Introduction

I have been developing Android applications since 2014. I worked both with large companies and with small orders for freelancing. I am the founder and leader of the community Google Developer Group Ulan-Ude. In 2016, I conducted the first Android Study Jam in my hometown of Ulan-Ude (Russia), all in all we had hold three Study Jams since then. Moreover, I run a blog android-tools.ru in which I share tips on various technologies that I have mastered myself. Before working as a programmer, I was engaged as a computer science teacher in secondary school. Having gained experience from IT sphere, in early 2018 I returned to this fascinating matter, namely to teaching children programming.

Programming training

All courses and activities that I teach are conducted on a volunteer basis and are completely free for students. We found a permanent room for classes at the Buryat State University and managed to agree to use it for free. The center of youth innovation creativity granted some computers and equipment for our students. We offer free classes in programming and robotics for everyone. During my classes I am eager to share everything I know concerning programming (databases, html, php, java, delphi, android, operating systems, information security and etc.). Generally, I deal with school children, half of them are handicapped children.

Kostya and Arsalan at work

I can talk for hours about my students. I will tell you about the most gifted and talented. Schoolchildren Sergei and Arsalan are one of my first students, both guys have musculoskeletal system diseases, Kostya can hear only with a hearing aid, and Dima has developmental delays, and I still do not understand what the main reason of the delays. Dima is a special student who requires a special approach; he is very shy and afraid to ask his questions. Sometimes he can spend a large amount of time in a stupor stumbled upon some kind of contradiction or not understanding which program he needs to use until I notice his perplexity that it is sometimes difficult, because emotionally Dima does not manifest himself at such moments. Despite their limitations in opportunities, the guys come to every class and with a great desire absorb the knowledge that I share with them. We have a group and conversation in the social network vk.com, where we never stop exchanging experience and news.

I consider it is necessary to clarify that, according to statistics, the population in our region receives an average salary of about $ 500 a month, and in fact even less. Parents just do not have economic opportunities to pay for additional educational services. Poverty becomes an insurmountable barrier for most children to enter IT culture, many of them do not have personal computers and constant access to the Internet.

I do not receive a salary for my work as a teacher; moreover, I pay for the Internet services in the educational center from my own pocket. And when it fails to pay, I distribute the Internet from my mobile phone. All my students know how to put an Android device into modem mode and distribute the Internet from it to a personal computer. My friends often help our center by donating equipment that is broken or not used by them anymore, from which we get spare parts for robots or device repair.

Student Belikto (he began learning by himself the java language) did not have any equipment for home schooling, except the Prestigio netbook. The Windows operating system took away all the performance resources, and it was impossible to work on it. For two weeks we tried to install various lightweight versions of Linux on it, and it ended up having to reset the BIOS to factory settings. It was unfortunate to install the necessary OS, but Belikto, for the first time in his life, disassembled his laptop and in the process learned the basics of repairing such equipment. Later, I gave him my Sony VAYO laptop with 3 Gb of RAM and an i3 processor. For training, this power is enough for him. I could not leave Belikto with my old device, because this boy gives very high hopes.

Why aren’t you there?

During the I / O Extended 2018 community meeting there was an interesting moment when Dmitry Dolgov spoke at the keynote. Sergei was initially surprised to read the name and surname of the speaker that keynote was Russian, and then he asked the question: “Why aren’t you there now? With your knowledge you can work for Google and live in the USA”.

I thought a while and answered: “If I leave, then who will stay with you?”

After the answer, there was an understanding silence in the office.

From left to right: Dima, Sergei, Sundar and Nikita, Sergei is preparing a new question.

Destroyed hopes

And now, why do the guys lose their hopes and chances to gain skills and knowledge in the field of IT. I can no longer stay in my hometown and engage in enlightenment. I am the only one who maintains and provides my family, but my way of earning and the main income was ruthlessly and categorically destroyed a couple of days ago.

Now I will have to relocate in search of work, because in my hometown it is impossible for me to find work to support my family …

How Google Play deleted our account due to copyright infringement

In the center of the developer’s rules, there is a rule prohibiting impersonating another person or using someone else’s intellectual property.

In particular, the rules prohibit the illegal use of content protected by copyright.

At first glance, the existence of such rules seems to be quite a reasonable decision on the part of Google. Copyright is protected by the law of many states.

My students and students are actively testing my applications and submitting ideas for developing new ones. Going to meet their wishes, I made a separate account in which I published only applications dedicated to the subject of Minecraft. I think it would be superfluous to tell how it is popular all over the world. We allow students to play in the pirated clones (we don’t have money for licenses) after completing the main tasks.

Together with a student who graduated from Android Study Jam in 2016, we made about 25 applications; most of them were skin sets for characters on various topics. From the point of view of Google Play copyright robots, the very mention of any copyright work is already a violation of copyright. However, accordingly to the laws of the United States, it is not. In the text of the full description of one application there were such lines:

This is an unofficial application for Minecraft Pocket Edition. This application is not affiliated in any way with Mojang AB. The Abyssa Minecraft is the name of the Minecraft AB or their respectful owner. All rights reserved. In accordance with http://account.mojang.com/documents/brand_guidelines

The robot blocked us updating this application with the following: