"In the meantime, be sure to brush up on your coding skills. They’ll come in handy when the new application process opens in February."

Perhaps tickets will be sold or prioritised by some coding problems?

They do have to do something, because for I/O 2011 people were buying $450 tickets and immediately listing them on eBay for $1500+. Meanwhile, other actual developers just plain couldn't get in.

But, I do hope that whatever coding problems will be simply whatever is necessary to rule out scalpers who don't know squat about programming, and not to require people to build full-blown apps or the like.

If you have to jump through some flaming hoops to get in, I worry that they're not going to be as welcoming to "noobs" as they had in years past.

Google's offered "Boot Camp" in the past with tutorial sessions, on tech like Android and HTML5 to get you from zero to a point where you can get value out of the main conference sessions. They also gave some pretty substantial academic discounts to get students in the door, too.

If you are inexperienced with the featured tech, but you genuinely want to learn, you could still get some serious value out of the talks there. I didn't know the first thing about Android development prior to going to I/O 2010, and a month or so later I had a polished app to put on the market.

I wonder if the coding challenge will be something to pre-qualify you to be able to buy a ticket -- maybe you will have to write some code to pass some automated test case that's personalized to you, so you can't just Google for the solution.

It occurs to me that the answer might be to have two conferences?

Last year a lot of non-developers bought tickets just to scoop up the free goodies that Google gives out. My guess is yes, they will use a code problem or similar to filter out developers from carpet-baggers.

yeah, a buddy of mine who is a lawyer working in real estate said he wanted to register the next year because of the free phones.

I just figured they should create a registration category for "no freebies." Seriously, I don't need the phone. Just wanted to attend the conference.

But you are the target demographic for the phone distribution - someone who is actually interested in and developing with the tech is a better development placement for a freebie phone than someone who wants a freebie phone.

I hope they apply this to tech bloggers/writers, too.

I believe Google Developer Day 2011 required a coding challenge and the Last Call for Google IO 2011 also allowed around 100 developers free attendance for a successful coding entry.

Here's some study material:

https://sites.google.com/site/opencallforgdd/

https://sites.google.com/site/lastcallforio2011/Home

Silly question, but: "Continue following us at our Google Developers page on Google+ to be the first to get #io12 updates!" which links off to here: https://plus.google.com/111395306401981598462/posts

How do you follow something on G+?

Do you have to add the page to your circles? If so, that's plain old weird... I follow people, not pages or abstract things.

Or is just to +1 it? If so, that's plain old weird... +1 is just a "Hear hear!" or implicit share, but it's not a "Send me updates, keep me informed.".

I could well be wrong on both of those assumptions, but I don't get it, the sentence didn't even make sense. What are you supposed to "do" with a G+ page?

edit: I think they mean "Add to Circles"... but I've just scrolled down and with tens of updates today alone, they just come over as spamming, flooding jerks and aren't being added to any circle of mine any time soon.

Why can't a company just provide a low-noise, "just the facts ma'am" info list.

You add it to a circle. Why should you only have people in your circles?

It's a social network isn't it? I'm only really social with people.

I'm not on Facebook, so if they're importing the concept of being social with abstract things from there then it just went whooosh, straight over my head.

The idea is to follow the updates of an entity, where Google I/O is going to be run by more than one person, all of which could and should provide updates for the single entity. Would you rather follow the updates of otherwise disconnected employees of Google who happen to have updates for Google I/O? Who's to say the updates are even from Google employees and not out-sourced organizer? Should we really request the organizers to use their personal accounts to give updates for the event, while disinterested followers -- friends, family, or otherwise -- are inundated with Google I/O updates?

You can grind your Facebook axe elsewhere, but unless you have a useful solution to add to your problem, can you grind your unrelated axe elsewhere?

You were doing well until that last line. I have no axe to grind one way or another. I'm just not very good at social networks and beyond very basic use I find them confusing to use. The idea of a 'page' talking to me still seems bizarre, but thanks to the posts of yourself and others along with my fumbling around I understand now what to do and why it is that way.

I care what people think. I don't care what inanimate objects or marketing abstractions think.

Seriously? Do you think Google I/O is inanimate or simply a marketing tool? If so, you can ignore the page, this thread, and anything labeled as such. Seeing as you are here, and assuming you have an interest in Google I/O, be assured that the Google I/O page is run by real people and their collective thoughts. Do you really expect to follow otherwise random organizers and for them to use their personal accounts to update us with Google I/O information?

Also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3287147

If you don't care about what inanimate objects or marketing abstractions think, isn't that equivalent to saying you don't want to follow them?

It's different levels. I care about marketing in a check-the-rss-feed-once-a-month way, but not in a omg-what-is-pg-having-for-breakfast way.

So, you do care. You just don't want to check it as often. Put it in a circle for things you care about but don't want to check as often.

So create a marketing circle, and check it once a month?

That sounds like an arbitrary limitation to me. Other social networks allow for organization accounts. Do you apply the same criteria to those networks or just to Google+?

I just don't want to see everything turn into email again. I shouldn't have a message from a friend next to the message saying my bank account is overdrawn next to my Daily Jimmy Wales Photo newsletter.

The systems must be able to split categories between "This is a person with independent beliefs" versus "this is a marketing organization with a focused message trying to manipulate me" versus "information, but not personal."

Though, since corporations are people, none of this may matter anymore.

Google+ has exactly what you are describing. You can view those you follow separately by placing those followed into circles defined by yourself. Place all "person with independent beliefs" in an "Independent Believers" circle, and you can view only updates from your "persons with independent beliefs." The same applies to segregating "manipulators" into their own circle, defined by you and "tagged" by you. Note: you can place those you follow in more than one circle, in the event you have an independent believer that also seeks to manipulate you.

Yes, that's exactly what circles are for.

Add it to your "following" circle.

If I had to guess, I'd say that they moved the date so they could closely follow Apple's WWDC conference instead of happening a month before it as it has in the past.

That way a) they can get the last-word press-wise and b) the can make last minute decisions about what to announce depending on what Apple announces at WWDC -- perhaps even pre-announce vaporware to counter Apple's surprise announcement. :-) It looks like IO will follow WWDC by 12 days this year if the WWDC date speculation is correct.

There should really be an explanation posted. I also wonder how they will deal with those people who already booked travel and now have to pay high fees to change their travel bookings.

who books travel 6 months in advance? You haven't even gotten your tickets yet.

I'm a student and I need to make sure I'm not missing any summer classes I may be taking. Also, some people work and may have to notify their supers early.

If you have to notify your "super" six months in advance to get 3 days off, it's long past time to find a new job!

What if you don't manage to get a ticket at all?