This is the far more elegant version of what I was trying to say in my eleventeen posts. I agree with this 100%.
I've said on a number of occasions. This contest exists to a large degree to get people excited about the platform and generate good will from the development community. To that end, this is the last push and its on Google's shoulders. Follow through. If there's a list of 50 "winners" on Monday (or later in the week), and that's it, we'll all feel like we wasted a whole lot of time. My brother and I used to live in an apartment together. We'd both complain to other people how the other was a huge slob. The truth? We were both medium size slobs, but we didn't' really track who left what where. So, we both thought the other was making the mess. This culminated in a game of chicken with the dishes. As in, we both left them dirty in the sink, waiting for the other to wash them. I'll spare the details, except to say we both really lost. Point is, without some transparency, Google will think it has done a fair job of evaluating the apps and we're all complaining because we lost, and we're all going to think they barely looked at our work. Or didn't look at all. On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 10:25 PM, Pete Zybrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm concerned about the lack of communication from Google throughout > the ADC I process could end up turning people off to the platform and > hurting all of us in the long run. I think this lack of communication > is risking the dilution of the initial "hard core" group of about 3000 > developers – the people that on the evening of April 14th cheered > "Google!" and are now wondering "Hey, Google, what's going on?." All > of us make choices as to what technology to learn next based on > multiple factors, but one factor is consistent – few of us will stick > with a technology or vendor where we perceive we aren't informed of > direction and status, and are not treated professionally. All of us > want Android to succeed. A flourishing technical community will only > be beneficial – professionally and financially – to all of us. I would > like to make a few suggestions to improve the process. > > First, we need a single contact point at Google – someone who is > responsible for answering questions in a timely manner. I respect Dan > Morrill's efforts – man, this guy must be overloaded – but I think the > developer community deserves a dedicated level of support. It's easy > for Google to throw money at the ADC, but in my experience a company > is serious about a project when it dedicates its' most precious > resource - high quality people - to the project. The key word is > dedicated – not part time. > > Second, whoever is in charge of the ADC (does anyone really know?) > should send an immediate email to every submitter giving us the > current status of the challenge, and commit to send a continuing > status at least once per week. Since none of us have heard anything > from anyone in Google management, I'm starting wonder if the ADC was a > well intentioned effort by a bunch of developers, and it became much > more popular – and too big – for them to handle, especially while > doing their day to day work. > > Third, we deserve to see in concise terms what the current judging > criteria is, the qualifications of the judges (no personal info, just > skills and length of experience), how judges are actually assigned and > what process the judges go through to evaluate the applications. Not > just some sporadic posts, but a single set of terms. Since we don't > know the evaluation sequence, many of us are on edge right now because > we don't know if our app was spot checked or if that quick "in and > out" is the extent of the evaluation. I read a post that judges are > assigned randomly – does this mean that a game developer could be > assigned to review a client/server app, or vice versa? Since we have > had no communication, we are seeing tons of angst filled posts. > > Fourth, we need an escalation process if we can prove that our > application was not evaluated fairly. We are dealing with globally- > written apps being globally evaluated – at a minimum, there are bound > to some language and cultural miscommunications. > > Fifth, we need to know results of the judges review of our > application. We all worked an insane amount of hours on our apps, > it's only fair and professional that we get to see the review. Not > only will this help us to improve our apps for ADC II, but it will > allow us to determine if we have been treated fairly. If we don't see > the results, then many will conclude that they have been treated > unfairly. I'm not saying that is right, but it is human nature. > People need to feel that they are part of the process or they will > leave, which is that last thing any of us want. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
