you really shouldn't change categories once the competition has started.

For example I haven't added my apps to list, since I'm waiting for the real submission page to open before doing so.

Edit: but having said that, it might be true that navigation category might be lacking entries. So as long as there is common agreement, then I don't mind. I just don't want to see 100 pages of "what if / unfair rule changes etc."-emails which could appear after the competition voting has ended.

I'd agree in general with you rainisto, however in this instance it might be the best action to take.

It's really no good to the competition to have allocated 4-6 prizes to a category if we can't get atleast the same amount of entries. It doesn't benefit us organising it or the folks taking part, I don't want to be in the situation were we have prizes not handed out. You can imagine the problems then of trying to assign whatever prizes is left over after the competition has ended amongst the other entries.. somehow. It would be a bickering match similar to the community awards So yep you're right it's not ideal to change categories, on the other hand it may still be the best course of action. It's still early in the competition, i don't think we'd be inconveniencing anyone too much at this early stage.

Right now we have 10 "Games, Graphics, and Multimedia" entries and 0 "Location and Navigation" entries. So playing out the scenario in our heads - if we split "Games" and merge "Location" with ".. Graphics and Multimedia".

• marmistrz and ivanph's entries (for example, sorry to pick on you guys ) are music related and could (if they agree) go into "Location, Graphics, and Multimedia". That would give:
  
• 8 in "Games"
  2 in "Location, Graphics, and Multimedia"
  
• All 10 entries have right away increased their chances of winning a prize as there's now less competition in their own category, the competition benefits as no category remains empty, and there's still a home for everyone who wants to take part..

It's win-win all round I think.

Ok that's understandable rainisto and fair enough And I'm pleased you'll be taking part, genuinely I'm looking forward to seeing what you have for us

At the same time, as you can see from the stuff at above, it's really helpful for us organising the competition to know if people are interested and which categories they are interested in. Right now the wiki table is the only way of doing that.

If there's anyone who hasn't added their entry because maybe they feel the application name gives too much information away (or they simply haven't thought of one yet) you can still register your interest in the wiki table. Even if all the details aren't complete yet it's helpful for us, for example

It's enough to let us know someone's planning to enter that category.

Right! My brain couldn't take the headache

wow, another 60 EUR donation by ljo!
http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo.org_Codi...ity_Prize_Fund

I've tried to read the rules, but I'm still not certain of this:

if I want to participate in the competition, can I publish my application in Nokia store during the competition? Or does it need to be competition exclusive and only published in Nokia store after the competition has finished?

Hi ajalkane, you're right it doesn't mention anything in the rules about Nokia store. You're free to publish your application to wherever you like

The "Summer'12 Device Program" (sponsored by Nokia) has 100 Nokia N9/N950 devices, where 74 are already allocated, and there are still some great developers (authors of great projects) without any devices (from the awards).

For example, the authors of :
- Inception (author isnotabigtruck) has easily opened Harmattan to almost the same level of Fremantle, allowing overclocking, chroot (Easy Debian, Harmattan SDK, etc), running C-compiled softwares (.o), etc. Inception is cited everywhere in Internet.. And I won't upgrade to PR1.3 if a new version Inception isn't released;
- NITDroid for Harmattan (author eyes) allows to run Android 4.0 on Nokia N9/N950 in dual boot with open mode kernel. NITDroid makes Nokia N9 more popular as the NITDroid forum has approx. 2.5 thousand registered users, NITDroid was and is well cited all over Internet;
- Easy Debian/HarmChom for Harmattan (author qole) allows to run Debian inside Harmattan using chroot (with open mode kernel or inception), including OpenOffice with virtual keyboard, etc. OpenOffice opens in 10 s !
- maybe other projects like overclocking, etc, if their authors haven't yet won any award device.

I propose that these projects and authors can be allowed to participate in the "2012 Coding Competition" in some way or another :
- because they couldn't fit in "Apps for Nokia Store" and "Qt5 Mobile Projects" acitivities, and they weren't awarded in the "Community Awards";
- even if the softwares aren't a single .deb because they are complex projects that deal with low-level tricks of the Harmattan OS;
- because these projects are very important to thousands of Harmattan users, their existence and popularity in Internet shows how Harmattan is a lot different/better than other mobile OS.

IMHO, the above authors/projects would be put in a special category (hors-concours) of "2012 Coding Competition" and receive their N9/N950 as soon as possible (in July) to boost their projects development, with the simple condition that they say they will continue developing their projects.

It would be total non-sense to have 100 Nokia devices as awards and the most popular/breakthrough coding projects (NITDroid, Inception, Easy Debian, etc) for Harmattan without any device award.

Everyone's welcome to take part and earn a prize rcolistete, but we'll not be treating anyone as a special case.

@rcolistete: a substantial upgrade from previous releases to qualify for entry to the 'Updates to existing applications', so they are free to participate if you release a substatial upgrade to their software. And IF "The applications have to run on default hardware running on an official version of Maemo or Harmattan.". Unfortunately that rule might be hard to fulfill (at least the install instructions will be so long that some people might get turned off and not vote for that).

Changing the rules during competition will cause flaming, this suggestion about special category should have been posted before competition has started. But luckily there still is the updates category.

We made that rule to make sure we can test the submitted software before starting the voting period.
Last year we had a script which could have caused harm to the users devices, that's why we want to test the submissions first.

We don't have every device or we wouldn't be able to hardware mod our devices or buy new ones just to test some exotic apps...
So for example I wouldn't count the N950 as default hardware, because you can't buy it. If there would be an app requiring the N950.
Or I wouldn't count Nemo as official version of Maemo or Harmattan. If there would be an app requiring Nemo...

So I think EasyDebian, Inception and NITDroid wouldn't be a problem.
Just my opinion, though.

But what could be a substantial update?
EasyDebian: An easy installation maybe? With bundled inception?
Inception: Working with PR 1.3?
NITDroid: Version 4.1 JellyBelly?

I would read that rule as saying that an application entered into the coding competition should not require a modified device to install and run. In other words, someone taking a new device out of the box should be able to install your application with as little fuss as possible (ie. on unchanged default hardware that's running an official version of Maemo or Harmattan OS). We won't turn away an application because it might require some set up, but I'd expect clear instructions on installation and removal to be made available.

I haven't looked at them in great detail (I tested NITDroid way back when DJ_Steve created it, and qole's Easy Debian has been around forever it seems ), at face value there's certainly a possibility for the developers to enter them into the 'updates' category. Thing is, from what I can tell, none of the developers have shown any interest in the competition. So perhaps this is all talk for no reason.

My worry is we're being drawn into an argument regarding the community awards which is really a distraction for us. We'll no doubt have our own problems and bumps to focus on as the competition continues.