Yep you're correct Helmuth, thats what we did The Nokia/Linux foundation prize was a lot more valuable than what the 1st place would have been, so we felt it was better to spread the collected bounty out to more people. However i remember not everyone was happy with this arrangement, in particular one of the low points for me was that one of our members (Gary) was unhappy that his donation would be used in this way (he felt strongly that the 1st place winner should also get a share of the bounty). But he's probably forgotten all about it now, so nobody remind him It's would be a good idea to get this confirmed asap though so people will know exactly how their donation will be used.

In regards to the 1st place prizes from the last competition, there was some confusion as to how our winners could claim their trips/handsets, and also that some of the winners had to spend money first to book flights etc and have it reimbursed later. It would be brilliant if not only the prizes are nailed down confirmed but the process for the winners to claim them is known in advance of the end date (if possible). Takes the worry out of it for everyone, that includes the organizers too! I remember last time reading a few worried posts from various people and really not being able to do anything about it to help them myself. But in the end everything worked out alright

Agreed, a lot of the developers from last time have moved on. Having said that, a lot of the entries for the previous competition came in the final few weeks so I'd still hope for a small avalanche towards the end

From what i can tell, a lot of the buzz is really coming from what remains of the maemo.org side. Is there much buzz from meego.com or the ex-Moblin guys? I am a member of meego.com but in truth I rarely visit there. I'd be interested to hear how much they have gotten behind the competition,

Part of the problem appears to be that there isn't enough developers out there with MeeGo devices to work on, on the other hand Intel has literally handed out thousands of MeeGo netbooks/tablets over the past year. If we could get a small fraction of these guys to enter the competition (even as beginners) it would be a great boost. zehjotkah did his bit at the recent MeeGo freeday announcing the competition to the attendees just before they picked up their free hardware, I hope they listened and will take the time to repay Intel's kindness with a quick app of any description/quality.

From twitter there doesnt seem to be that many developers I know with MeeGo/Qt devices to work on, other than the N900. Most of these have moved onto Android rather than followed the natural path to MeeGo. I can also see that there are journalists who have received 5-6 MeeGo devices from attending various meetings and conferences, but who have no intention of entering the competition or even programming on the device ever. I suspect I might have bid for a few of them on ebay recently If i was working for Intel in charge of distributing devices to the community, I'd have suggested reaching out to the developers from the last competition and, if they were interested in the platform, giving them a tablet/notebook pre-loaded with MeeGo to work on and a link to the comp wiki page. But then again, Im biased Has anyone reached out to the previous entrants to make sure they are aware of the new competition and to ask if they are thinking of entering this time?

There also seems to be a lot of Intel AppUp competition's running, i fear we may be competing with them a little for the same developers.

With MeeGo conf around the corner, in the next few weeks we may see a new explosion in MeeGo interest. Hopefully zehjotkah and others will be able to get the word out amongst the attendees somehow, particularly the developers in the audience. I recommend hanging out in the hack spaces after dark, look for the very drunk people

Having said all I said, I haven't entered so I need to take a look at myself. Im sure I can squeeze out an app or two over the next few weekends, if only I can think of some ideas!

Agreed As long as we have something substantial for 1-3 (prizes, share of bounty, whatever) then it doesnt hurt to spread it out a bit further to 4th. In truth there's not much left when it gets to 4th place, but the winners seemed very appreciative last time