About Mobility

A very interesting topic, come see Nikunj Mehta, tech lead for Oracle’s AtomDB project, talk about an emergent approach to mobile applications and browser-embedded databases, involving the use of the Atom publishing protocol for application programming as well as data synchronization, and areas of future work in off-line data for Web applications.

This event is sponsored by Oracle.

Talk synopsis:

There is heavy latent demand for mobile applications and recent industry events have heightened interest in mobile Web applications. Mobile application developers face a number of inherent challenges of mobility such as form factor and user interaction. Besides these, they are also forced to deal with incidental issues such as platform fragmentation and unreliable connectivity. Various “Rich Internet Application” platforms are currently targeting these problems. Oracle, of these, is interested primarily in standards-based platforms, i.e., Web browsers and AJAX. Therefore, Oracle has developed a solution to the network unreliability problem in the context of Web browsers, Oracle’s AtomDB . This technology provides a transparent, local, read-write cache for application data that is synchronized with data sources using the same REST APIs used by AJAX applications to access their data. This talk will focus on the dual use of IETF’s Atom publishing protocol for application programming as well as data synchronization. He will also discuss areas of future work in off line data for Web applications.

Speaker bio:

Since his early days, Nikunj has been working in the crosshairs of mobile and Web as well as business and data. He is an entrepreneur at heart and an architect at work. Nikunj leads the AtomDB project at Oracle and helps shape Oracle’s strategy in distributed applications, mobile technology, and Web databases. He works in Oracle’s Database Advanced Development Group. His doctoral thesis focused on implementation primitives for distributed software architecture styles. He dons the colors of USC and University of Mumbai, both in computer science.

His blog is o-micron.blogspot.com

When: July 14th, 2008, 6 – 8 PM

Cost: Zero, nada, free! But seating is limited; please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org, indicating your name and affiliation

Where:

Oracle/Austin offices
9600 North MO-Pac
Seventh Floor
Austin, TX 78759
Main Phone: 512.671.5100
Main Fax: 512.671.5600

For more information see the MobileMonday Austin website.

ceo

Dear MoMobilists –

I haven’t been able to organize a MobileMonday event for this month of June; my apologies. Between eZee inc. product development, go to market and investor-related stuff, plus family and other, I just have had next to zero time to organize something…

My apologies again and thanks for your understanding… Please stay tuned by registering to receive news –see MobileMonday Austin website and mailing list.

ceo

We had a great MobileMonday Austin event last night. Thanks to our sponsor Nokia. Thanks to the Austin Wireless Alliance for helping organize the event, and thanks to our speakers Dan Podwall (Nokia) and Michael Yuan (eZee inc) who presented on the topics of the Web RunTime for the S60, and on building multi-modal web applications. It was awesome. Thanks…

ceo

Please note that next MobileMonday Austin session is next Monday, April 14th. Don Podwall (Nokia) will cover the Nokia Web Runtime and Widgets, and Dr. Michael Yuan (eZee inc) will cover Developing Multi-Modal Web Applications.

MOBILE MONDAY AUSTIN

Where: IC2 Institute, http://www.ic2.utexas.edu

Topic: The Nokia Web Runtime, Widgets, and about Developing multi-modal web applications

Abstracts:

The Nokia Web Runtime (Dan Podwall, Nokia)

Web Runtime (WRT) enables anyone with Web development and design skills to create exciting Internet experiences for mobile users in just hours or days. hether you want to provide a one-click interface to your Web service or add value by creating mashups of information from various sources, WRT makes it possible.

From a technical perspective, WRT adds a Web-application runtime environment to the popular Web Browser for S60, which enables S60 devices to run widgets. Like desktop widgets, WRT widgets are lightweight mobile applications developed using standards-based Web technologies, such as XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax. In fact, you can port desktop widgets to WRT with very little effort, and you can use your existing authoring tools to create and package your work.

When Nokia announced in April 2007 the addition of WRT to S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2, new opportunities opened up for delivering advanced mobile features and services. Grasp your opportunity today.

Develop multi-modal web applications for the iPhone, Nokia S60 and more – lessons from a real world project (Dr. Michael Yuan, eZee inc)

Making an iPhone-friendly version of your web site is all the rage these days. Google, Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn and many other high profile web sites all have iPhone-specific portals now. Developers who took initiative in developing those mobile web sites are reported to get big bonuses and promotions. In this presentation, veteran mobile web software developer Michael Yuan will discuss techniques you can immediately use to transform your existing web sites into a mobile-friendly site. He will go beyond the iPhone mania to cover how to make your site shine on Nokia S60, BlackBerry, Google Android, and many other smartphone platforms. A live demo, webclip2go.com, will be available to show case all the techniques discussed in the talk.

About the Speakers:

* Dan Podwall, Senior Architect at Nokia, C++ and Web Runtime

* Dr. Michael Yuan, Senior Developer and Mobility Researcher at eZee inc is an Austin-based technologist focusing on mobile and web applications. He is the author of 4 books, including one of the all time best selling books on mobile app development: “Enterprise J2ME” (Prentice Hall), as well as “Nokia Smartphone Hacks” (O’Reilly). Michael is an open source enthusiast and a code committer in high profile open source projects such as JBoss and Mozilla. Michael is currently a developer at eZee inc working on the next generation mobile marketing platform.

Cost: Cost is free, zero, nada, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

R.S.V.P. Please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org indicating your name and affiliation.

Refreshments will be served, courtesy of Nokia.

We had a great MobileMonday Austin event last night. I want to thank the speakers David Gill (Nielsen Mobile), James Pearce (dotMobi), Brian Fling (BlueFlavor), and Chris Moisan (Taptu).

And thank you to our sponsors dotMobi and the Austin Wireless Alliance.

We had guest attendees from out of town who were attending SXSW Interactive, and many local first timers, and the audience enjoyed the event very much. I am very happy how things turned out.

We’ll try to have another MoMo Austin event next year during SXSW Interactive. Stay tuned….

Our next MobileMonday Austin event is scheduled for April 14th. Join our mailing list.

ceo

**** Reminder ****

Hello all… a quick reminder about Monday’s MobileMonday Austin event…

…and it is going to be SWEET! — I am very excited about the speaker lineup… and the folks from out of town who are visiting us!

Topics: dotMobi, Mobile Web, iPhone, Mobile Search, and industry trends right from the source: Nielsen Mobile.

We have special guests Brian Fling from BlueFlavor who will cover mobile web design and the iPhone, James Pearce from dotMobi who will cove mobile web initiatives such as dotMobi and DeviceAtlas, and Chris Moisan from Taptu who will cover their very cool approach to Mobile Search. David Gill from Nielsen Mobile, will provide industry metrics on the same topics.

When: March 10, 2008, Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: Austin City Hall: Austin City Hall, Board and Commission Room 1101 (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityhall/)

Cost: Free, zero, nada, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

Please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org indicating your name and affiliation.

*** Refreshments will be served, courtesy of dotMobi.

For more information see the MobileMonday Austin website at http://www.mobilemondayaustin.org.

ceo

**** Reminder ****

A reminder that next Monday, March 10th is our next MobileMonday Austin event, at 6pm at the Austin City Hall.

It is going to be a good one…

We have special guests Brian Fling from BlueFlavor who will cover mobile web design and the iPhone, James Pearce from dotMobi who will cove mobile web initiatives such as dotMobi and DeviceAtlas, and Chris Moisan from Taptu who will cover their very cool approach to Mobile Search. David Gill from Nielsen Mobile, will provide industry metrics on the same topics.

Speaker(s): James Pearce, VP of Technology at dotMobi, Brian Fling, Director of Stragety at BlueFlavor, Chris Moisan, VP of Product & Market Development at Taptu, and David Gill, Director of mobile media at Nielsen Mobile.

When: March 10, 2008, Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: Austin City Hall

Cost: Free, zero, nada, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

Please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org indicating your name and affiliation.

*** Refreshments will be served, courtesy of dotMobi.

For more information see the MobileMonday Austin website at http://www.mobilemondayaustin.org.

ceo

Mark your calendars…

Next MobileMonday Austin session is going to be an awesome one; I’m very excited. We are having special guests from out of town, James Pearce, VP of Technology at dotMobi, and Brian Fling, Director of Strategy at BlueFlavor both great speakers, and experts in the mobile and web space. We also are having Chris Moisan from Taptu who will cover Mobile Search.

When: March 10, 2008, Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: Austin City Hall

Cost: Free, zero, nada, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

Please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org indicating “MobileMonday Austin March 10th event” in the body of the message.

*** Refreshments will be served, courtesy of dotMobi.

ceo

A reminder that next MobileMonday Austin event is next Monday Feb 11th. The topic is a very interesting one: Mobility and Physical World Interactions, Information Ubiquity and Near Field Communication.

For more information go to the MobileMonday Austin website: http://www.mobilemondayaustin.com.

ceo

The MobileMonday Austin 2008 calendar for events is coming out nicely. Make sure you visit the MobileMonday Austin website at http://mobilemondayaustin.org/

Below is the information about the first session.

February

Topic: Mobility and Physical World Connections, Information Ubiquity and Near Field Communication (JSR 257)

Abstract: Everything around us is data. And it doesn’t stop there. Everything around us is actionable. Imagine a world where we can interact with the objects around us, using your mobile handset. In this session Enrique will cover physical world interactions and information ubiquity, uses-cases and the related technologies, with emphasis on Near Field Communications (NFC) and the Java Connectionless Communication API (JSR 257).

Speaker: C. Enrique Ortiz, CTO at eZee inc.

When: February 11, 2008, Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: IC2 Institute – see See map: 2815 San Gabriel St, Austin, TX 78705

Cost: Cost is free, zero, nada, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

R.S.V.P. Please RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org with body indicating the MobileMonday Austin February 11th event.

Refreshments will be served, courtesy of the Austin Wireless Alliance.

ceo

With the new year, I am putting together the schedule for MobileMonday Austin.

If you are local to Austin (or not for that matter), and you would like to present, and/or sponsor, please let me know ASAP.

About March special session (same week as SXSW Interactive):
If you are going to be in town for SXSW Interactive, please let me know, as I would like to have a special session with mobility folks from town and out of town who would like to present, and/or attend; let me know, and/or stay in touch. March session is a special session that it would be great to have, and it would be totally open topics…

Thanks!

ceo

Last MobileMonday Austin event on mobile gaming was a great one — Paul Trowe (who recently sold his company Pulse Mobile Games to SK Telecom) and Billy Cain (of Critical Mass Interactive) covered the life-cycle of mobile gaming, from conception, to development, to publishing.

It was a great, informative, straight to the point talk that opened the eyes of many, and for the rest of us, re-affirmed how hard, aggressive the mobile gaming space is. Why is mobile gaming, and the whole mobile development space so hard? There are many factors, including:

• Creating great, different, innovative, ingenious mobile applications, and more so if the application is a game, is not easy!
• Porting is hell. And will continue to be. Carriers demand that mobile applications from a publisher/developer, especially if the application is a game, to run in 85% of the handsets offered by the carrier. Many publishers buy the rights for an application that typically is written in one language/for one platform, and they must port to the rest of the platforms
• Testing, and testing and more testing for the purpose of “certification” or getting blessed by the carrier, for the purpose of being on the deck — mobile applications have better chance of succeeding if they are just a few clicks away, and this is more important on gaming-like applications, for which carriers are constantly rotating based on the number of downloads
• Related to the above bullet, the typical time to get to a carrier’s deck (again, this applies more to game-like mobile applications) is about 11 months, due to the sequence of testing and certifications game producers must go through… and once the game is out it might take 3-4 months to see the first check. This is why you see EA and similar game companies dominating this space, because to develop a good game, and survive the process takes real deep pockets
• The typical kind of people that network carriers put in charge of mobile gaming are not gamers themselves. Thus they don’t get it. You know, gaming is a totally different “religion”. And important decisions on game placing, who makes it on deck vs. not, are being made based on slide-presentations, brand-name, and other (favors), vs. actually trying the games
• Brand takes precedence for network carriers, making the life of small developers harder. Important to note is that brand not always equates to a great game, and that there are a lot of small, great game creators out there
• It was interesting to learn that an OK-successful game is one with around 100K downloads. And that a hit is one with more than a million downloads. And guess what game is one of the best mobile games ever? The answer is Tetris! Yeap, a casual game

I want to thank Paul and Billy for taking the time to come speak to us, and educate us on mobile gaming development! And I many thanks to Movero Technology for providing the menu, and the Austin Wireless Alliance for the drinks and appetizers.

ceo

The 3rd annual MobileMonday Global Summit is happening right now… As founder of the Austin chapter, I was invited to attend the summit, but I just couldn’t make it this year (I almost did); just too much/too many things are happening right now for me (i.e. eZee).

I do wish I was there though… and to my dear MoMo’bilists, have a fun and productive time!

ceo

*******************
Sept 17th ­ Mobile Gaming
*******************

This month we have gaming experts Billy Cain and Paul Trowe come speak about mobile gaming development and publishing. We also will have metrics and trends on mobile gaming from Telephia. It is going to be a great topic, so come join us!

Time – 5:30 – 7:30pm.

Location – Movero, 1905 B Kramer Lane Suite 700 Austin, TX 78758.

Cost – Free, but seating is limited, please RSVP.

R.S.V.P. – rsvp@austinwirelessalliance.org.

Refreshments will be served, courtesy of the Austin Wireless Alliance.

Visit http://www.mobilemondayaustin.com for more information..

Folks -

The Mobile Gaming session originally scheduled for August 27th will be moved to September.

More information shortly.

Thanks.

ceo