At WidgetDevCamp, I floated the idea of doing a iPhone SDK Dev Camp. Seems like there was some interest for it then.
Now that the Apple iPhone SDK is out, I’ve already gotten a few folks asking about it. One of the reasons I thought this would be cool is because it’s so new we’d all be starting at the same place.
Drop me a comment if you’d wanna attend this event.
Friday night and all day Saturday Washington DC held the inaugural WidgetDevCamp.
It was a gathering of local geeks to talk about the issues relating to widgets and other modular social applications ( like Facebook apps.) There was also a lot of widget and social application hacking.
On Friday night we gathered to talk about the overall goal of the event, we discussed high level issues and uses related to widgets, and also brainstormed widgets we wanted to build. Before and after there was also lots of time to hang out and relax. It was a good opportunity to get to know others who were interested in the space. I think there were 50-60 people who were there on Friday night.
On Saturday while only 30-40 people there, we had folks leading GREAT discussions. There was everything from how to use widgets with the social graph, an overview of the Clearspring platform, widget best practices, desktop versus Web widgets, JavaScript vs. Flash vs. Flex for widgets, Facebook app development 101, and much more. It was great!
Also we had a number of folks who spent a lot of time Saturday doing some coding. We had guys writing widgets, Facebook apps, and some even playing with Google’s Android mobile platform. At the end of the day on Saturday, we gave the different developers time to demo what they’d been hacking up and the demo’s caused some really great discussion too.
One conclusion that I walked away from the event with is that all too often people work on their various projects and home by themselves but they’ll have a TON more fun if they can do it with or around other people with like interests. We need more co-working in Washington DC. I’ll write more about this later.
If you’d like to have a WidgetDevCamp in your city, please e-mail me at justin AT clearspring DOT com. I’d be happy to help however I can.
Note: First photo was taken by Jason Garber. The second photo was taken by me.
UPDATE: You can see more photos at the WidgetDevCamp DC Flickr Group. If you took photos of the event, please join the group and add the photos.
So WidgetDevCamp DC was this last weekend… it was awesome! Here are some photos. I’ll be writing more about it later.
If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you’ll remember that this fall I announced the concept of WidgetDevCamp. Well today I’m pleased to announce that WidgetDevCamp will be in Washington, DC on January 25 (evening) & 26th (all day) at Blattner Brunner (1250 Eye Street, NW, 12th Floor).
At the event, we’ll be talking about, discussing, and learning about modular/social/widget application development. There will also be a time for developing and designing. If you had fun at BarCamp DC… if you like chatting about Facbook and all things social web, you need to be at this event.
Of course… the event is free but due to limited space at our venue we only have room for 60 people so sign up now.
If you’re interested in sponsoring the event, it’d be HUGE help. There is an option for sponsorship on the registration page. Maximum sponsorship is $250.
If there is a topic around widgets that you wanna hear or a topic that you wanna speak about, make sure that you make a note on the session ideas wiki page. Note: This page is just for preliminary planning purposes. The agenda for the event will be made the day of the event… on site.
If you have an idea for an awesome widget, add that the widget ideas page. Maybe we’ll make it.
This is a community-centric event. I hope we’ll see you there and I hope you’ll participate.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that BarCamp DC was an absolute blast. After the event, a few of us started chatting about what we could have next to bring the community together.
Today, I’m pleased to announce WidgetDevCamp DC. It’s another unconfrence, similar to BarCamp, but based off of the DevCamp model. There will be opportunity for learning and sharing about widget development, a time for widget designing and hacking, as well as sharing your demos with the group.
The event is currently in the development stages. When more solid details become available, they’ll be announced here.
Right now we’re looking for a venue and sponsors. If you’d be interested in either, please get in touch with me.
Oh… make sure that you sign up for the WidgetDevCamp Google Group so that we can keep in touch with you.
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