We've been thinking about the best way for the selection of attendees of developer events for more than three years. First-come-first-serve? Lottery? Neither seems to be completely fair; plus, we don't think these can select the most passionate and skillful developers and it's not fun for anyone either.

We were searching for some new way to:

• Be fair
• Select appropriate developers
• Entertain developers

Now we are excited to announce a much better way: DevQuiz.

Those who plan to participate in DevFest Japan 2010 are required to answer questions in DevQuiz. (Sorry, the quiz is only in Japanese) There are several questions; some are really easy ones and others are a bit tough but should not be difficult for developers. The top 400 high achievers will get invitations for DevFest 2010 Japan.

Here's a sample:

Please post your email address (registered for devfest 2010 japan) to this server with the following encryption:

• A -> X
• B -> Y
• C -> Z
• D -> A
• Z -> W
• @ -> @

Post your encrypted email address and keyword as "{{ secret_key}}" to http://devquiz.appspot.com/personalpost

Please do a POST in JSON format as below with Content-type=text/plain

{

"key": keyword

"pass": encrypted mail address

}

We plan to disclose the solutions to quizzes and announce the results at DevFest Japan.

This quiz program is purely experimental and if we get positive feedback, we can have quizzes as a streamlined process for selection of developers at future developer events.

Give DevQuiz a shot, and we hope to see you at this year's DevFest!

Posted by Naoki Ishihara, Developer Relation Japan Team

Hello, everybody! I'm the Kyoto GTUG Manager, Daisuke Yamashita.

In the Kyoto GTUG, we want to offer developers a place where they can actually get their hands on the code in hackathons.

Our next hackathon will focus on Android, and will be held on September 5, 2009.

Even if you're not familiar with Android technology, you can still participate because we'll have a few learning sessions before the event.

If you're interested, please join our group and register for the event.

We are looking forward to your participation.

Dates:
14 Aug(Fri) 19:00-21:00 Prior studying for hackathon
21 Aug(Fri) 19:00-21:00 Prior studying for hackathon
29 Aug(Sat) 17:00-19:00 Prior meeting for hackathon
5 Sep(Sat) 10:00-18:00 Android Hackathon in Kyoto

Location:
Meeting roon in Kyoto Research Park

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=ja&msa=0&msid=116246349710164293508.0004705ac023d5a2a0286&ll=34.995076,135.739217&spn=0.007137,0.009645&z=17

134 Chudoji Minami-machi, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto

(These event supported by Kyoto Research Park Corp [http://www.krp.co.jp/])

Posted by Daisuke Yamashita, Kyoto GTUG Manager

Japanese version follows:

みなさま、はじめまして。京都GTUGマネージャーの山下です。

京都GTUGでは、

勉強会だけでなくHackathonのような、実際にGoogleのテクノロジーを利用する
機会を提供しております。

現在申し込み可能なイベントとしては、9月5日に開催される「Android Hackathon in Kyoto」が
あります。

参加は必須ではありませんが、Hackathonの前に勉強会を２回開催しますので、Androidを初めて
触るという方でもお気軽にご参加頂けます。

みなさまのご参加をお待ちしております。

日時：
8月14日(金) 19:00-21:00 事前勉強会
8月21日(金) 19:00-21:00 事前勉強会
8月29日(土) 17:00-19:00 事前ミーティング
9月5日(土) 10:00-18:00 Android Hackathon in Kyoto

場所：
京都リサーチパーク
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=ja&msa=0&msid=116246349710164293508.0004705ac023d5a2a0286&ll=34.995076,135.739217&spn=0.007137,0.009645&z=17
京都府京都市下京区中堂寺南町１３４番地
(今回のイベントは、京都リサーチパーク株式会社 様[http://www.krp.co.jp/]より会場をご提供いただきました。)
(京都リサーチパーク株式会社では、ベンチャー支援事業を行っております。)


グループ: http://group.kyoto-gtug.org/
申し込みフォーム: http://link.kyoto-gtug.org/android-hackathon1
ウェブサイト: http://kyoto-gtug.org/
Kyoto GTUG ロゴファイル: http://sites.google.com/a/kyoto-gtug.org/home/logo-1

For developers who read Japanese or Simplified Chinese, we have some year-end updates for you on code.google.com:

• OpenSocial documentation for 0.8 is available in Chinese and Japanese.
  
• The documentation for OpenSocial 0.7 has been updated with the latest English changes.
• For Japanese readers, there's a new translation of the Apps API.
  
• Finally, the site directory and API homepages are all updated -- you can now learn about Chromium, Google Custom Search API, V8, and other new APIs.
  

If you have your browser preferences set for Chinese or Japanese, you should see the translated pages automatically when you visit code.google.com. Or, use the language selector in the top right corner of the page to choose the language that you want to use to view code.google.com. You can change your language selection at any time.

We're looking forward to posting more translated content soon, in 2009.

Naomi Bilodeau, Google Code Team

What an exciting couple of weeks it's going to be for OpenSocial in Asia Pacific.

This weekend, there will be 3 OpenSocial hackathons happening simultaneously in Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia. Organizers are expecting the combined attendance of all three hackathons to be 100 developers. The emphasis for the events in Hanoi and Singapore will be on creating applications to be submitted to the OpenSocial contest for Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the hackathon in Australia will focus on creating iGoogle applications, then throwing in the social elements. Big thanks to eXo Platform, WebPal Networks, and e27 for all of their help in organizing these hackathons. Unfortunately, the Singapore event is closed for signups. If you'd like to register for the Sydney event or the Hanoi event, please be aware that space is extremely limited so sign up quickly! The organizers will do their best to accommodate as many people as possible. More details on the agenda for each country can be found here for Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia.

Next week, Google China will be hosting OpenSocial hackathons in Beijing (12/16) and Shanghai (12/18). Space is extremely limited and filling up fast, so if you're in China and want to join us for either of these two events, please register here. We'll spend the mornings talking through application demos, code samples, container updates, and then we'll dive into coding. During the evenings, we'll see an overview of branded application opportunities from Mentez, plus a presentation from Google's AdSense team. Mentez is a partner company working towards the promotion and development of successful Internet applications, mainly geared towards social networks.

In China, we're looking forward to seeing attendees develop high quality OpenSocial applications for leading social networking sites in China such as MySpace.cn, Xiaonei, 51.com, YiQi.com, and Tianya. There will also be quick updates of OpenSocial support from those same leading sites, followed by topics of interest to all developers such as best practices for Chinese and foreign app developers, monetization opportunities, consulting partnership, and hosting solutions. The hackathons will last from 9:30am to 8pm (or later), culminating in a contest to determine the best apps, as voted on by participating developers. First prize winners will receive an iPod Touch.

There will also be an OpenSocial hackathon for developers in Japan on 12/18. If you'd like to register, you can do so here. This event will feature OpenSocial partners MySpace Japan and Recruit. The goal for this event is to prototype high quality applications for the Japanese market.

It's really exciting to see both OpenSocial's adoption in Asia, as well as tremendous interest from developers to make the web more open and more social.


Jason Costa & Shawn Shen, Developer Relations, OpenSocial