Is there a coding competition in Nigeria?

We are thinking of hosting one. What do you guys think? Do we have enough talent to make it worthwhile?

Niyi
http://www.geeplaces.com

yea, something like a topcoder.com for nigerians will be cool, na just sponsorship be d problem,
and ur site is cool, did u do it with flex ??

I think that's a great idea! I know a couple of guys who'd love to do that, About sponsorship - if we could build/encourage traffic which show serious potentials ( or by projecting what we hope to get within the next say 3months and how we hope to get it), i think finding a sponsor won't be so difficult, I think.

yea, something like a topcoder.com for nigerians will be cool,  na just sponsorship be d problem,

I wonder how much it costs to sponsor such a competition. You don't need that much to advertise cus viral marketing will spread the message amongs the programming community. The next thing is location and prize money. How much do you think is appropriate for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions?

and your site is cool,  did u do it with flex ??

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, we did it with Flex. Do you use it as well?

Niyi
http://www.geeplaces.com

for topcoder, a lot of companies hold compititions, like google, IBM, AOL e.t.c as for location, top coder holds their contests online, then d finals are onsite, and i think 1st , 2nd and 3rd positions can be like 100, 50 and 25k (naira o! )
i wont mind to compete in an MTN Code Jam , or Zenith Code Battle

DJNiyi:


Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, we did it with Flex. Do you use it as well?

yea, i use flex, have u seen http://www.asfusion.com/apps/homelocator/, u could get some concepts for ur geeplaces ,

yea, i use flex, have u seen http://www.asfusion.com/apps/homelocator/, u could get some concepts for your geeplaces ,

Nice site. Is it yours? If so, have u guys launched it and how do u get your feeds?

no o! that homelocator is not mine, it was d app that one the flex derby competition 06,

how far wit ur coding competition ? ?

The coding competition is still on the drawing board. I'll prefer an online format like topcoder.com. It'll allow all software developers accross the country to participate.

However one thing I've noticed is that there isn't a lot of focus on algorithms anymore. I'm not sure if it is a Naija thing or a general worldwide trend. When I was in Uni (quite a while back), we implemented variants of BTree, merge sort, heap sort, multiprocessor cache coherence protocols etc etc etc but nowadays everyone seems to speak one language - PHP, EJB, or e-commerce shopping cart.

That's why I was wondering whether we can actually get enough people to participate in a meaningful competition.

A coding competition will definitely be embraced by most programmers. However, I feel it should be planned in such a way that it will accommodate most of the world's widely used object oriented programming languages.

Industry Stake holders should also be made to participate in the event. It should not just be for a 'paltry price', but serve as an avenue to discovering talents that will change the face of the software development sector in Nigeria.

I would also like to use this medium to ask all stake holders, programmers and investors alike, to desist from the use of pirated softwares.

The greatest challenge the software development sector in Nigeria, is facing is software piracy. Yes! most of the acclaimed software industries in Nigeria are using pirated softwares.

If you steal another persons work, somebody will steal yours too.

UCARD
(a technology evolving from Nigeria)

Well said dude.

I've got to say - u write as if you've got some personal experience (or have been at the receiving end) of software piracy in Nigeria. Do you want to share your experience?

Perhaps, we could name and shame some of these errant companies. However, please let's be factual.

How factual can one be.

If you name any company, the first thing it does is to remove the software from it systems, possibly reformat or discard all the hard disk. The next step is to file a case against you for character defamation.

What prove have you got? You lose the case and pay dearly for it. On the other hand, a prove is otigba. Pirated software are sold in the open. The police, Government, you and I see it. People patronize them heavily and they call it business.

I almost went mad when somone informed me over the phone that my eLibrary software is being sold at otigba for #150.00.

What can I do.

Okay, I think we have two issues here.

1. Application Piracy

2. Source Code Plagiarism

I thought you were referring to the (2). For me, that is the more serious issue because it is hard to stop and much harder to detect. I think it is the most unethical thing any person calling themself a software developer can do. I once had a guy come to meet me from a bank (that prides itself as the first one in the country) and this guy tried to sell me "SMS application code" that the bank was using because as he claimed "he had written it". I had already sussed the guy out and I knew he didn't write the code. He just wanted to sell it. Needless to say, I politely led him out of my office. I don't even know why he came to meet me cus I didn't even need any SMS code at that time and if i need it, i'll write it.

Regarding application piracy, I think by now, we all have a choice as to whether to continue writing thick client desktop apps, that are installed via CD. Even if you require online registration of thick client software, the code can be easily disassembled and the blocks that do the license checks can be bypassed. I personally think we should move most of our important code online and the client side should only load code from the server on demand (of course after the user has authenticated himself with an online database). That way, it becomes far harder to reconstruct a working thick client that bypasses authentication.