A month or so ago I stumbled across a post about the Commerce Business Apps Challenge. I’ve never entered any kind of development contest. Besides work, the only development I’ve ever done was for myself and my pet projects that consisted primarily of trying new technologies. However, it interested me because I’ve been tinkering with open data available from Data.gov off and on for a while now. Honestly, there’s a veritable treasure trove of data available there. There are almost endless opportunities for applications that you can build using the data available there.
With that in mind I decided to enter the contest. First prize is 5K and who couldn’t use some extra cash, right? Although I found out about the contest a little late in the game, I was reasonably sure that I could put something together that, even if I didn’t win or place at all, would still be useful to someone. However, putting together an app in 30 days with all kinds of other things going on isn’t exactly a non-complex task. I also have a job and a family and both of those place other requirements on my time. So, I had to utilize my time effectively and come up with a decent idea that wasn’t too grandiose.
I thought a nice compliment to the contest submission would be a post that essentially outlined my development and the decisions ( and mistakes ) I made. It was certainly a bit of a learning process. In my research I came across something that, in my own mind, changed the course of things and hopefully made my efforts more focused.
