I'm in the process of judging the First Annual Hive Awards, to be presented on March 12 at SXSWi , which honor the unsung heroes behind the great products we're all using on the web. It's an awards program for the people who make the apps work: make them do what the marketing department says they do.
The criteria are simultaneously simple and complex: does the product do what the awards application says it does? And is it special?
I've been in so many meetings with developers where the question "will my mom be able to use this?" has not been asked, This question is code [oops, not code but English] for "can any fool figure this out."
Now these apps are being put to the "mom" test. I'm a mom, even a grand mom. And I also beta test apps for a few hours every day, just for fun. So I'm the perfect cross between the power user and the ordinary citizen. Not only do I have to be able to use the fifteen apps I'm judging, which range from enterprise sales training to iPhone music, but I have to know whether they can differentiate themselves from everything else that's out there competing for attention.
You'd be surprised what I'm finding. Very high quality of entries, especially from unexpected sources.
Of course I can't tell you whose products I'm judging, or what I like, or who will win, but I am honored to be a judge.
