After the third workshop

I have missed the second workshop and it is turning out I got quite confused. Here I am putting everything we had to do so far to make it clearer for myself:

1. Everyone thought of some ideas on their own; then we discussed and brainstormed and modified/upgraded/made new ideas;
2. We had to describe each idea: what it is and for whom it is;
3. We chose 1-2 ideas to work with further;
   
4. For the ideas we created (this I missed completely and actually only part of it was actually done by others):
• Existing solutions research document
• Customer profile document
• Scenarios of use document
• Financial plan document
  


5. We had to do market research which was about thinking of potential target groups, finding corresponding communities on the web (or establishing one if nothing found), and asking questions there which would give useful information for us; at this stage we narrrowed down to one idea which was designing web shop;
   *Besides this qualitative research we were advised to do quantitative one, by creating a survey; at this stage we realised we didn't really specify our target group, which could be not only people needing clothes, but also companies producing clothes, manufacturers, professional designers, ...
6. We had to prepare a sales speech for the potential customers plus a FAQ document where we put our predicted questions and our answers; for our target group we were advised to choose big companies and sell them an idea with implementation;
7. We had our speech presented and got feedback for the "customer";
• We should not show any uncertainty; we do not have to answer every question and invent, improvise, as it can be easily seen; but this seems to be "student way";
  
• We should not have completely differently opinions/answers; to avoid that it is good to assign a role to each member, so that people know by themselves who answers which question ("sales" person, "advertising" person, etc.);
• Even if someone from our group says something we don't agree, don't say it aloud - do not make bad impression on the customer, do not make confusion;
  
• In normal business situation the meeting would start with introducing the company, both sides would have rather a talk, than a customer listening to a presenation;
  
8. The next steps will involve contacting invidual people asking them relevant questions - creating Resources Network; this is about establishing network of people to help us in the areas we don't know much about (like sewing clothes);
   

I noticed each of the organisers had some preeliminary assumptions about what we want to do.. sometimes they were advising us totally opposite things; also some of them didn't really listen to what our idea was about, simplifying what we've said and instantly moving to giving advice and pushing their vision. This was funny;)

We were given a presentation about making the sales speech - this was useful. The main points were:

• Attention - draw their attention, say something what will make them see that you can solve their problems, or help to reach their goals
  
• Interest - keep their interest by telling them what they can gain, give more details, actually I am not sure what's the difference from above
  
• Desire - make them desire the product, e.g. if they think it is expensive they cannot afford, they will want it more, and then it turns out to be cheaper; tell them it is exclusively form them, or only tihs month..
  
• Commitment - not sure, but an example was to tell them we will give them time to make sure they have the needed resources
  
• Action - you can roll the pen on the desk;D
  

Missed second workshop - additional assignment

Due to Easter break I had to miss the second workshop and had to submit an additional assignment. The question was not very brilliant. I am putting my answer here:

Please write a blog article approximately 200 words long about your thoughts and ideas related to entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is defined as the act of being an entrepreneur, who is usually a person having an innovative idea and starting new business.

Before this course I didn't have much thoughts about entrepreneurship and starting a business on my own seemed distant to me. However some thoughts related to entrepreneurship appeared during the first meeting of Innovation Month.

First discovery which I made was that it is not as hard to be innovative as I thought, and that there is still plenty of new things one can start doing as a business. Even if some ideas have already been thought of by someone, and such services already exist, it is always possible to do something slightly modified instead, and in that way we could attract completely different (or larger) group of potential customers.

Another lesson learnt was from the slides, where it was said that being successfully innovative is
rarely the case of being a genius or having a sudden inspiration (as it is rare case in general). I think that the approach that most ideas appear when a person needs money, or another case, when a group of friends wants to do something together, is more realistic.

Next thing that sinked into my mind was that it is always worth to cooperate with other people,
exchange resources, skills, and ideas – as single person having greatest idea ever cannot accomplish anything without help of other people. Here I think I should mention about the issue of intellectual property, when somebody may steal our idea – but the impression I got from the meeting was that it is never possible to fully secure oneself from someone stealing their idea without descreasing the chances of its actual realization (as we have to find people who will help us).

To sum up I think becoming an entrepreneur as a way of earning one's living is worth considering.

Not many new thoughts up to now.

After the first workshop

The impressions are great! It was much better than I expected, actually I have lowered my expectations beforehand, not to become dissappointed, but even without that, it would have been better than expected:) Even I managed to survive 8 hours, feeling a little tired maybe in last hour...

First of all - so much depends on the organisers; not only is important that they show that they really want to do something, tell us something, but also need to have something to say, to have the knowledge. But also the second without the first would not do much, actually. And, of course, the people. I managed to force myself to be initiative and be the first to ask the people to be in one team, and I think I made really good choice about the people. Although we are only 3, while should be 4 at least. Still waiting for the absent guy.

Some things I have learnt:
1. There's some knowledge area called "networking", which may be very useful to get to know, at least something about
2. One way to find out an idea about what I can do: write 4 things I'm good at or I'm interested in; here it is usually hard to find ideas "in between". That's why for each thing write 4 subcategories, to specify what I exactly mean, or give examples. Now try to find ideas "in between" the subcategories - it is much easier, and many ideas come to our mind we would have never thought of before!
3. Great innovations come to people's mind not only as a matter of sudden great creative idea in a mind of genius, or artist; another reasons for finding out an innovation: need for money; group of people meets and feels like doing something together, positive energy; some others which I do not remember
4. People that study 3d computer graphics in context of modelling and animation have no clue about programming and coding, even coding computer graphics (so it's different area of expertise, I didn't know about that)
5. People that study 3d computer graphics have great, innovative, and creative ideas
6. It is much easier to be innovative than I thought; and other people can have additional ideas to my ideas I would never think of; I guess it is the matter of people as well.. .. and there're so many possibilities..
7. some gold thoughts of Heikki the lecturer:
"great things you're gonna do is because of other people"
"be nice, work hard"
"you know nothing" (meant, you know little percentage, and only way you can improve is from other people)
8. there're many ways of staring a business without investing money: for example skill exchange between friends (bootstraping; watch out, between companies may be illegal - taxes.. (why?))
9. building social network is cruicial; that's why be nice;) you're never gonna make big business by yourself; cooperation;
10. there're lots of areas where you can make money on computer games; many of them not connected to making games.. (a list of about 20 positions)..
11. there's something like 3D printing, which means a device creating a real 3d model, and such printer is in Science Park;D
12. in Science park there's a class with stereoscopic something, for Polytechnic Bachelor degree in something conncted with media, it's movie making, also 3d movie making, they've made first helicopter flight recorded in 3D technology above Joensuu and Koli area
...

Our ideas:
1. website about games in childhood, with some graphics showing the rules, instructions:
+ easy to start
+ possible to do in short time
- how to make the customer pay
+ we know how to do it
? we could do statistics selling
--> equipment selling, e.g. books, game worldcups, web shop
2. interactive animation, marketing
- don't know marketing
+ can learn marketing
+ well estabilished networking
--> travelling, museum, just show them good demo
3. figurines, characters
- copyright issue
+ huge customer base (>20 million)
+ we have printer
- hand painting requires lots of work
--> check the lego guy, how he overcome copyright
--> get arounf the problem by giving the people just 3D file uploader
4. content selling
+ lots of customers
- lots of competition
+ easy to do
--> just find the niche!
5. web clothes shop
- hard to do
- requires people outside the group
- manufacturing
? could sell the idea to a company
--> just give out the forms to print
--> go to the old tailor ladies
--> for more modification, make the customer pay more
6. evolution game
- hard to implement
--> put creatures in real world, make customers able to see them on mobile by putting them over the real video
7. physics educational game
--> summer camp
-------------------------
** --> if something exists, think of the twist

My first note

Today I have sent a note about myself and completed first pre-assigment.

The note:

My name is Monika and currently I am a first year student of IMPIT (International Master Program in Information Technology), at the University of Eastern Finland. Before coming here, I graduated as Master in Mathematics in my home country.

My main motivation for taking Computer Science studies was learning about application development concepts and guidelines, as well as programming itself. My favourite programming language is Java, however I can program also in C++, Delphi, and little in Php. During few interships and job positions I improved my Java programming, mainly in the area of Web Services and Web application development, also User Interface development.

Apart from programming and Computer Science I have artistic skills, which make me interested in design (graphic design, and also design in general). Recently (~2 months ago) I started learning OpenGL and programmable 3d graphics, in context of computer game development.

I am a person that gets easily interested in new things, and I have not specified in which direction I would like to go in my professional life. I am hoping particpation in this course would help me discover my strengths and predispositions that could help me in it.

I am joining the course after missing the first introductory class, I hope this way I am not losing much. It is because I read about the course too late.

Actually, I have no idea what to expect from this course, I just know that may be a possibility to learn something totally new and iteresting, and something that can be useful for me in the future, after graduation. Let's see tomorrow;)