Venture Concept No. 1

Quantem Web Browser

The Qquantem Web Browser would be much like the standard web browsers currently out there, but its primary goal is to be the fastest and most optimized web browser on the market. This means that there won't be quite as many options to users as, perhaps, Mozilla's Firefox of Google's Chrome – the two most popular web browsers today. However, it would include almost all the features that these major browsers have; these would include bookmarks, cookies, HTML/CSS and javascript interpretation (displaying text and images and allowing the user to interact with the web browser), download any file, maintain a history, have various settings that allow one to configure the font, limiting the amount of cache and other web configuration settings. The main difference is that this web browser would allow blobs that developers would be able to put in web sites. The blobs would allow the developer(s) of the web sites to add programming blobs using the programming language C++. There would probably be a security risk that comes along with these blobs, but if this is able to be monitored in some way, then this would allow for an entirely new market. These blobs would effectively allow web site developers to use code snippets to make their website super fast and do things that web browsers had not been able to do before. The web browser would also feature add-ons similar to Firefox, though this would probably not be available in the first release. The Quantem Web Browser would be released as open source software so as to draw from the brightest minds.

 Opportunity:

The opportunity for this web browser stems from its speed and the C++ blobs. While the Quantem browser wouldn't be as configurable as Firefox or Chrome, it would be much faster. This is because it would be designed with optimization and security at the forefront (and no so much user experience – although that will also be a significant driver especially towards the end). Every single interaction will try to happen as quickly as possible. Currently, it is uncertain if add-ons will be available (such as in Firefox), but if so, there would need to be some way to test the speed and security of these add-ons in the Quantem browser. Testing the speed and security would be another aspect that this web browser would offer so that the developers of the add-ons would feel assured that their add-on is secure and fast, and the users would feel the same.

The main reason that there is so much opportunity for this web browser is that web browsers have remained pretty much stagnant for too long. While there have been some minor updates and a lot of bug fixes, there haven't really been that many break through ideas. This was somewhat counterbalanced by the thought of add-ons. The developers seemed to have taken the easy way out. However, if we study economics, we know that businesses should follow the general trend of S-curves, where there is an initial investment phase, a growth phase and finally a decline, whereupon the cycle should restart if the company is innovative. While the window of opportunity won't be very long, the major players in the business don't seem to be following this trend, so it seems like there would be an easy opportunity in the market to come in and capture this new piece of the market with a new and innovative web browser.

Innovation:

This web browser wouldn't be that innovative because, although it would be an entirely new and sleek web browser, it would essentially . The only innovations are those listed in the above section. The web browser would very much resemble Firefox but would be much more optimized. From user feedback, I learned that web browsers seem to be fast (as one would expect) but even common users think that they can be even faster. This is the area that I am exploring. I am trying to find ways to optimize browsers (i.e. with C++ blobs and optimizations in every way possible) so that the Quantem browser will be ass fast as it can be. The second innovative measure comes with the C++ blobs. There will be things that website developers can now do that they absolutely would not have been able to do before. There will be an entirely new way to develop websites because of this.

I have thought quite a bit about the C++ blobs. You would include a file inside of the HTML for the website (the part that gets interpreted as the web content and includes the CSS style sheets and javascript files) which would afford much greater control over what the developers can provide to the viewers and also make things much faster. It would really be an innovative feat, but the biggest fear that I have would be the security of these blobs.

Venture Concept:

Since the Quantem Web Browser would be much faster and perform much better than thee major current players, the majority of common desktop users would be willing to switch almost entirely for that. In addition, thee fact that there is a whole entire new world for software developers to make amazing fast C++ blobs would create a pull for the developers. So, not only would the common user want to switch, but the developers also would want to. Since all the websites would look pretty much the same and would load even faster and there is an entirely new world that website developers would be able to take advantage, I don't see how anyone would still be using Firefox or Chrome if this were released and advertised properly. The two main competitors, obviously Firefox and Chrome, I don't think stand a chance if this browser lives up to its name.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

It was very interesting to see and learn about the different types of budgets since I don't know much about this aspect of business.  Over many years, best practices and rules have emerged, and it is interesting to see exactly what those are.


2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I am not sure if there are more technical aspects that the author could have delved into, but I wasn't quite sure exactly how everything works. Perhaps the author could go into more detail regarding the budgets.


3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

(1) How exactly would you go about doing a break-even budget?
(2) How do start-up companies vs well-established firms handle budgeting? Do they do it the same, and how exactly is it implemented within the companies?


4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

 I am not very knowledgeable in this area, and I did have to research a couple of things so that they made more sense. I didn't disagree with anything that he said.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Who am I?
I am a software developer. I have a little experience and simply enjoy doing it. I know quite a few programming languages and love figuring things out. My biggest downfall is not reading the manual, which is a big deal because in the Linux communities, people like to say "RTFM" (you can look that one up if you want). So, if you don't read the manual and you ask for help don't expect many to help you. I usually end up reading the manual after getting pretty frustrated. Nonetheless, I love software, and I feel like sometimes I can just crank out stuff that might otherwise take me a while. I sometimes find my groove, and when I do, there is nothing I can't do (within reasonable terms).

What am I offering to you, the customer?
Simply put, I would be making a Web Browser - similar to the one that you use on a daily basis - that would be faster. The reason for this is how the data is represented. There is a lot of redundancy in web content, and I know it can be made more efficient. I did a little research, and perhaps the best thing to do would be to optimize the HTML (content of webpages) with byte code (sorry if that is a little too complex), but there is still an even better way to represent web content. We have already devised better systems for representing data and sharing it. We just haven't used it much for web content. Why not? Well, the biggest reason is because you can't just start representing web content another way because websites already have certain content. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be maintaining compatibilty with the old way of representing web content.

Another major thing is that the way the we represent a web page is so limited. In order to do anything reasonably interesting, you really need to use JavaScript. However, JavaScript is a scripting language and it really has quite a bit of overhead and resources. Additionally, CSS is too static. You can't really make variables and manipulate the style of a webpage as efficiently as you should be able to. HTML is also pretty static. It's all really just a mess. It's time to update the way we represent web content!

I think that the biggest advantages for website developers would be that it would be easier to make a website from scratch, they would have a faster website, and on top of all of that they would be able to do cooler things because the way in which the content is represented and modified in real time would be more comprehensive and more modern.

Who am I offering this to?
Obviously anyone that uses a web browser would be a customer. I wouldn't make anyone pay for it. Then it would never take off. The official website for the project would have advertisements as a source of income, however. The other major customer would be software developers. I would make the project open source (meaning you can download, modify and redistribute the source code), and this would be a major benefit because if the software started to take off, then people that are even more experienced than me could write code to optimize it or make it even better. I would probably put all of the code on github. This could also win me some footing in terms of getting a job at a software industry.

Why do the customers care?
The customers using the web browser would care because downloading a page would be so much faster. We are already spoiled because hardware and technology has grown so quickly that the interchange of data is so small. Also, the consumer would have more dynamic web pages that could be more useful, more user friendly and more customized. Who doesn't want that? But sometimes when you don't have a good connection or when you need to download a page that has a lot of information and a lot of styling and javascript, it can really take a while to load.

It can be a litte hard to explain the more technical aspect of web browser, but here is why the software community might care. If you have a better way to represent content and you can do more with it because it is more dynamic, then why would you not use that? Web browsers now-a-days simply don't live up to their potential. They are good, but they are just not there yet. It's not only a mess to create a website from scratch, but it's not even as efficient or dynamic as it could be.

What are my core competencies?
As aforementioned, I am a software developer, and I love doing it. I think the main thing that sets me apart (as I said in my other "Idea Napkin" post) is my tenacity. I am not the best software developer. I don't know how to do things as well as someone, for example, who is working at google and developing google chrome, but I would definitely keep working on it until it is complete. Additionally, another competency, perhaps, is my willingness to let the project take a life of its own. I don't feel like I need to write all of the source code myself. I would certainly try if needed, but if I simply plant the seed of the idea and perhaps start it and then people pick it up and bring it to its full potential, that would be fine with me. After all, that is what the open source community is all about - distribution of knowledge and source code, not monopolizing it and making it proprietary. It seems to defy the "entrepreneurial way," but in reality, it is what will drive innovation in the software industry.

Evaluation
Do I think that the above five elements fit together? I do, in fact. The only way that anything has been created - from 3-dimensional printers to web browsers and other highly-used software - is by trial and error and a lot of perseverance. You are never going to write a program right the first time ... well maybe you will ... but you certainl won't right a really big piece of software and have it be perfect. First of all, hardware will become more optimized, unleashing more potential. But on top of that, there will be human error or simple fallacies in logic that make the software not optimal. However, by simple grit and error, people have developed what would have seemed impossible not but twenty years ago. That is why the pieces here fit together. If I simply am tenacious enough, then I can make this web browser. Telecommunications is a perfect example - that industry has advanced so quickly and both the technology and software for that area has simply been inredible.

Feedback
The only contructive feedback I received is that some of the points were hard to understand. I can understand because if you're not interested in software, then reading something from a software developer could be hard to follow. I tried my best to describe what I would do from a non-technical aspect. From any angle, I simply tried to make the ideas as clear as possible, so that you can understand exactly where I am coming from. I hope it all made sense and you have a very vivide image of what I am trying to achieve. In the feedback people also wished me luck, and during my break I will probably be at an internship on the side, but I think I am actually going to pursue this. Maybe I can simply create the base and the seed of the idea, but if I could pull it off even on a small scale, I would be very proud of myself. Thanks to all who wished me luck! Good luck with your endeavors as well!