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NANY 2011 :: A New Concept -- Have your say!

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mouser:
NANY = New Apps for the New Year

For more info see past years summaries:

* https://www.donationcoder.com/nany/
* https://www.donationcoder.com/nany2008/
* https://www.donationcoder.com/nany2009/

JavaJones:
I just had a realization. I will tell you, with the goal of increasing input into NANY, as well as the quality of the results, I was one of the people previously advocating for more guidelines, and differentiation. There was always the concern of putting too much pressure or the increased number of rules being off-putting, and I tried to balance that carefully in my contributions, as I know everyone else did as well. It was always a persistent consideration. I can only speak for myself, but I think others may agree, that I was never entirely confident these changes would work, but they did seem like the best way forward at the time. Now I think I've realized that we did indeed go too far, and overcomplicated things.

The thought that occurred to me that spurred me to post at all though was that perhaps it's more of a timing issue than anything else. What's interesting is that time is a key factor in NANY and really almost any "challenge". Without a time limit most challenges are less interesting, even if it's just a vague time limit. Yet too short a time limit can burn people out, and perhaps that's what's been happening. We've certainly seen that expressed several times recently. Now I don't have the history with NANY that many others here do, so I don't know if this has been the same in the past, but it did strike me as worth trying to address when I saw it this year and last.

At the same time you can't have too long a time limit, as I said. So it seems like it *may* be at least partly, if not in large part, a matter of determining when you open the challenge, so that people have the right boost of enthusiasm that will last them enough time to get through to the point where they release their app. Starting earlier seems like a good idea in general. The question is how early. That I don't know, but I think it could be a critical consideration, and even a week or two more or less seems like it could make the difference.

- Oshyan

wraith808:
What resources are required for NANY?  Have you quantified what it truly takes to run the event?

The two event system may work on 6 month cycles/  This all depends on the resource to run an event.

Something like:
NANY 20## - The event as it is with the fast paced effoft for developers to complete their apps.  This is what forced me to finish an idea I had for a long time - now that idea is being turned into a business because the NANY event gave me a kick in the ass to complete it
Summer Blockbuster 20## - The new first class event as proposed.

Basically offer a Winter and Summer event.
-Veign (April 15, 2010, 11:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

I like this, rather than diluting the current NANY.  It seems like other than NANY as of late, we don't have any other contests/promotions during the year.  I get caught up in day-to-day work, so don't really work on my software as much as I would like, but these kinds of things give me impetus.  It's not about the prize as much as it's about the prodding to me.

app103:
I had suggested a summer event, that ran from June till the end of August, with the wrap-up in early September, followed by a reminder that NANY is on the way. I figured the entire summer would be great for coding more substantial things and it wouldn't clash with things like major holidays and exams.

I also suggested a formal press release be issued 3-4 months in advance of the official starting date for both events, that way it could attract some press coverage that we have never been able to get before. Large news outlets and print publications usually have their story line-ups decided months in advance of the actual printing, and if you want to get their attention and make it into their magazine within enough time before your event, you have to do it with a press release and do it early enough to give them time. 3-4 months is the standard. (which means if we were going to have a summer event this year, the press release should have went out 2 months ago)

mouser:
I have real concerns that trying to do 2 similar events like this wouldn't spread ourselves too thin.

Another alternative we've discussed is for NANY to be an end of year celebration of ALL the new applications created over the last year by DC members.. this would include coding snacks and large applications, anything created in the last year.  It would be more of a showcase and celebration of what members have created.

One advantage of this is that it doesn't exclude things arbitrarily based on date, which can happen with our normal NANY.  And it still wouldn't stop a final month push for people to create new stuff.

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