If you have been following the latest Android news you will know about the latest Android Developer Challenge.

The eligibility requirements are interesting…

“The ADC 2 contest is open only to applications that have not been published — whether through Android market, a public web site, or any other means. An application that has already been made available to the public (at the time of judging) is ineligible, regardless whether it is free or sold commercially. Additionally, applications that were entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for the ADC 2 contest, regardless whether they were winning apps. Similarly, updated versions of applications entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for ADC 2.”

This raises some interesting questions about what constitues a published application. For example, What if developer B copies and significantly enhances or combines an idea that was submitted by developer A in ADC 1? How can these rules be enforced? I can’t believe it’s possible to police them without some disagreements happening.

Eligibility aside, it’s clear that ADC 2 is focussed on encouraging developers new to the platform and new ideas from existing developers. The crowd-sourced voting is interesting, innovative and solves a lot of judging problems for Google. However, given some of the immature comments on the Android market, it’s quite scary these same people will be doing some of the judging.