MultiPoint: The New Business
Imagine Cup participants will have a new technology on their hands this year.
"Old" technologies such as .NET Framework 3.0 (WPF, WCF, WF, and InfoCard) are going "mainstream", since cutting edge technologies are hitting the developers arsenal at the dawn of 2007.
We have LINQ - the "SQL for OO". But even that's almost a year old now.
The new kid on the block is MultiPoint (still at Alpha stage, not yet available). It's about how you can use multiple input method on one computer and not getting confuse with it. You can attach three USB mouse and all three functions independently of each other. Channel9 has the video (it's a whopping 200Mb download, contact me if you need it) demonstrating the first CTP of MultiPoint along with several applications that utilizes it.
Now imagine what you can use it for? Schools in Indonesia (and other developing countries) have trouble maintaining a good student to computer ration. My high school have something around 1:40 student-to-PC ratio, which is quite a good ratio for Indonesia. MultiPoint would be able to reduce that ratio with the cost of a mouse (or a monitor if you need better experience). It's like thin client but cheaper.
Now here's another incentive for you to use this technology at Imagine Cup. The best solution that implements MultiPoint will have an internship opportunity at Microsoft Research India, where MultiPoint was conceived. Neat! What're you waiting for? Start imagining now!