Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Android Developer Challenge inhibiting geek cooperation?

Looks like developers on an open source platform like Android are not so open to sharing, after all? Bad developers! Just kidding. Can't blame them when a pot worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is at stake!

Garett Rogers writes that knowledgeable developers are not being very generous in sharing code samples due to the Android Developer Challenge. The challenge is having the effect of slowing down developers, instead of the other way around.

The slow-down part may be true. The prize money might indeed be inhibiting developers from sharing the best of their knowledge. However, the prize money has caused a much larger number of developers to start messing with Android pronto, than would be the case otherwise. So, the ADC is still a good idea.

As for sharing code samples, Garett Rogers says all is not lost:
I’m sure by the time March 3rd (the cutoff for submissions) rolls around, there will be plenty of code available to help inexperienced developers make ideas come to life. Maybe this is why Google decided to to host the same contest again after the first one ends?


[via blogs.zdnet.com/Google]

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