Something wrong in GoogleDevFestBkk
Disclaimer: I did not attend any sessions in GoogleDevFestBkk, Google DevFest Bangkok. I was just a part of press release. However, it was enough for me to sense something wrong on that day. Even though I was not there, I followed Twitter.
- Bad Wifi. I'm sure they can do better. 13 access points on 3 channels were nightmare.
- Too much OpenSocial. Many sessions duplicated each others. Most of them are OpenSocial and they just brief overview or probably quick demonstrations. Where is the code?
Please read below log taken from Twitter last night and this morning.
(23:52) sugree: tomorrow is google devfest vietnam. 700+ audiences (23:53) sugree: #googledevfestbkk is not that good. (23:54) phisite: @sugree Should we tell them that they can skip some sessions? (23:56) sugree: @phisite those are sponsors' sessions. (23:57) markpeak: @sugree honestly it sucks (23:58) markpeak: @sugree I & @lewcpe left very early (23:59) sugree: @markpeak lol. yeah. i feel something wrong since in press release. (23:59) sugree: @markpeak the real agenda is just opensocial. that's all. (23:59) sugree: @markpeak and the real point is that contest. (00:00) sugree: i want to join contest but i will develop opensocial container module for drupal instead (00:00) sugree: it seems the contest just for application. not container :( (00:06) markpeak: @sugree no, it's just Google to the Press: "we have this kind of seminar" (00:07) sugree: @markpeak it supposed to be hands-on (00:07) sugree: @markpeak and it supposed to be deep tech something (00:19) drewkam: @sugree any particular reason why not good apart from bad wifi? :P (06:40) sugree: @drewkam google pushed opensocial too much. we expected technical sessions (06:49) pamelafox: @sugree: did you like the first session on opensocial? (if not, how would we make it more appealing for you?) (06:54) sugree: @pamelafox it's ok for the first one but later are just dup. in fact, i want to implement container ;) (06:56) sugree: @pamelafox may i organize hackathon myself? (06:56) pamelafox: @sugree: yeah, actually, bruno makes becoming a container look so easy (easier than making an app?). thanks4feedback. (07:28) sugree: @pamelafox one note. many ppl don't understand why they must develop opensocial apps (07:30) sugree: @pamelafox that's why they fall sleep last week ;) (07:30) pamelafox: @sugree: hmm. main reason: bigger user base seeing your content/clicking your ads. is that not a good reason, or is that not clear? (07:37) sugree: @pamelafox yes, it's clear but not enough if those developer don't own origin sites :) (07:52) pamelafox: @sugree: good point, sent to @chanezon.
At this point now I understand more clear. Many of us told me below quote.
Content is King.
OpenSocial needs more than just a simple king. OpenSocial needs the queen, killer queen.
Service is Queen.
For OpenSocial, blog is not enough anymore. In contrast, Google just suggested us to link local sites in Thai to Hi5 as OpenSocial applications. Sadly, we do not own Kapook or Sanook or Tarad or Zickr or DuoCore. If we want to get all benefit of OpenSocial, we need our own services. Thanks @pamelafox who influenced me this morning. Now @pamelafox is my heroine.
Anyway, why don't we create more services? Any startup in Thailand?
Thanks for the feedback Sugree. One answer about why creating these opensocial apps: you will be able to get many users for the app. You don't need to take an existing site and make a social app out of it, actually many of the most successful social apps don't even have a website associated to them (eg buddypoke). You show the ads in the canvas view of your app, and this is the easiest way to monetize. I will make it clearer in my next presentation.
Now implementing Shindig in Drupal, that is a great project. There is an Indian consulting firm called Impetus who showed a demo of that and are planning to opensource it, I'd suggest to get in tocuh with them to get access to the code.
About the technical level of the sessions, it's always a hard balancing act, to try to satisfy all the attendees, with their various level of development skills. In Singapore the feedback was that the sessions were not technical enough. We showed more code in Thailand. I could spend hours showing just code, but I fear this will be lost for more than half the attendees, and we want everyone to get something out of these sessions. My suggestion is that if you get bored during one of the talk, fire up your editor and start coding your app:-)
Great choice of heroin: Pamela really rocks!
It seems your explanation is so clear now. Just like @putchonguth told me and @somsak yesterday, it is just mismatch of expectation.
If you still read this, it would be nice to have poll to survey technical level of sessions and also you may separate one day event to multiple tracks for hardcore developers who want pure coding and the rest who want more idea.
Otherwise, DevFest should position itself as a seminar and then you may organize real all day all night Hackathon one week later.
That’s just my two cents.
Probably I did wrong that told everybody DevFest would be such a hardcore hands-on.
@sugree : Im begining work on a site and maybe in the future itll have a social app to promote the site and maybe advertising. But whats different is that it wont be targeting thailand as a user base. Ad revenue is seriously lacking.
Developers must see some potential before they start work on their projects.
IMHO If Google did some workshop here for Ad agencies, educating them on the benifits of online advertising, it would help more.
What good is traffic if u cant monetize?
This point is still unclear. All we know is it is possible to show Ad on OpenSocial canvas.
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