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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectwhat is syl labeye?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12666288&mesg_id=12666306
12666306, what is syl labeye?
Posted by poetx, Wed Dec-03-14 05:12 PM
my son, cameron (cj2 to those who been following from waaay back), is a sophomore at ECU (East Carolina University). at the beginning of last semester, he and a friend, mikal, were talking about school, and its difficulties, and what could make it easier. as it turns out, both of them had had an idea about taking a picture of a whiteboard or syllabus with the course deadlines and assignments and due dates laid out on it, and having an app automatically extract that info and pull it into a calendar, allow them to set reminders, etc.

cam is urban planning, mike is comp sci (senior).

they thought on it, built on it, sketched it out and discussed with a few other kids and determined that this would be a great thing if it existed.

they searched and could find nothing of the sort on the market (android, apple, etc).

they figured out that it was because it was a very daunting technical challenge. syllabi come in many many varied formats and fonts. and devices have many different hardware specs and resolutions. this was beyond novice or hobbyist developers' ability to pull off.

that's about where i'd have said, 'oh well', but cameron started calling around to find about third party developers and got one in eastern europe who has done really great work for many fortune 500 companies. he had them sign a non disclosure agreement, they concluded that the idea was worthwhile, had technical merit, and was doable.

somehow the act of pricing it out involved them signing a $30,000 development contract with this company.

still smh at that. since then (around last march/april), they have been running around trying to get funding through traditional means, untraditional, etc., and trying to advance the project.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad