[NBLUG/talk] Regarding a recent hackfest I attended

Steve S. northbaygeek at gmail.com
Mon Nov 19 10:07:12 PST 2012


On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:41 AM, Jordan Erickson
<jerickson at logicalnetworking.net> wrote:

> I dunno b/c IANAP, but did they have you sign any kind of agreement? If
> so, what were the details? My first thought is that they want ideas on
> the next killer app..but you may be right as well, maybe they're just
> trying to generate buzz around their APIs/network.

I tend to think there may have been multiple objectives...

Did they ask for any feedback, or have any "focus group" style
observers who could have helped them improve their API or programming
environment, based upon the experiences of the codemonkeys there?  If
so, there's one motivation there (if not, then... well, not).

Mainly, though, I think it was PR-oriented.  Create buzz &
word-of-mouth: "the hackfest at ..." and just "we're cool enough to
/have/ a hackfest" and so forth.  Plus, it just gives them
talking-points, a reason to make a press-announcement (you recall the
old entertainment maxim, "no publicity is bad publicity"?  I'd
corporatize that to "having no publicity IS bad publicity") & a way to
pad the corporate resume' (aka "annual report") with
"productivity-oriented" events.

Maybe also a foray into crowd-sourcing and/or exploring a way to tap
the FLOSS-programmers' zeitgeist...  Even if they end up with zero
usable app's, they get a sense of what sorts of things the coders
would pursue...


-- 
"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of
childishness and the desire to be very grown up."      -CS Lewis



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