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I can empathize with the author and am familiar with the history of his project. In my case, I created a Python framework for the Alexa Skills Kit https://githu
by johnwheeler 10y ago
I can empathize with the author and am familiar with the history of his project. In my case, I created a Python framework for the Alexa Skills Kit https://github.com/johnwheeler/flask-ask https://github.com/johnwheeler/flask-ask and worked on a blog post with Amazon. My hope was they'd appreciate my energy and passion for the Echo and work with me, but I feel like I've been largely ignored by them aside from being labeled an "Alexa Champion" which is meaningless to me.
As my framework is becoming more popular, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they released a competing framework locked-in to their infrastructure (after seeing how they did Chalice), and it's their prerogative to do that. But as a developer who made a high quality product people want, of course I'd rather they recognized the value I've created and worked with me instead of against.
They have zero obligation to, but if you're going to build on open standards and encourage community involvement, provide incentives for the community's hardwork aside from labels. Definitely don't disincentivize by doing wait-and-copy.
- dschep 10y agoIt goes the other way too. Isn't boto now the official python AWS library?
- daveguy 10y agoJust want to say, I ran across your framework very quickly after getting an echo dot. I am looking forward to using your much-easier-to-use-and-not-tied-to-aws framework for quick skill development. Thank you for providing such a useful library! It is better than the amazon version!
- johnwheeler 10y agoThank you!
- sourc3 10y agoI also am using your framework and I really like it. The quick video and dead-simple implementation made it a no brainer as a weekend project that can actually be published. Thank you.
- johnwheeler 10y agoThank you :D
- brilliantcode 10y agoI applaud your hard work. It's only natural that we seek reward. However, from Amazon's point of view, they did not ask you to build it or have obligations to reward you. They did give you a good social credit but it seems you are interested in more that is not entitled to you. Like you said they have zero obligations and that's where the conversation stops unless you actively ask to be rewarded. Talk to their community make a thread on their forums, make it known and carefully explain your vision and how they are falling short.
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- johnwheeler 10y agoOh, social credits don't matter at all to me. I do appreciate the person at Amazon who gave it to me though for thinking of me.
- paulftw 10y agoSo what do you actually want them to do? They wouldn't just start throwing money at every project that has reached 1000 stars on github. Open source projects are always about social credits or doing something for the fun of doing it. In rare cases when they aren't it's always responsibility of the author to find funding or come up with a business model.
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- johnwheeler 10y ago> So what do you actually want them to do? Adopt my framework and put me on the same playing field as their engineers in terms of information and resources. Flask-Ask is just way better than anything they have for Python. Even their Python related tutorials are terrible. Also, they're so focused on JavaScript they neglect a lot of important languages like Python and Ruby. I could see them building their own Flask-Ask on top of Chalice, but I think it's counterproductive they push Lambda so hard for Alexa. Cross pollination I guess. Lamdba doesn't support WSGI (which Flask relies on and Lambda doesn't do unless you use Zappa). Personally, I don't think serverless is a panacea. It's good for some use cases, but nothing beats a VPS with a database on it for the wide majority of things including Alexa.
- WhitneyLand 10y agoWhat do you mean when you say you hoped they would "work with you" or that they ignored you?