The Decline of WWDC

>Will your next article focus on the lousy press room food of a Macworld
>Expo?

Entirely likely, since we've written about food quality several times
in relation to Macworld Expo and ADHOC. :-)

http://db.tidbits.com/article/7732
http://db.tidbits.com/article/7747
http://db.tidbits.com/article/7752

Responses to this article have been interesting in that most are
either highly positive or quite negative. A number of people have
considered the article just whining, but plenty of others have been
grateful for some public acknowledgement of what was to them an
obvious and significant problem with the conference.

One thing I haven't yet figured out is if the difference may lie in
whether the people who think WWDC is on its way to Hades in the
proverbial handbasket paid the $1600 (perhaps plus hotel and airfare)
out of their own pockets, or if their employers paid for them. Matt
paid for WWDC on his own, since the information he learned was of use
to him as a developer, and since it's under NDA, it's not something
he can write about in TidBITS anyway. But I could see someone who
expensed the entire trip expecting less than someone for whom WWDC
cost more than a new Mac Pro.

Finally, a lot of people seem to be missing the main point of the
article, which is Matt's concern that Apple's attitude with regard to
how they treat developers at WWDC might reflect a more deep-seated
attitude toward developers in general. Matt's point is that
developers are an important customer base for Apple (not in the least
because they buy a lot of Apple hardware and have paid thousands of
dollars to attend WWDC), and if Apple isn't treating that customer
base well, that may be worth watching.

It's also worth noting that there's no WWDC for the iPod because
Apple doesn't allow anyone to develop for the iPod - it's not a
platform. And with Apple putting more and more software in the box
with each Mac, developers have had to work harder to find remaining
niches. To my mind, this all means that developers should not become
complacent about Apple's view of their importance. :-)

cheers... -Adam

--
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Publisher <http://www.tidbits.com/adam/>

On 8/23/06 14:49, "Adam C. Engst" <acetidbits.com> wrote:

> One thing I haven't yet figured out is if the difference may lie in
> whether the people who think WWDC is on its way to Hades in the
> proverbial handbasket paid the $1600 (perhaps plus hotel and airfare)
> out of their own pockets, or if their employers paid for them. Matt
> paid for WWDC on his own, since the information he learned was of use
> to him as a developer, and since it's under NDA, it's not something
> he can write about in TidBITS anyway. But I could see someone who
> expensed the entire trip expecting less than someone for whom WWDC
> cost more than a new Mac Pro.

The idea that "my company paid, so I don't care" is not exactly what I would
call accurate. That money comes out of a budget. That budget has to be
justified. The time expense is still the same. The effort spent is still the
same. The fact that my ticket came out of a budget unit instead of my wallet
is a function of my job, but that doesn't make me blasé about the content.

>
> Finally, a lot of people seem to be missing the main point of the
> article, which is Matt's concern that Apple's attitude with regard to
> how they treat developers at WWDC might reflect a more deep-seated
> attitude toward developers in general. Matt's point is that
> developers are an important customer base for Apple (not in the least
> because they buy a lot of Apple hardware and have paid thousands of
> dollars to attend WWDC), and if Apple isn't treating that customer
> base well, that may be worth watching.

If you define "treating well" by "quality and quantity of free stuff" then
your priorities are off. I wasn't particularly un- or de- pressed by the BAG
quality. I don't really care about it. I have a bag, as do, I'd guess,
almost all of the attendees. that's just stuff for other folks. The food?
Meh, It's conference food. It always has been, at least since 1999. And
people have been talking about the "good old days" even then. I guess I
started too late for the coq au vin and filet lunches served by supermodels
on golden plates. I found the quality of the LABS to be more depressing than
whatever food they threw at me.

>
> It's also worth noting that there's no WWDC for the iPod because
> Apple doesn't allow anyone to develop for the iPod - it's not a
> platform.

Um...there's no SOFTWARE development for it. There is however, rather a lot
of HARDWARE development for it. However, it's also a rather limited use
device, so there's not much you can put into developing software that only
runs on the iPod.

> And with Apple putting more and more software in the box
> with each Mac, developers have had to work harder to find remaining
> niches. To my mind, this all means that developers should not become
> complacent about Apple's view of their importance. :-)

That makes Apple like everyone else. If they didn't, then the standard "This
isn't worth $129" hue and cry that erupts with EVERY version of Mac OS X,
(Yes, there were even people whining about the VERY limited cost of 10.1.
The Mac community is nothing if not expert at being never happy), would be
even louder. The idea that Apple will never add in a feature that someone
else created as a third party application, or that they somehow shouldn't do
this is naïve at best, and the idea that doing so spells DOOOOOOM for the
affected third party developer is naïve. Oddly enough, Mail has yet to kill
all third party email applications, iCal hasn't put anyone out of business,
iWork didn't torpedo Microsoft OR OpenOffice, etc. Sometimes that DOES
happen, but when the competition has something to make it worth using other
than "!Apple", oddly enough, people do use it.

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

This article is bang-on.

I've gone to WWDC for the past 3 years and it seems cheaper every year. Getting DVDs of the sessions was a huge benefit but that was scrapped in place of video streaming. The food was pretty good 3 years ago with hot meals every day but not anymore. Plastic boxes with sandwiches instead. The last saving grace used to be the Campus Bash featuring a pretty well known band introduced by Phil Schiller and a nice barbecue but this year we got a DJ and no Schiller and Fajitas in their cafeteria.

Not feelin the love Apple !

On 8/24/06 11:50, "Rick Ruse" <rick.rusesheridanc.on.ca> wrote:

> I've gone to WWDC for the past 3 years and it seems cheaper every year.
> Getting DVDs of the sessions was a huge benefit but that was scrapped in place
> of video streaming. The food was pretty good 3 years ago with hot meals every
> day but not anymore. Plastic boxes with sandwiches instead. The last saving
> grace used to be the Campus Bash featuring a pretty well known band introduced
> by Phil Schiller and a nice barbecue but this year we got a DJ and no Schiller
> and Fajitas in their cafeteria.

That's funny, I could have sworn I was talking to Phil for a few minutes
there...

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

You forgot to mention that the students in attendance didn't get
mugs, only bags. This seemed kinda cheap, but we're students, hell,
the best they could do for our hotel service was the Pickwick.
Personally if/when i go back i'm staying somewhere a lot nicer, if i
have to walk a few more blocks, i don't really care, the dozen+
hotels within a 10 minute walk and they pick one that had crappy
internet, almost NO power outlets in the room, a TINY TV, etc.

  the logistics of the sessions themselves were very poorly thought
through (several sessions that SHOULD have been in one of the larger
spaces were stuck in the smaller ones and many people were turned
away (Obj-C 2.0 Overview, Time Machine session, just to name a
couple) and a couple of hte sessions i went to had so few people in
attendance we could have been moved to the hallway and nobody would
have noticed. On the topic of sessions, they either need to create a
distinct sys-admin conference separate from the developer one, or at
the very least quit paying lipservice to those of us who manage
systems and give us some better content. The previews of hardware
was nice, but more stuff on working with ARD, scripting OSX to your
will using both Bash and Applescript, etc. Ok, </rant>

Several (more) pieces of software developed by people in the audience
and worldwide were antiquated by Apple's versions (not necessarily a
bad thing, and better that its announced now to give them time to
work up another product)

I don't think you expressed just how badly the food sucked. The
first day lunch was good, i thought so anyway. After that it was
downright horrible.

my thoughts.

-nick


Nick Peelman
peelmanpurdue.edu
"Mac Support Specialist"
Agricultural Communications
Purdue University

On Aug 24, 2006, at 8:50 AM, Rick Ruse wrote:

> This article is bang-on.
>
> I've gone to WWDC for the past 3 years and it seems cheaper every
> year. Getting DVDs of the sessions was a huge benefit but that was
> scrapped in place of video streaming. The food was pretty good 3
> years ago with hot meals every day but not anymore. Plastic boxes
> with sandwiches instead. The last saving grace used to be the
> Campus Bash featuring a pretty well known band introduced by Phil
> Schiller and a nice barbecue but this year we got a DJ and no
> Schiller and Fajitas in their cafeteria.
>
> Not feelin the love Apple !

Aside from the fact that it didn't measure up to Club Med, how were
the presentations?
--
Greg Burkman
gburkmangmail.com

Some men are so macho they'll get you pregnant just to kill a rabbit.
-- Maureen Murphy

WWDC has gone significantly downhill over the past 5 years.

Forget the quality of the food and swag, which everyone can universally agree has (a) gotten much worse and (b) isn't the main reason to attend the conference.

Here are some development-related ways the conferences has gotten worse:

- The elimination of the third party booths. Past WWDCs had dozens of booths from third-party vendors who focused on developer solutions. This was very valuable because shows like MacWorld focus more on consumer and pro solutions, not developer solutions.

- The "morphing" of the IT track. I think that having an IT track per se is not a bad idea, but it has turned into less of a chance for IT folks to learn about IT on the Mac then a commercial for Apple solutions. Apple had three sessions about using their mediocre Remote Desktop product and one session on real-life interoperability with Active Directory. Which do you think is more useful for an admin in the real world?

- The elimination of the DVDs. These DVDs, which contained the contents of all the the sessions were invaluable for reference. They are no longer provided. Instead you have to watch replays online (if and when they are made available -- an open issue).

- This is a minor one, but the elimination of the Meet the VP's feedback forum was very sad. That used to be the only time when average Apple developers had a direct line to Apple's top leadership. I am sure it was cancelled because developers tend to ask too many questions without easy answers.

So, to avoid complete bitching, what does Apple do right?

- The Labs: There are a lot of these now, more then their used to be, and they are genuinely useful. This is some of the real meat of WWDC and it is prime.

- Network connectivity: Wireless acess has sucked at previous WWDCs, to put things charitably. This year it worked from hour one and worked well.

- Wide variety of sessions. There were a ton of very useful sessions. No wasted time. Only downside, sometimes two you wanted to go to were up in the same time slot...this wouldn't be as much an issue if Apple provided those DVDs (see above)

WWDC is still valuable...the old days of Krispy Kremes, cool swag and, well, fun may be long gone, but it is still the only way to really learn about Apple tech, and it is a must-go for any serious developer. Just remember, Apple, we bitch because we care!

Matt--

Right on. I tend to ignore the freebies, etc., but this was so bad
this year I was wondering if they were having cash-flow problems
overall...

Cheers!
--Chris Ryland / Em Software, Inc. / www.emsoftware.com

I agree completely, and said as much when I filled-out the post
conference survey sent to all attendees. I've gone to WWDC for the
past 4 years, and the food and amenities have gotten worse each year.
The conferences sessions themselves have remained (for the most part)
quite excellent. But no matter how good the sessions are, people will
remember the lack of quality in the amenities. Apple, please surprise
us all next year and go back to the excellence of 2003.

One thing that was better this year though - the wireless access was
much improved, probably because they added a 5.8ghz channel in
addition to the normal one.

Matt,

I too attended this year's WWDC, and I fully agree with the gist of
your article, but I also attended the 2003 WWDC, and my recollections
of that venue differ a bit from yours.

If I remember correctly, the current OS at that time was 10.2, and we
were handed a pre-release of 10.3 (so not of the 'currently shipping'
OS). Since the release of Panther was then only 3 months or so away,
it was a much more exiting beta to explore than the current developer
preview of Leopard.

With regards to the 2003 bag: it landed on my attic. I still use my
sturdy and roomy 2001 bag. Although I didn't pay special attention to
it, this year I didn't see any attendees carrying a 2003 bag,
although I did see bags from other years, even as old as 1999. To me
the 2003 bag was a let down, if mostly because it was a 17" bag (one
of the first) to fit the new 17" PowerBook which I didn't (and still
don't) own.

What do you mean when you say: "this year's WWDC was slightly less
useful than last year's because the next release of the operating
system is further off"? At WWDC 2005 Leopard was further of than it
is now, and Tiger was already out.

Still, I must agree that 2003 delivered more excitement (and quality)
than 2006. Some of the let downs of WWDC2006:

- Apple stole Friday afternoon. Where did it go? Did I not pay for 5
days?

- No more sessions on DVD (same as last year). This is a big issue.
Most sessions are not even recorded on video (are they recorded at
all?) so I can't view them later. Worse, there is no way of knowing
which sessions will be available later, so planning WWDC gets very
difficult indeed; I have to decide for each time slot which session
you will go to, and which sessions I will _never_ get to see. And
please, please, please Apple, hand out _complete_ printed schedules,
on Monday morning if you really don't trust us (see below).

- Apart from the 'seat Nazis', why the ridiculous security? Granted,
in 2003 I had to open my bag each time I entered the building, but
this year there seemed to be a security 'person' around each corner.
Enter the building (show badge), go to breakfast (show badge), up the
elevator (show badge), enter session room (show badge). I don't mind
being checked at the door, but this level of hidden unemployment is
just annoying.

- Apparent distrust of us (developers) by Apple. I never understood
the whole "please use this new technology, but please don't tell any
other (Mac) developers about it, or we'll hurt you" attitude. And it
only seems to get worse. WWDC should be about spreading knowledge,
not about sharing secrets.

- Starting WWDC by telling 4000+ developers "we're not going to show
you the juicy bits of Leopard, haha!" was, well, &^%$#. Maybe we
should have walked out at that point...

- I'm growing tired of the Vista bashing. Schadenfreude is not to be
enjoyed publicly. Of the 10 new Leopard features, 1 wasn't a feature
('complete package'?), and two were copied from other systems (Time
Machine: Windows, Spaces: Unix window managers). No credit was given,
which is 'not chique'. I still remind myself every day that is was
Windows that, finally, made the Mac affordable. It also gave us
useful innovations such as the application switcher and contextual
menus. I'm surprised the lame t-shirt (even the pig latin phrase was
'not invented here') didn't say "veni, vidi, Vista" (I came and I saw
Vista)...

I still remember the boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts from WWDC2003.
Those donuts seemed to have 'FRESH' written all over them, in large,
bold capitals. In my mind, those delicious donuts have become a
symbol for WWDC 2003. I'm not sure about this year's WWDC food
metaphor. Pizza anyone?

patrick

I was a student attendee at WWDC this year, and also at 2004, and 2005.

The food this year was terrible, you're right - plastic box with
sandwiches that looked like they might have been ok if they had been
made with care individually but were obviously rushed out by the
thousand. There was *no* breakfast in the dining hall - this is
terrible, it felt as though there was no real start to the conference
each day.

In 2004 there were Jamba-juice stands that would give you whatever
Jamba-juice you wanted, now, as you point out there's only juices,
well, pretty much just orange-juice :(

In a spectacularly weird bit of penny pinching, Apple did not include
even the coffee flask in the student bags... I just can't understand
that one. There are about 4500 attendees, of which about 300 are
students, I just can't see there being much of a difference in
ordering 300 more flasks. I'm sure they have easily enough extra in
some back-room now that the conference is over. It was just weird. It
grates on me when the students are treated differently :-/

Previous years' lunches were great because you could decide what you
wanted and what you didn't, and could load up on the good stuff and
not waste the bad... this year I found myself hating that rice stuff
they gave in the plastic boxes, I abhor wasting food but there was
nothing I could do. I can see why they did it, to make it easier for
everyone to take their lunch to the lunchtime sessions, but there was
always a packed-lunch line in previous years.

Maybe in 2007 we will just get food-troughs and water-fountains.

I can imagine that in 5 years time Moscone West won't be big enough
for WWDC, already it was hell to get to the popular sessions (I'm
sure almost everyone got denied from at least ONE), and the bathroom
facilities were close to being overloaded. Add another 25% to the
headcount and things are going to fall apart. When they brought out
food one evening (on the Monday) there were 10 minute queues just to
get to fill up a little black plate, and don't get me started about
the pizza on Tuesday, I'm convinced the reason it took so long for
the catering staff to bring it out was either because they were too
embarrassed, or it was a tactic so that by the time they /did/ bring
it out, we'd simply be grateful for the presence of food of any kind.

- Pete

While I agree in principle with the article -- that many of the
"creature comforts" provided this year were inferior to those of
previous conferences, there were a couple of factual errors I can't
help but protest.

The only WWDCs in the OS X era in which developers would have been
given a free copy of the currently shipping OS were 2001 (10.0 shipped
in March of that year, a couple of months before the conference) and
2005 (10.4 shipped in March of that year). And while I skipped the '05
conference, I'm not sure I recall actually receiving a copy of 10.0 at
the conference... but by then I was buried in 10.0 CDs from the ADC
mailings anyway.

In 2003, developers were given a preview build of 10.3, which didn't
ship until October of that year -- not a copy of the currently
shipping OS. (Sure, ADC gave us plenty of 10.2 discs already, but none
at the 2003 conference.)

--- begin forwarded text

>It's also worth noting that there's no WWDC for the iPod because
>Apple doesn't allow anyone to develop for the iPod - it's not a
>platform. And with Apple putting more and more software in the box
>with each Mac, developers have had to work harder to find remaining
>niches. To my mind, this all means that developers should not become
>complacent about Apple's view of their importance. :-)

Actually, there are plenty of third party accessories for the iPod,
but they're all hardware, like photo importers, microphones,
speakers, and car adaptors. You'd be surprised at how much software
is in these devices.

Apple tends to work closely with those developers, sometimes bringing
their engineers in to work out problems. But there aren't enough
developers to justify a developer's conference.

As someone who's attended every WWDC since the first one, I agree the
food has been going downhill forever. Interestingly, when WWDC was
held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose (a pretty swanky place),
developers complained that the food was too fancy.

Developers go to WWDC for technical content, and in general the
technical content is very good. But often there isn't enough time to
leave the building, so you're stuck eating what's provided. And if
you're not a Bay Area native, you may not know all the great, fast
restaurants within a few blocks of Moscone. As for the rest of the
swag, if you want a fancy tote bag, buy one yourself.

There are lots of great conferences that are cheaper than WWDC
(MacHack used to be my favorite), and lots that are more expensive.
But the bottom line is, if you make your living as a Mac developer,
you can't afford to miss WWDC.

I've both paid my own way to attend WWDC and had my company pay for it.

--- end forwarded text

I completely agree with the lack of creature comforts. I also agree,
subjectively, that providing decent food doesn't seem too much to
ask for the WWDC experience. (Yes, I was there. The food was...
edible. And I heard a lot of complaints about the Seat Nazis. You
should see how they treated the *Apple* employees present. Hint:
worse than the paying attendees.)

Still, I'd like to comment on this:

 > This year WWDC had over 4,200 attendees - the largest WWDC ever.
So Apple is hardly short on cash flow
 > for the conference itself. Prices vary, but the nominal fee is
$1,600 per person (with a discount for
 > early registration). Is it really possible that renting the
Moscone Center and paying for the equipment
 > and logistics for presenting and recording the lectures is so
expensive that Apple can't afford to give
 > back more of those fees in the form of gifts and better food?

You're missing a major expense that Apple is taking. Steve claimed a
1:4 ratio of Apple engineers to attendees. Believe me, if you include
the time to write and rehearse presentations, set up demos, etc.,
that's more than a week per engineer. Assume (I'm making this up)
$160000 annual per engineer (remember that's at least 2.5x the
salary, what with benefits and overhead in California), and that
translates to some $800 just for your ticket. If you bought it for
(say) $1200, that leaves $400 for everything else. The Moscone is not
cheap.

I don't know the real numbers, but I'd lay long odds that Apple as a
whole makes a whopping loss on the WWDC, every year. I'm assuming the
Bean Counters are cutting where they can. It's pretty stupid to skimp
on food, of course. (For one, the Union Labor costs the same whether
you're serving plastic sandwiches or Foie Gras. :-) Ah well; I hope
someone's listening.

Cheers
   -- perry
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Perry The Cynic
perrycynic.org
To a blind optimist, an optimistic realist must seem like an Accursed
Cynic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

Hi!

I cannot completely agree with your assessment of WWDC 2006. It was a
terrific event with session organization and content being better
than ever before.

Where I can agree is your remarks on the quality of food. Food has be
bad ever since the move to Moscone. This year it was just worse:

- Boxed food. Nobody will like ALL there is in the box. Buffet style
would waste way less food.
- Wraps / sandwiches. Cheap. One is bound not to like it because of
one of its many ingredients.
- Sodas and juices: only sugary stuff at WWDC this year. Speakers had
bottled water!
- Jamba juice. There smoothies used to make up for the lack of food
quality. Why are they gone from WWDC?
- "Moscone Special Pizza": all kitchen left-overs on one pizza. With
4.800 attendees, many are bound not to like at least one of the many
toppings. Try simple: cheese pizza.

All in all I only ate lunch once this year and ran from it the other
days. I skipped pizza despite being hungry. And I drank way to much
sodas.

Best,
Pierre Bernard


- - -
Houdah Software s. à r. l. - infohoudah.com
- Quality Mac OS X software
- Premium WebObjects consulting

On 8/29/06 09:45, "kshusker" <mikemikesilverman.com> wrote:

> - The "morphing" of the IT track. I think that having an IT track per se is
> not a bad idea, but it has turned into less of a chance for IT folks to learn
> about IT on the Mac then a commercial for Apple solutions. Apple had three
> sessions about using their mediocre Remote Desktop product and one session on
> real-life interoperability with Active Directory. Which do you think is more
> useful for an admin in the real world?

Um, maybe Apple Remote Desktop is mediocre to you, but not to a lot of
people. personal opinions about the value of a specific product don't really
apply to the overall session. I found the scriping Apple Remote Desktop
session to be not only useful, but a lot of fun, something that's hard to
pull off. If you never use Apple Remote Desktop or <product> then that's not
as useful, but that's really neither here nor there. As well, if you're
expecting a ton of competitors to Apple products at a WWDC, I'd say you're
not being realistic about it. You don't see Novell doing tons of sessions on
eDirectory at a Microsoft PDC either.

> - This is a minor one, but the elimination of the Meet the VP's feedback forum
> was very sad. That used to be the only time when average Apple developers had
> a direct line to Apple's top leadership. I am sure it was cancelled because
> developers tend to ask too many questions without easy answers.

Actually, the VPs I talked to after those sessions liked that part. But what
do you eliminate for that session?


--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

On 8/29/06 09:45, "Perry The Cynic" <perrycynic.org> wrote:

> I completely agree with the lack of creature comforts. I also agree,
> subjectively, that providing decent food doesn't seem too much to
> ask for the WWDC experience. (Yes, I was there. The food was...
> edible. And I heard a lot of complaints about the Seat Nazis. You
> should see how they treated the *Apple* employees present. Hint:
> worse than the paying attendees.)

as an attendee the only interactions I had, (I'd not label them "problems")
with the seat folks was them being a little strident with the "Move up and
move in" schtick. I would point out that I'm 6'2" and long legged, and stand
by the aisle seat, and they were just fine with that, as I wasn't blocking
the row.

Actually, they were far cooler this year about sitting along the walls than
last year. As far as the Apple folks, well, honestly, that's part of what
you pay for...first crack at the seats. It's not fair, but so what? The
paying attendees *should* get priority.

I found the labs to be the worst part of the show. Even worse for testing
theories out than last year.

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

On 8/29/2006 7:45 AM, "patrick machielse" wrote:
> - Starting WWDC by telling 4000+ developers "we're not going to show
> you the juicy bits of Leopard, haha!" was, well, &^%$#. Maybe we
> should have walked out at that point...

To be fair, that was said at the keynote, which was public. During the
actual sessions, there was quite a bit of additional info -- confidential
info of the sort useful to developers -- discussed relating to the
underlying technologies. If you'd walked out, you'd have missed out ;-)




[and on a somewhat unrelated note...]

> Of the 10 new Leopard features, 1 wasn't a feature
> ('complete package'?), and two were copied from other systems (Time
> Machine: Windows, Spaces: Unix window managers). No credit was given,
> which is 'not chique'.

Is it "copying" to take a decades-old technology and implement a version
that's designed for easier use? Perhaps, but I still consider it to be a
major new feature for Mac OS X.

As for calling Time Machine a feature "copied" from Windows, there's not a
lot of meat behind this argument. System Restore and Time Machine are alike
in that they're both variations on backup/restore systems, but that's about
it. They're very, very different. (Not to mention that other operating
systems had backup/restore systems long before Windows.)

At 07:45 08/29/06 -0700, Perry The Cynic wrote:
>the Union Labor costs the same whether
>you're serving plastic sandwiches or Foie Gras.

But that doesn't mean the cost to the conference organizer is the same. It
more likely means that the Moscone Center makes a lot more profit on the
foie gras.

Obviously no one here is posting based on knowledge of actual costs at WWDC
2006, including me. What I do know is that every conference/convention
center does its best to jerk around the conference organizers to raise the
center's profits. And the nature of the chains doing the jerking can change
from year to year. Plus remember that the conference is absolutely
forbidden to bring in any sort of food or drink from the outside -- you pay
the convention center rate or do without (and maybe both). There is no
competition in the food service.

Edward
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org

Hi my name is Helge (from Europe)!

Having only a rather short history overview (since 2000, 2003, 2004) I
recognized a major decline in respect to many things:

1) San José might not have been a sparetime paradise, but that's not why I
flew from Europe to US anyway. San Jose was smaller. If things are smaller,
two things are more restricted: number of developers visiting and the number
of sessions. Also the average distance between persons decreases
significantly.

Sure you can blow up number of devs and sessions as much as you like
(actually this happens right now). But if things are smaller you could
finally get things done (dialogue between people). having less sessions
frees up time for more dialogue betweeen developers and asking more
questions to apples dev staff.

2) In San José there was also an unmatched paradise of candy available. Also
very well sorted stuff (I liked the "Cocoa"-Candy, nice wordplay! Yeah I pay
attention to details even candybars, hell I am a Mac Developer!). Jamba
Juice was created in front of your eyes (built to order) which was cool
because you had some time to talk to developers while waiting for your
shake.

3) In SF all these things fall short. Too many people, too many sessions.
Developers (way too many people who are not a developer in the first sense)
are mere numbers (which became very clear to me when they changed the
conference passport to some barcode-containing plastic cards). In 2004 this
ugly behaviour started. they also tracked which developer visited which
session by scanning the barcode on entering the room. the first thing I did
was to erase one line of the barcode to make it invisibly malfunction. the
guys at the doors all let me in after several unsuccessful scanning-tries. I
do not like big brother looking over my shoulder at an event which I have
paid my valuable money for.

4) I think Apple does not value its developers adequately. There is a
standstill in WWDC-innovation also (I mean innovation of the concept WWDC is
standing still and not happening). Apple Design Awards e.g. do not reflect
that today existing WebApplications should take part in the contest, too
(categories were just not modified until now to reflect the change of the
world). Also stomp-the-experts is now more of some mandatory
for-all-happening and no longer an optional smart little nice cute geek
thing. I won't visit WWDC any time soon again because it turned into some
faceless mass-event now, which leaves you very lonely and unhappy if you do
not plan your session-visit very detailed and/or organize the visit in a
small group of people who know each other.

one might just shout: "Apple, you need to innovate on WWDC."

but this seems to be useless, because apple turns more and more into a
mediacompany and a kind of SONY/entertainment company. they sell media now
no more quality computers and software.

just my 2 cents

--
Expect and Respect.