Pete Zybrick 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. > > > > > Hello everyone,
I think that Pete is absolutely right. If you want to create a community, you need one person being dedicated to this task. This is the most common failure for creating unsuccessful communities. This is what Guy Kawasaki says about this topic: *Assign one person the task of building a community*. A community needs a champion—an identifiable hero and inspiration—from within the company to carry the flag for the community. Therefore, hire one less MBA and allocate this headcount to a community champion. This is a twofer: one less MBA and one great community. Best regards Michael --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
