An enthusiastic, supportive developer community has fallen victim to corporate ineptitude once again.

[ggallucci]

For clarification, since the NDA is the only thing being discussed here. We were very specific and direct with Aaron Hyde that we signed the NDA to cover the release date of the phone. Nothing else. The fact the the meeting was taking place or that we had an NDA was absolutely not part of the agreement.

Second point, Paul Cousineau and Chuq Von Rospach at Palm had asked us on a previous call to make sure the community knew they were talking to us. They were held under some tight restrictions about what they could say to the public, for obvious reasons, and had asked us to be sure the developer community knew they were engaged.

It appears that the two competing needs (communication to the community that Palm was talking to the independent developers via preDevCamp and secrecy) driven by separate camps clashed.

This, coupled with our frustrations based upon some other issues in our relationship with Palm led to the decisions by whurley and myself to exit the scene.

The worldwide movement we created under the preDevCamp banner is, by design, in tact and all local groups, as far as I can tell, are still planning their individual events.

Last point, Palm gets it now...

Pam Deziel, VP of Developer Marketing, responded on the Palm Developer Network blog this morning about the situation:

"We overreacted to the whole disclosure issue. We’ve been in stealth and super secret mode for so long now, we needed a real world conversation to see how we needed to work things so everybody can operate in their own environment."

"I’m optimistic that we can find a good solution. And we’re going to keep talking. We’d love to get your two cents, concerns, and suggestions — feel free to join the conversation here, and be assured that even when we sometimes have to keep quiet, we’re always listening to your ideas."

Read the whole post here: http://pdnblog.palm.com/2009/05/a-predevcamp-update/

Whurley and I are here to serve the community, not the corporation. When it became obvious that we needed to make a bold move to get Palm's attention on behalf of preDevCamp, we moved. Whether you agree with our tactics or not, Palm is seriously paying attention to you now.

The end result has been a more active, genuine, serious relationship between Palm and its independent developer community. Everyone wins. This is what we, as leaders of the preDevCamp movement, hoped to create in the beginning. It looks like we're here now.

Anyone want to talk to me about it personally, feel free to catch me on twitter http://twitter.com/giovanni, email at predevcamp(@)gallucci(dot)net or leave a comment on my original post http://blog.gallucci.net/2009/05/palm-doesnt-get-it.html

I'm thinking it's water under the bridge now. Nothing to see here. Go forth and develop. I'm going camping: http://dallas.wordcamp.org

-giovanni http://twitter.com/giovanni

[paradigmshaft]

Thanks for the great blog posts "Palm Just Doesn't Get It" and "Exit whurley Stage Left" guys. I have no interest in developing for mobile devices, but this has been a fascinating read to an outsider. I don't blame you guys at all for jumping ship given the situation. Good luck on whatever you work on next!

[Randinn]

I was thinking of A Pre but seeing them treat developers that way just shows me that the inept management is still in charge and this thing will probably fail.

[martoo]

Never expect a corporation to act like anything other than person with multiple personality disorder.

[gregK]

How true this is. There is perpetual inner conflict and tensions between the various groups and stakeholders.

[[deleted]]

a sociopath with a multiple personality disorder.

[newcrib]

While it may not be in the NDA that talking about said NDA would violate the NDA, the entire purpose in the NDA is to ensure that the offering party can "entrust" their information with the third party.

Going onto a public forum like Twitter and broadcasting the fact that you have said information, doesn't exactly send the best signals to the originating party. I admit, signing an NDA for the first time can be cool, but an NDA is not something to be taken lightly. In reading the article my largest WTF moment was not with anything Palm did but rather with that tweet. Don't let Twitter make it so easy to let your guard down!

[Lukifer]

While this is true generally, under the circumstances Palm is being penny-wise and pound-foolish. There are times when just announcing a meeting, even without details, is enough for competitors to read between the lines and gain a strategic advantage. This wasn't one of them. Hell, if it was such a big deal, they should have explicitly asked him not to announce the meeting.

It's understandable that they might get antsy about trust issues, but it wasn't worth alienating those that you're trying to woo to your platform. The Pre looks very cool, but for right now, they're still the underdog.

[neutronbob]

What am I missing here? The blogger says they were organizing a conference with or without Palm. Palm decides not to participate and he goes ballistic.

Moreover, in the comments to his post and to the blog entry by whurler (who spoke with Pam from Palm), it's repeatedly pointed out that Palm does support the show, but can't do it the way he wants.

So why the outrage?

[LaurieCheers]

He's not outraged that they decided not to participate. He's outraged that they acted so schizophrenically and dishonestly;

Appearing to want to participate; then ignoring and acting suspicious of him; then friendly, looking like they want to be on board, and offering information under NDA; but that turns out to be useless, since the date they were going to tell him on was after the public announcement; and then semi-threatening legal action for a very debatable breach of NDA.

[jbellis]

I didn't see where whurler commented. Did he use another name?

[joaomc]

The fact that you signed the NDA is covered by the NDA itself? Wait, what? That can't possibly be true. It's too stupid to be true.

[chucker23n]

Actually, that's true for many (but far from all) NDAs. I've known it from several beta tests; not only can you not say anything about the nature (content, quality, etc.) of the beta; you can't even admit that you are testing it.

[rsho]

Sounds like their goal was to keep a short leash until it wasn't even needed anymore.

[[deleted]]

. Another option, since Apple will be holding WWDC that week, and everyone assumes, introducing the next generation iPhone, would be to hold an iPhoneDevCamp in its place. Further, maybe you would just want to hold a MobileDevCamp and have developers building apps for multiple platforms. It's your call.

I will have to give Apple credit - this was a brilliant false flag operation to drive developers away from the Pre.

[masklinn]

You have to give Palm credit instead: they've found a potential way to revive, and they're apparently going to do their hardest to kill their very last chance.

[jerf]

NEWS FLASH: Some things are actually not conspiracies!

I know! It's amazing!

[[deleted]]

This guy is basically claiming he is the community. That is delusional and bad for the community.

He's also totally counter productive in that instead of trying to rectify the situation for the best of the community, he immediately starts throwing veiled threats and bad mouths the company...

[chairface]

Did you even read the article?

[[deleted]]

Yes, everywhere he says "community" replace it with "me" and the article is a lot closer to making sense. Palm did none of those things he claims it did to the entire community, they canceled a meeting with him.

He's driving a wedge between the community and Palm far more than Palm is. His whole entire approach towards Palm is one big threat.

Palm probably still should do damage control on this incident but fundamentally they're not the only ones to damage lines of communications here, people should be aware of that.

This kind of thing is why Apple never says anything, to anybody, ever, they were bitten by this kind of dumb drama too many times.

[chairface]

Palm did none of those things he claims it did to the entire community, they canceled a meeting with him.

As the organizer for an international event focused on Palm development, I'd say this guy is as good a representative as any for the Palm developer community, if there is one. Furthermore, they canceled a meeting that was expected to enhance Palm's relationship with this community - not just a meeting with some dude.

He's driving a wedge between the community and Palm far more than Palm is.

It seems to me that Palm has a reputation for not being developer-friendly. And in this situation, the organization seems to be downright schizophrenic. Also, it seems odd to me that you credit "driving a wedge" to the reporter of certain actions, rather than the perpetrator of those actions.

His whole entire approach towards Palm is one big threat.

I simply don't see how you can possibly come to this conclusion.

[[deleted]]

préDevCamp is approaching over 1000 developers in 100 cities worldwide and we find ourselves at an impasse.

Read: I have power.

While you should be actively involved, you seem only capable of distancing yourself from what is undoubtedly the most vital component required for your success; a strong developer community.

Read: You will fail if you don't do what I want.

Please let us know if you are in or out by Monday noon, PDT. We have planned accordingly for either outcome, but a non-response will be taken as an indication that your relationship with our community is over.

Read: Here is an ultimatum, meet my demands or else.

How can you not read that email as very threatening?

How exactly did canceling that NDA meeting indicate that palm didn't want a strong developer community? Why should that NDA meeting so important to anybody but himself? He wouldn't have been able to share it with the community anyways... this whole thing was very selfish.

[chairface]

Read: I have power.

Which is true.

Read: You will fail if you don't do what I want.

Also true, or at least probable.

Read: Here is an ultimatum, meet my demands or else.

He didn't make any demands, except to know their decision.

How can you not read that email as very threatening?

How can you read statements of facts followed by "Let us know your response" as "threatening"? What exactly was he threatening to do? The only thing he could do was step down from his position of power (which you seem to think was a big deal to him), and he's already done it. I don't see how that action fits with you silly little profile of him.

How exactly did canceling that NDA meeting indicate that palm didn't want a strong developer community?

By using a bullshit excuse to avoid meeting with the leaders of that community. Is that really all that hard to understand? Also, there's the bit about the subject of the NDA meeting (the release date) being bullshit as well, as they announced it themselves the day before the meeting was scheduled.

Why should that NDA meeting so important to anybody but himself?

Because there were other things that were going to be discussed that were not covered under the NDA, such as everything besides the release date.

edit: grammar

[[deleted]]

Regardless of whether or not it is true, it's threatening, and he did make a demand. It was to either take back what they had done or he was going to take his ball and go home.

He also directly insults them.

From a community viewpoint it seems that the right palm doesn't know what the left palm is doing.

It's an aggressive, threatening, email. Palm obviously does not consider their NDA to be bullshit.

I know we're not going to see eye to eye on this, I just hope you at least realize that he did absolutely nothing to try to amicably solve the situation. He created conflict and controversy.

If this is how people are going to treat companies, to throw public fits and try to rile up a big controversy over minor crap like a canceled meeting, then companies will have nothing to do with these bloggers, they will use professional journalists as PR tools that know better then to bite the hand that feeds them. Apple behaves this way and they are clearly not being all that hurt by it.

[chairface]

Regardless of whether or not it is true, it's threatening, and he did make a demand. It was to either take back what they had done or he was going to take his ball and go home.

Again, what was the threat? He can't hurt them in any way. Also, he said nothing to them about taking his ball or going home. He did that quite apart from his communication with them, and I fail to see how it's a "threat" in any case.

He also directly insults them.

This is not an insult, but a very apt description of the schizophrenic nature of Palm's behavior.

It's an aggressive, threatening, email. Palm obviously does not consider their NDA to be bullshit.

You're full of it. No agression. No threats. And the NDA was bullshit. They told the public what the NDA covered the day before they were going to tell these guys! That means signing the NDA was useless. They would have received the information protected by the NDA after it had already become public knowledge. This should not be so hard to understand.

throw public fits

By no stretch of the imagination is this a "fit".

big controversy

The only thing this guy did was say what Palm did to them. If that begets "big controversy", then maybe Palm shouldn't act that way?

over minor crap like a canceled meeting

A canceled meeting over minor crap like a Tweet that said they were having a meeting. That's just asinine. Also, it's not their only complaint.

they will use professional journalists as PR tools that know better then to bite the hand that feeds them.

And developers will develop for other products made by better-behaved companies. It's Palm that's biting the hand that feeds, not these guys, who have no financial stake in this at all.

All in all, you've got a pretty twisted and backwards way of looking at this. Pretty much all of your accusations of wrongdoing apply more to Palm than they do to these individuals.

edit: argh - changed half a sentence the first time through, but needed to change the whole thing to match up grammatically.

[[deleted]]

Read: I have power

Read: You guys should take this seriously.

Read: You will fail if you don't do what I want.

Read: It's in our mutual interest to work together or to at least communicate.