Dev Derby

By all accounts, our first go at running a Dev Derby was a success. While we didn’t emerge from the day with a production-ready application, no one involved thought that would happen. What we did do is meet a number of new developers (most local to Bloomington), highlight a need for technological intervention into the non-profit sector, and lay the foundation for doing this all again. (FYI, the 2010 Dev Derby Developer Challenge (PDF) can be found online.)

My thinking right now is that Dev Derby could happen 2-4 times a year, not just in conjunction with The Combine. It would intentionally make use of the artifacts from past events—submitted code, design documents, visual design, and marketing plans—to seed future events. In addition to generating and iterating code, we could have similar challenges for designers (to create research and grounded concepts) and marketers (to suggest plans for effectively implementing the creative and technical work).

Rather than getting everyone together in person to do a post-mortem, we’re going to attempt to solicit feedback here, through the comments attached to this post. The developers panel Saturday afternoon was a great start, revealing some preferences for more lead time with the challenge and some team building prior to the coding event. We are very interested in hearing from: Participants (Developers and Designers), Judges, Organizers and Volunteers, Fans and Observers, Businesses and potential sponsors, and Non-profit organizations and volunteers.

In particular, we are hoping to get some discussion going on any and all of these topics:

1. Should we do this again?
2. How often should this occur?
3. What is the ideal length for a similar coding challenge?
4. How much lead time is needed to prepare for the challenge?
5. How would design and business best be included in future challenges?
6. Are the monetary incentives needed to get participation?
7. How do we promote iteration of the resulting code?
8. How do we improve gender and cultural balance in participation?

We welcome open discussion here, as well as any additional input emailed to info -at- devderby.com.

What do you think we should do to improve Dev Derby?

A belated thanks to all of the participants, designers, judges, and volunteers who helped the first Dev Derby be a success. At the end of the day on September 11, 2010, we had five sets of base code for future developers to get them started in addressing a key need for promoting volunteer connections with non-profits.

The judges awarded Team Java the winners of a $500 first prize. The group of developers, led by Lawrence McAlpin, had the most complete offering across the four areas of interest—Design, Technical value, Practical value, and Communications. Congratulations!

The other four teams also received awards of $100. All winning teams should begin receiving their awards this week. We hope to release the code as open source later this week as well.

Team Java:

• Lawrence McAlpin, Team Lead
• Adam Foltzer
• Nicholas Bannister-Andrews
• Zachary Struck
• Brent Kievit-Kylar
• Brenton Bostick
• Marc Godard

Team PHP:

• Chance Garcia, Team Lead
• Dennis Rogers
• Matthew Haralovich
• Max Beatty
• Grant Simpson
• Ryan Dagey

Team .NET:

• Eric Peters, Team Lead
• David Smart
• Colin Campbell
• Marcus Reed
• Gabriel Recchia
• Dan Hiester
• Adam Goss

Team Ruby:

• Justin Ko, Team Lead
• Matt Sacks
• Allan Branch

Team Python:

• Charles Brandt, Team Lead
• Rajesh Gollapudi
• Vijay Lulla
• Josh Dolitsky

Design Team:

• Jessica Falkenthal, Team Lead
• John Wayne Hill
• Beemish Chaudry
• Jenny Hertel
• Daniel Richert
• Anna Eaglin

Judges:

• Tara Bazler, Communication Judge
• Marty Siegel, Design Judge
• Lucy Schaich, Practical Judge
• Jay Sissom, Technical Judge

This is the fourth in a multi-part series, “Better Know Your Team Lead.” Next up is Justin Ko, who will be leading the Ruby team in Dev Derby 2010. Taking a page from Marcel Proust, James Lipton, and now SociaLens, we’re asking the same series of thought-provoking questions to everyone we profile.

Justin Ko, Ruby Team Lead

WHAT MADE YOUR FAVORITE WORD YOUR FAVORITE WORD?

I don’t have a favorite, but one word that humors me is pumpernickel.

WHICH FAULT DO YOU TOLERATE MOST?

Addiction. It goes much deeper than reason.

HOW DOES YOUR HERO OR HEROINE INSPIRE YOU?

I am inspired by people who push the curve. Progression (in a positive direction) is always an exciting thing.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF HAPPINESS?

Thinking happy thoughts. Satisfaction in the moment is usually the cause of this.

WHEN TWITTER TAKES OVER GRAVEYARDS, WHAT WILL YOUR TOMBSTONE READ?

I just tried looking up my “mentions” in the past, and got this: “Older tweets are temporarily unavailable.”