It's certainly old news that Google has released the Android SDK with a $300K bounty for "the best" app. But there are some interesting posts being made on how Google may actually be slowing development down because there are about 10M incentives not to share your expertise and help other developers out.
Is the $10 million Android contest actually slowing developers down? by ZDNet's Garett Rogers -- People with any level of programming skills and a vivid imagination are looking at Google’s $10 million dollar carrot with wide eyes — but is the contest actually working the way Google expected? I’d have to say it’s not — right now anyway. The contest has effectively caused knowledgeable developers to have an [...]
If an inexperienced Java developer is looking to create something unique, they generally start with examples provided in the SDK. When what you need isn’t covered by those tutorials, the next logical stop is to look at documentation or ask for help. Unfortunately, the docs are a bit dry for developers who learn best by example — this is where user contributed code plays a very important role. The fact there is close to $300,000 on the line for winning projects is making most people think twice about sharing stuff with the community. PHP-like documentation with associated user contributed code would make developing on the Android platform a dream — unfortunately there is no such thing. Unless you are an experienced Java programmer with the skills to interpret the provided documentation without extra code to look at, there is a good chance you are out of luck.
If an inexperienced Java developer is looking to create something unique, they generally start with examples provided in the SDK. When what you need isn’t covered by those tutorials, the next logical stop is to look at documentation or ask for help. Unfortunately, the docs are a bit dry for developers who learn best by example — this is where user contributed code plays a very important role.
The fact there is close to $300,000 on the line for winning projects is making most people think twice about sharing stuff with the community. PHP-like documentation with associated user contributed code would make developing on the Android platform a dream — unfortunately there is no such thing. Unless you are an experienced Java programmer with the skills to interpret the provided documentation without extra code to look at, there is a good chance you are out of luck.
Truth be told, I'm not going to disclose what I'm developing for my entry. The poker folks will tell you - "the pot odds are right". Then again, I am going to be pretty unrelenting in my efforts to get this product together as are most others I'm sure.
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.
© Copyright 2008 Jason Woodard