I agree. There's something Google has really missed here. The whole point of Android is to change the world by applying the open source model to phones. I think they are forgetting something they clearly know: the reason open source developers work so hard is not money, it's that boost of endorphins you get when you see someone else use your work, give you feedback, or give you a verbal pat on the back. The 1700 or so of us who didn't make the final cut I don't think ever expected to win. What we did expect though was being kept in the loop, maybe getting a bit of personal recognition, and a feeling that at least a handful of judges took a few minutes to try our app, watch our screencast, and see what we worked on.
Basically in exchange for 6 months of work, we were told we'd get a few minutes of a few judges' time and we hoped (but didn't expect) even a short email with feedback. In my case, I know only a single person used my app for less than two minutes, and that person was the only one to view my online documentation. They also logged in from Spain, not Mountain View, so I'm assuming it was a single guy from one of the cell phone vendors, not Google. I didn't care that much if I won or lost, but this has nothing to do with thinking my app was thrown in the garbage bin in two minutes by one guy. Without having real communication from Google, I have no reason to assume otherwise, and I am left with the obvious feelings one would have if they thought this :) I think they should have extended the deadline just so a few judges would have had time to evaluate each app for a few minutes -- even if it didn't change the outcome one bit, it would have left all of us feeling we had our exposure and were respected for our work. Awarding 50 cash prizes kept the midnight oil burning and was a big part of the contest, but building a community of excited developers who rally around Android and Google was the higher goal, and the deafening silence at times during this contest and the fact many apps were simply discarded by a single judge (or not hit at all!) worked against this. There are things they can do to rectify this, and they don't involve giving away phones or giving away more money. They involve getting their hands dirty with talking with and supporting the community, and not taking on the role of the monolithic, 'big vendor' I think some of us have felt they have seemed to be at times, despite the fact we know that's not what they want to be. On May 9, 4:40 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > To the majority of the contenders of the android challenge: You did > not win the competition and it is unfortunate but life goes on. Like > me, you probably took the challenge thinking, hey I have a cool idea, > let me give it a shot, or maybe you poured your blood and sweat into > building the coolest thing you could think of but found the submission > process didn't work for you, or server logs showed very little > activity. > > In any case, you're probably irked to say the least. In my opinion, > this process should have been run with a higher respect towards > entrants in the competition. This would include better forum support, > additional insight into where the judging process was at, both at a > competition level and at a level specific to your particular > application. In addition, the adc blog has not even been updated to > provide any information on the contest coming to a close at the time > of this writing. > > Google, > This has not been a fun competition, the contenders of the competition > cannot see where their applications stand in regard to the top 50, nor > is there any consolation prize or reason given for losing the > competition. This is notice, that I personally will no longer be > competing in, or recommending your competitions until this is > corrected. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Challenge" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
