This month, it was Nokia Channels team’s turn to nominate the Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, April 2008.
So I sent them an email, asking who has contributed most valuable insights for developing Nokia Channels. Judging from the brevity and speed of their reply, seems that it was an easy choice:
From: Mr. Nokia Channels
Sent: 28. huhtikuuta 2008 12:16
To: Vilkamo Tommi (Nokia-OCTO/Espoo)
Subject: RE: Beta Labs contributor of the month?
kanta!
Congratulations Kanta!! And many thanks for your brilliant and truly valuable insights. Now I feel like a moron for once suspecting you not to be in the target user group of Nokia Beta Labs… How wrong I was.
I will contact you personally via email, so that we can ship you the prize: Beta Labs coffee mug, one-of-a-kind, designed by yours truly.
The guys behind Nokia Text Messenger got the honor to nominate the Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, March 2008. After going through all your contributions, they finally found the top dog, Shaun Yeap from Malaysia.
Congratulations Shaun!! The gift pack prepared by the development team* will be heading your way soon.
Many thanks.
* = as you can guess from the picture, Nokia Text Messenger is being developed by the same team as Nokia PC Suite.
As Nokia Maps 2.0 beta launch was the obvious highlight of Feb 2008 here in Beta Labs, I asked the Nokia Maps development team to nominate the Contributor of the Month. Seems that it was an easy task:
“Geoff seems to be the frontrunner in the quality of the comments.”
- one manager from Nokia Maps team
“Geoff! Definitely. I don’t even need to check, I remember his name by heart.”
- another manager from Nokia Maps team
Therefore, I’m honored to nominate Geoff as Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month / February 2008.
Congratulations Geoff!!! I’m glad that the Maps team chose you, as you have been an amazing contributor in other threads too. I will contact you personally and ask your physical address, so that we can deliver our humble Secret Nokia Maps Gift Pack to you.
As Nokia PC Phone was the hottest Beta Labs application during January, I decided to ask the development team to nominate the contributor of the month. And they did.
Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, January 2008: Azizur Rahman.
Hurrah!!
Justification: identifying a bug in PC Phone software and suggesting a fix.
Prize: Nokia USB Charger CA-100 (Azizur hinted that he has always wanted one). Also, I promise to add Azizur to the “elite contributor” list, if we get that practice up and running at some point.
Congrats Azizur!! I hope we’ll hear more from your in future Beta Labs initiatives…
Posted by Tommi @ February 1, 2008 6:12 pm | Tags: Best contributors
Howdy-ho folks. The Christmas holidays are over, and we are back in business. And it’s time to announce the Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, December 2007.
As I’m a big fan of the cult classic Dice Man, let’s have the dice make the call this time. During 5…31 December, we received 1927 feedback items from 924 unique email addresses (+ 788 anonymous comments) in total from Nokia Beta Labs feedback forms. I just arranged an excel-lottery among all valid email addresses, and the lucky winner is … *drumroll* … the commenter #851, Umberto Martini.
Hooray!!!
Prize: since the feedback happened to be encouragement and constructive ideas about Sports Tracker, let the prize be the jogger’s best friend, Nokia Wrist Band CP-218, famously reviewed by Phil here. And heck, I’m still having some Christmas spirit, let’s put a box of Finnish assorted chocolates as a bonus.
I’ll contact commenter #851 Umberto Martini personally, and ask if he/she wants his/her name published here among the other Nokia Beta Labs Contributors of the Month.
Congrats!!
Posted by Tommi @ January 2, 2008 12:24 pm | Tags: Best contributors
The jury has reached the verdict. And the Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, November 2007, is …. *drumroll* …. Graham Oldfield!!!
Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Hooray!!!
Justification: responding to my grand challenge and turning Nokia N95 into a blazing Light Sabre, with respectable beta spirit: making quick improvements in a direct dialogue with the users.
Prize: the one-and-only Darth Vader helmet, with easy-on velcro straps. Graham: please send me (tommi dot vilkamo at nokia dot com) the address where to ship the helmet!!
To get a jedi-impression yourself, install the following files in the specified order: note: works only with N95 and some other new models with built-in accelerometer.
If you don’t have a compatible device, you can get comfort (about not making a dork out of yourself, like the rest of us) watching this video of Ricky Cadden from Symbian Guru running amok with the earlier version.
Prize: the official Nokia Beta Labs teddy bear, wearing a white t-shirt with a barcode pointing at Nokia Beta Labs website.
Max: please send me (tommi dot vilkamo at gmail dot com) the address where to ship the bear!
A honourable mention for October 2007 contribution goes to Bogdan Galiceanu for his active contribution and insightful feedback (suggested by Device Status team). Thanks Bogdan - keep it up and you might also win a fancy teddy bear some day.
It’s end of September, and time to select the most valuable contributor of Nokia Beta Labs. This time, I asked directly from Nokia Beta Labs application owners, who has been the most valuable contributor for their projects during September - or if they wanted to give somebody a “life-time award”.
Justification:Nokia Sports Tracker team recommended me to give this life-time award to Ed for his superbly insightful feedback, and for spreadinggoodwordabout the application. Other Nokia Beta Labs application teams also warmly supported the nomination.
Prize: custom-made Nokia Beta Labs t-shirt, designed by yours truly. Ed: please send me (tommi dot vilkamo at gmail dot com) your t-shirt size (M, L, or XL), and the address where we should send it!
Please join us in congratulating Ed!!!
Please note that the t-shirt is still in beta. It has some rough edges, and we can’t give any guarantees or customer care. Anyway, please tell us what you think about the design, and how to improve it - we’ll do our best to incorporate your feedback to the final release.
Hereby, I nominate the Nokia Beta Labs Innovator of the Month, August 2007: Stefan Constantinescu.
Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Hooray!!!
Justification: extraordinarily insightful feedback for improving Nokia Beta Labs concept and website. The first version of our new concept was drafted in our 1h brainstorming session.
Prize: my warm recommendations for Nokia to finally hire him (I can send a good word about you when you apply to some position). And a beer of your choice, with yours truly, at beer house Kaisla, Helsinki. Just say when.
————-
Seth says:
The hardest part is getting over the fear that you’ll alienate all your other great customers. Give it a try, it’s probably worth the risk.
I hope recognizing “top contributors” doesn’t alienate other beta users. Or what do you think, does it?
Posted by Tommi @ September 20, 2007 5:03 pm | Tags: Best contributors
This weblog is dedicated for applications and services being piloted under Nokia Beta Labs. Please join the discussion and tell us what you think! We don't pre-moderate the comments, so please be nice.
I'm your host, Tommi Vilkamo, the manager of Nokia Beta Labs.
