Google I/O Bound!

Background#

Last year, I had the privilege of attending Google I/O and it was nothing short of amazing.  When registration opened up for Google I/O 2011, it was sold out in 59 minutes.  I tried registering about 30 minutes upon opening, but I was unable to get a ticket.

Luckily, Google launched a contest called Last Call for Google I/O, which they describe as

"A contest that spans 10 days, 10 developer challenges and 100 chances to win tickets to attend the now-sold-out Google I/O 2011."

I knew that this was my chance to win a ticket.  For each category, there was two rounds that developers must go through.  Round 1 is just a fast quiz that everyone enters, only the quickest and most accurate 200 submissions will move on to Round 2.  Round 2 is a 24-hour coding challenge, out of the 200 individuals that make it, only 10 will be selected for a free pass to Google I/O.

AccessibleYoutube#

I made it to Round II in the Accessibility category, and for Round 2, the goal was to design an Android app that searches only for YouTube videos that have captions.  It must then be able to playback the video and be able to quickly share the URL with others.  It also must be accessible-friendly (obviously).

After 24 hours of disregarding homework, classes, and sleep to finish this app, I submitted it with little hope of winning.  I did not fully satisfy all the specifications, and my app was not optimized at all (Mark and I agree that it is quite the POS).

However, on April 4th, I received the great news that I was one of the 10 winners!  They even featured my name on the contest website along with the other winners.  Also, Google Code wrote a blog post that goes into more details about the winners of each category.

Conclusion#

I will be attending Google I/O again this year, and I already can't wait for it to begin.  I learned my lesson this year...next year I will make sure to be ready by the second.

In case anyone is interested, the source code for my AccessibleYoutube android app is here.

Screenshots of AccessibleYoutube#