question re. computer programers

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say a computer programer, designs a game for kids who have autism, or LD, let's say. What would be his/her options in terms of getting it on the market, rather than just selling it to a big software company? Would he/she have to patent it? who would beta test it?

That's more of a question for a copyright lawyer and economic analyst than a computer programmer, but I think that a) yes, if you wanted to retain the copyright you would have to copyright it (and software is considered a copyright, not a patent. Just to clarify.), and b) it probably wouldn't sell in the mainstream market, so I would recommend some other means of distribution. You might want to consider making it free, but if you're bent on getting a profit or at least breaking even, you might stand a better chance of marketing it as educational software rather than a computer game (I'm assuming some or all of this game is geared towared teaching social skills to autistics). Also, you might want to see if you can get either an autism non-profit or a government mental health agency and see if they will endorse your product so as to make it more appealing to mothers and the like.


As far as beta testing, you might be better off having experts test the software first, then maybe have some med to high-functioning autistics test it and see if they like it.

Of course this is all speculative BS on my part, since I'm not familiar with the process. But maybe talking to an expert in marketing or copyright law will help you get started.

Cheers,

Roxas

If it was me, I'd open source it. What, you care more about money than your fellow odd people? There'll be training, helping people get better at things, all sorts of services that you can bill for without crossing ethical lines.

it depends weather (so to speak) you are speaking purely hypercritically or not. I would personally make it FREE with easy access. I suspect you are no speaking purely hypotheticallyand if you are not good luck.

James

It was for a story I'm writing, where one of the characters has a PhD in computer science.

You could release it under a software license such as the GPL. A good license will help to prevent other people from doing evil things with your software. You can't patent it unless it uses an algorithm that is not already patented.