: http://imaginecup.com/

TIP is about being a technopreneur working on an IT project; similarly imagine cup too is being a technopreneur working on an IT project. Through the talk, I became much more motivated and now have a clearer picture of what I am going to do.

The lesson we learn generally applies to our technopreneurship or any entrepreneurship. There are 3 things that we need to do, so in my own terms I named it as:

1. See

2. Know

3. Do

To see is to have a vision of what is the thing that you want. Is it that you want a solution that will help reduce 50% of the world’s pollution? The vision must be clear not a vague vision, so that you work towards it. Just like simple-ology’s Law of Clear Vision, you must be very clear of what you want.

Next is to know, which in the talk they called it preparation. To know is to get your hands dirty by researching, asking, surveying or anything that will help you get necessary information. Why do you need to do this? It is so that you know what you are doing and can make necessary moves. If you do not know anything about health care and you want to help in creating AIDS vaccine, well you’ll most likely killing the AIDS victims instead. So doing your homework is very important.

Illias and I have been doing our homework before we embark on our journey. We had been researching on the iPhone application market, created a business plan, and now we are drafting a marketing plan and proof of concept too. Well there’s so much work to do in becoming a technopreneur!

Lastly, is to do. This is what I know as the toughest part, but once you are able to pull it through you'll be successful. On Earth everyone will have their own ingenious and great ideas but no steps are taken bring that idea out to life. An idea is an idea,and if it is not brought to life, even the greatest idea is just a wasted idea. TIP is a platform for Illias and me to bring out our ideas to life, well it may not be the biggest or greatest idea but we have taken the very first step. In the future we know that if we have another idea, we can easily bring it to life for we have done it before.

After the talk we wander aimlessly and ended up in Chinatown where we have teh tarik and then Tanjong Pagar where we made our episode 7.

Well that’s all I’m going to talk about the trip and just some updates, we are going to another field trip to Gardenasia!