let me start off by saying i how much i respect the work you have done for the android community, without asking for even as much as a thank you. it is down to committed people, such as yourself, that makes these communities so much fun to be a part of.
i fully respect the amount of time and commitment it takes to be an active member (and considered by some to be a major player) of a community. i have been there myself and know how much effort is put in without the other members knowing what really goes on.
so i take my hat off to you and say thank you for all the hard work you do.
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last year i heard about an event going on in the states called the big android bbq. this produced alot of buzz in the uk for having one on our shores. i asked around to see whether people would actually be interested in such event. i have organised events for other communities before and know that even though people say they are interested, when it comes to it, they really are not.
the initial feedback i got was very positive, so i decided to doing something about it. i started off with creating a username on twitter called androidukbbq and for a place to blog about it used http://androidukbbq.blogspot.com . i can't remember whether i came up with the #androidukbbq tag, or someone else but i decided to associated these three together.
the first things i needed do was to find out where the most popular location for such an event would be, so i started a poll on the blog and created a thread for people to add their comments to. @raphaelsavina got @scottyabrown to mention it on the android podcast and it also got a mention on this week in mobile by @androidashley. it seemed like everything was going along nicely and should be a great day for all android lovers to enjoy.
then ... one monday evening, after just getting home from work, i see i had become part of a flame war on twitter about #androidukbbq tag. i must admit i was surprised, as in my mind i had done nothing wrong and here i was getting accused of kanging the big android bbq for my own benefit. the tweets weren't only coming from aaron but other respected members of the android community.
i also had the below posted on my blog by aaron :
"Aaron said...
You need need to contact me do the right thing. I want to support your event, but trying to duplicate ours with no contact to us is wrong, how do you know a BigandroidBBQ UK is not already in the works. Again I repeat you need to do the right thing. So you know we had to get permission to use the name androidbbq it is trademarked. I would hate to see somebody trying to support the community get into trouble. Again do the right thing and get in contact with the the team putting together the BigAndroidBBQ, you are looking pretty shady right now."
i talked to aaron over gtalk that evening and he told me that androidbbq was a trademark which he had to get permission to use. he also told me that the big android bbq was a brand, which i fully respected and he didn't want anything that i was doing to reflect badly on his event. i also appreciated the fact, that at the time we talked, he was running at a loss for the event and it looked like he would put the whole event on at a severe debt to himself.
aaron made it plainly clear that if i went ahead, i would be in breach of the trademark and offered, because he was thinking of bringing this brand to the uk maybe in 2011, to contact me if such plans came to fruition. my overall assessment of this chat was i had better not put on the event, so with this information i decide not to.
my idea for an android uk bbq was not going to be on the scale of the big android bbq and also, just like the bbq in america, was to be a non-profit event with any money raised being donated to charity. so i changed my plans to organise something else for android fans in the uk but due to unforeseen circumstances i wasn't able to do this.
my opinion
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background : @MrsChains and @ChainsDD are hosting a bbq with the tag #ukandroidbbq on the 14th May 2011 (http://uncutandroid.com/2011/05/uk-android-appetizer-may-14th-spread-the-word ).
i would consider both of them very dear friends, so when @ADroidian tweeted :
"@mrschains great job with the UK BBQ that's the same way we started the one here. 20 people having a blast in a back yard."
i emailed @MrsChains, as i found it strange how i got a flame war whilst she had praise from the same person. what follows is my opinion on some of the tweets from @ADroidian that followed.
"I never told anyone they couldn't, my only beef was they wanted to do it at the same time."
you had actually told me that i would be in breach of a trademark. as for "at the same time", androidukbbq hadn't even decided on a date at that point. in fact seeing as the big android bbq was going to be in october, the chances of it being "at the same time" would have been zero. have you any idea what the weather is like in the uk in october? ask michael fish, the ex-bbc weather man, he'll tell you! it's wet & windy!
"I don't see people trying to create alt I/Os I don't see why there is so much desire to do so with the BBQ"
google i/o is an official event by google, the creators of android. unless you are either google or the creator of the bbq, i see no valid point to your statement. people enjoy android - people enjoy bbq. it was a good idea by you to put the two together but it is not your right to tell others outside of america what they can do.
"I guess the way I see it is a bunch of identical events at the same time diminishes the main event."
the main event. do you know how conceited that sounds? just because it is in america or that it was the 1st, does not make it the main event.
"... and will support any event that doesn't appear to be directly competing for attendees and sponsors"
why should any other android event, bbq or otherwise, in the same or a different country, be seen as competing with you. i thought your idea on the big android bbq was so people could enjoy themselves and any profits made were to go to charity. surely the more events that are happening, the more people can enjoy themselves and the more money raised for good causes?
"Just do it in any of the other 9 months not immediately preceding or following the BBQ. Why does everyone seem to have a problem with me saying that?"
i have a problem with it. who voted/nominated you on deciding when people can have android events? i find your dictatorship style with inside an open source community quite shocking!
i would also like to respond to chris soyars LONG Tweet :
"This is pretty simple. Don't have three android events all within 90 days of each-other. It causes competition w/ attendees and sponsors. Don't say it isn't about money, when sponsors are involved the game changes. The tweets saying it is "sad to see the community behave this way" are not getting the full picture. We want all events to succeed, part of that involves keeping dates appropriately separated."
i appreciate the point your are trying to make here but i fail to see how having events within 90 days of each other, in different countries, has an impact on sponsership. big companies love to sponser any event because of the exposure. you're telling me that HTC would not sponser both events in, for example, american and the uk, even if they were both on the same day? i would like to see to the CFO who made that decision.
using the base of your comment, a company would not sponsor two sporting events that were occurring on the same day, which does happen. the speakership will come from the big companies if there is money to be made from the exposure and not on which date they are held.
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thank you for your time (and persistence in reading this far). i welcome any comments.
