After the deadline for submitting apps for the Ubuntu App Showdown passed on the 9th of July, many of you have asked about what’s going to happen next.While we posted an quick update to inform participants that their entries got in, there have been some more questions on what the next steps will be.
But before we get on to that, here are some impressive figures: we’ve had nearly 150 submissions, of which about 130 are valid entries.
That has quite honestly exceeded our most optimistic expectations. So first of all thanks to all participants: for the effort and passion you’ve put on your apps, for the updates and blog posts on the ubuntuappshowdown reddit and on the social media, for the questions and answers on Askubuntu… you all rock. From idea to a full-blown distributable app in 3 weeks. What you’ve achieved is truly awesome.
Reviews, reviews
Right now Daniel Holbach and Michael Hall, together with the Ubuntu App Review Board (ARB) and the ARB contributors team are leading the effort of reviewing all apps for the contest, to ensure they comply with the technical requirements to qualify. Reviewing that huge number of submissions requires quite a bit of time, and while reviewing an app might take only from 5 to 20 minutes, there are still a lot of them and they need all the help they can get.
So if you:
- Would like to help making Ubuntu a better platform for apps
- Would like to contribute to the Ubuntu App Developer Showdown success
- Have got some packaging skills
- Have got at least 1 hour to spare
- Would optionally like to join the Ubuntu App Review Contributors team
Your help will be extremely useful. Simply join the #ubuntu-arb IRC channel, tell us you’d like to help and dholbach (Daniel), mhall119 (Mike) and the others will get your started. Join the ARB channel and help reviewing ›
If you are a Showdown participant, the ARB has either got in touch with you already or will do soon. You will receive an e-mail if:
- Your app needs fixing in terms of packaging
- Your app got rejected because it did not comply with the contest rules (which include the ARB guidelines)
Read carefully what they tell you in that e-mail, please address any issues they mention, and reply on the ‘Feedback‘ tab on your app submission in MyApps. Your promt reply and action will help speeding up reviews.
Voting
In parallel with the review process, the panel of judges will start testing your PPAs and voting on apps very very soon. We do have a list already, which we are refining with the feedback from the ARB. Just before the voting starts, we will also publish a list of qualified apps on this site.
So good luck in the contest, and thanks again for your stunning work!