

The Google I/O freebie I'm hoping for: Nothing - justinsb
http://justinsb.posterous.com/why-google-shouldnt-give-away-anything-this-y

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justinsb
A quick TLDR: It seems probable that a lot of the people are just going for
the freebies, and by announcing that there will be no giveaways and offering
refunds, that will open up spots for people that actually want to go to the
conference

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pavel_lishin
I imagine that the scalpers will take that opportunity to sell their spots,
instead of opting for a refund.

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justinsb
The hope would be that Google makes transferring tickets sufficiently hard
that if people don't really want to go they just take the refund.

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pavel_lishin
It shouldn't be too hard, though. If I have a ticket and something comes up
preventing me from going, I should be able to give it to a friend.

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justinsb
I'd argue you should be able to get a full refund, but no transfers should be
allowed, to prevent scalping.

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ary
Can you imagine the shit-storm if Apple gave away iPhones at WWDC? At least I
can attend that conference knowing full well that I'll be surrounded with
developers who are there to learn & network.

I'm really disappointed that I won't be making it to I/O this year. 2009 was a
blast (I missed 2010 out of laziness). Thought all I had to do was register
within the first hour and I'd be fine.

Honestly, I blame Oprah for this.

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icco
I don't know, I went last year, and was heavily disappointed about how
nontechnical all of the talks were that I went to. The whole place was filled
with a ton of tech-reporters and a limited amount of actual developers.

I didn't bother signing up this year, and saved myself the money and time by
doing so. Maybe it was better in the past, but I hope they change the
conference to actually promote developers and developing.

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magicalist
Really? Maybe the keynotes, but the (>10) sessions I've watched on youtube (I
haven't been) have all either been on how to develop on their products or how
they developed their products.

That is with the caveats that I've selected what to watch based on what seemed
interesting (and technical), and that the sessions they call "201" seem to be
more 101, but from what I've seen and the in-person Q&A/networking
opportunities, it seems well worth the trip for developers.

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gcb
Having the same experience with non-technical content and a crowd of
journalists as the grandparent poster, i also not trhilled with those.

but i saw a couple on youtube when they were featured, and i must say they
were at best introductions to their platforms than anything else.

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Jun8
It got sold out in 56 minutes! What a bummer. I don't care for the swag they
give out, I was looking forward to meeting the people.

How about this idea: A parallel I/O Error Conference at the same time?

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davepeck
I started an I|O ERROR 2011 signup spreadsheet: <http://bit.ly/h9KQrR>

Please add your name if you would attend such an unconference over the same
dates as the real I|O.

I'm recklessly confident that we can find space at dogpatch labs, citizen
space, or similar...

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Jun8
As of now, there are six people. What would be the minimum number of people to
pull such a thing off?

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davepeck
Not sure. I'd hope for something like 25-50, perhaps, so that there is a good
crowd but finding a space is not impossible.

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dotBen
I've not missed a Google I/O event since the first "Google Developer Day" in
San Jose in 2007 and so I'm bummed not to be attending this year.

Google did offer me a 'pre registration" but I didn't anticipate the level of
demand that would occur :(

If people are indeed registering just for the (potential) freebie, I wonder
what impact that will have on the conference in terms of people sticking
around to actually attend sessions and participate.

I might lobbycon it anyway.

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nl
They should have coding requirements for the freebie. Nothing crazy - just
enough to prove the person knows at least one language or maybe even a bit of
HTML.

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dotBen
At a Sprint Developer Platform conference they gave everyone a free Android
phone if you attended an Android development workshop - but a requirement to
literally get past the door was that you had to have the Android SDK installed
and a "hello world" running on the simulator.

It was amazing to see how many people couldn't get that far... folks who were
just cruising for a free phone.

It was also a smart test because it wasn't like an answer to a programming
puzzle that could be circulated - you actually had to have this already
running (or know how to quickly install it).

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nl
That's a good idea - but they might want to distribute the SDK on USDB drives
beforehand to all attendees. WiFi networks at conferences break often enough
without every single person trying to download the SDK at once.

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dotBen
True but then if you are a legitimate Android Developer and you were invited
to bring your development laptop to a development workshop, you should
probably already have the SDK installed

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nl
Google I/O is (a lot) more than just Android though.

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abraham
5000 developers is to big anyways. Once all the scalpers leave with their swag
everyone who is left can have a more intimate conference.

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arron61
Google IO did not sell out yet. This is how you register.

[http://arronla.com/2011/02/google-io-did-not-sell-out-yet-
th...](http://arronla.com/2011/02/google-io-did-not-sell-out-yet-the-system-
is-beyond-broken-this-is-how-you-register/)

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herdcall
If people signed up just for the goodies, why did the bootcamp (reportedly)
sell out in 2 minutes?

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kbutler
At least we can get the technical content, if Google continues to post the
videos:

<http://www.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions.html>

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ConceptDog
I'm just really starting to get into Android and was hoping for the chance to
really get in and get excited about the technology. Much like it was in my
first experience with the web all the way back in 2007.

I'm really disappointed that I won't have the chance to go. I hope it's not
because tons of people are going for the free device.

I've actually become a huge Android advocate to my friends, but things like
this irk me something awful.

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slowpoison
Although one can't blame Google for it, what's really sad is the loss taken by
people who had booked flights and hotels in anticipation. Google definitely
needs to come up with a better system to address all the nuances. A tech
conference need not be like a rock concert.

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juiceandjuice
It'd be interesting to find out how many people are actually developers using
google technologies at this year's event.

Admittedly, I would have loved to get and get a freebie, but I would have
enjoyed all the GWT and web sessions more than a freebie.

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bockris
I got in. I'm planning on going and attending as many sessions as I can. My
work training budget is empty so I'm self funding. (flying in from Austin and
currently trying to find a couch to crash on.) I'm not going to lie, the
supposed HW freebies of previous years helped make my decision and soften the
blow $$ wise.

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iqster
Bockris ... I think I managed to get in too. Got a receipt from Google
checkout. Did you get any other confirmation email from them? I have a fear
that my credit-card payment didn't go through.

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bockris
I got a receipt from Google Checkout and a confirmation email from
'googleio2011@google.com' about 30 minutes later.

My checkout receipt doesn't have my IO confirmation # in it.

In your receipt email, click on the 'Get up-to-date information about #' link
and see if it charged OK. If it did and you didn't get a confirmation, I would
try to contact them to see what's up.

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iqster
Thank you!

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kenjackson
Do you have attend to get the freebie? I can't imagine spending the money AND
the time to get a freebie of their choice, when I can buy something of my
choice w/o having to leave my house.

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orangecat
The freebies substantially reduce the effective cost, possibly to $0 or less.
Last year everybody got a free Droid and EVO, which you could have flipped on
Craigslist for at least $600. If you're in the SF area and have any interest
in the conference, it's a no-brainer.

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justinsb
Agreed. I presume the main point of charging at all is to match supply &
demand, but given that everyone believes the price is <= 0 anyway, this
obviously isn't working any more.

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kenjackson
I guess if you're in SF that may make sense. Being in WA I wouldn't fly down
for a couple of days even if the price was free. Just wouldn't be worth the
time for a cell phone or tablet.

UPDATE: Although after rereading what I wrote, I realized that those people
whose time means so little that they'd attend a conference largely to get the
cellphone/tablet are exactly the people you don't want at the conference.

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mquander
If their event sells out in 59 minutes, why don't they raise the price
dramatically?

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crizCraig
Google gives the freebies away so that developers will have devices at hand to
make apps for. If non-developer freebie seekers are going, that obviously
defeats the purpose. Maybe they should have some sort of coding exercise that
you have to complete to be eligible for registration.

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DFectuoso
I have been there for the last 2 years, and I was able to pre-register this
year. I go for the talks and the awesome energy that the event irradiates. I
am pretty sure the quality of the talks and the energy will be just better
than last year.

Developers like conferences and free gadgets, yea there might be some people
looking to get some "free" $500 gadgets, but I don't think that will ruin my
experience of awesome tech stuff and meeting the teams from all the different
technologies that work on stuff I use every day.

