Terrence Barr's Blog

January 2008 Archives

Mobile Developer Alliance, take 2: Meet us on Friday (1/25)

In a recent blog entry I asked the question: Do we need a Mobile Developer Alliance? The Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days ended today (it turned out to be an extremely successful event, more about that in the next blog). As a follow-up a couple of folks are getting together to discuss and brainstorm the topic of why developing and deploying content is so hard, what can be done to improve the situation, and about helping developers find their voice.

The meeting is open to everyone interested: come, introduce yourself, tell us what you think, and let's talk about what we as a community can do to tackle the issues at hand. The meeting is tomorrow, Friday (1/25) from 9 am on at the Sun Santa Clara campus.

If you're interested please contact me for more details.

-- Terrence

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Live! Worldwide! Free! Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days broadcast

One of my personal goals for the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days was to make this conference different from your average developer conference. Different with regard to the focus (deep mobile & embedded Java content), different with regard to the cost (very reasonable), and different with regard to way it is organized (by the community).

Another big different for me was the worldwide aspect of the community.  It is my strong belief that  any gathering that targets a worldwide audience must attempt to include remote participants. But strangely, most conferences today really only cater to local attendees. The folks around the world who don't have the time or money (or visa ...) to travel somewhere are basically shut out. As someone who works remotely I am painfully aware of that.

So from the start I wanted to break some new ground here. But how do you not only allow remote participants to passively view what's happening but go a step further and merge local and remote participants to allow interaction across the boundaries between the physical and the online world?

For months we've been experimenting with different approaches and technologies to achieve at least some degree of remote participation in a simple and effective manner. Today, I am very excited to announce that we've decided to broadcast the entire Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days conference live, worldwide, and for free. Yep, that's right. Free. And not only will remote participants be able to view the live video streams of presentations, talks, and discussions but they can also interact among another and with the live sessions.

The technology that makes this possible is provided by ustream.tv. ustream is extremely cost effective (free), very scalable (thousands of users), and provides additional tools to allow viewers to participate in an event in a meaningful manner via chat rooms, polls, and other ways. Instructions for viewing the conference are listed on the conference wiki.

This is going to be exciting - and it is a first for us. Now here's the caveat: We've had good experiences with the technology so far but using it in a live conference setting over two days is probably going uncover flaws and glitches. We'll give it a try and see how it goes - I think its worth it. If it works as planned it opens a whole new dimension of ways to bring together people. But please be aware that we are providing the service on a best-effort basis. Things will go wrong and we'll try to fix them but please be understanding. After all, it's the world of the continuous Beta, right? ;-)

Try ustream today and make sure your set-up is working so that you are ready to go on Wednesday.

See you next week - in person or online!

-- Terrence

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Sun SPOT Giveaway at Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days

Ok, so this is really cool: We managed to get hold of a couple of Sun SPOT kits and we'll be giving them away at the community social event at the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days next week!

We're thinking about creative and fun ways to do this ... like "coolest application idea for a Sun SPOT" and then raffle the kits among the entries. We'd love to hear from you if you have additional ideas to run this giveaway. And, of course, participants must be present at the community social to win!

On another note, we've happy to announce we're doing a Bar Camp event at the conference as well. The details are still being worked out ... our community member Sean Sheedy is the driving force behind this. So if you want to hang out with some folks and engage in midnight coding and discussions ... this is your chance.

And finally, we've nailed down the details of our community social event. It will be a fun and low-key gathering a local Mexican Bar & Grill in a community style atmosphere. Have good Mexican food, down a Margarita (or two), and socialize. If you don't end up meeting at least 20 people that night ... well, that's probably your own fault ;-)

Registration for Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days is open only until Friday (1/18). Register here.

-- Terrence

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Do we need a Mobile Developer Alliance?

Update 1/17/08:

• We will be having a post-Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days meeting on Friday 1/25 where we will continue the discussion on this topic after kicking it off at the conference. If you're interested please contact me or Sean Sheedy. For more information, please see Seans blog.

I think most people would agree that feature-rich mobile platforms and unfettered wireless data services  coupled with a new wave of content (rich, interactive, integrated, dynamic, personalized, meshed) will be catalysts for the next phase of the participation age.

The platforms, software architectures, protocols, networks, and usage models have been surfacing and evolving for some time now and mobile Java is playing a central role. But really this evolution is about content, content, and ... more content: The cool new applications, the innovate functionality, the  "anytime, anywhere" dynamic and meshed information that offers users new ways of interacting with the physical and virtual world around them. Call it "Web 3.0"?

But is the mobile ecosystem as a whole really facilitating the development and deployment of this new wave of content? Is it easy for developers and content creators to think up, build, deploy, and monetize  the things that excite users and drive new uses of mobile technologies? Does the mobile industry in its current state provide a fertile ground for allowing innovation to occur and new ideas to flourish?

A while ago I attempted to capture the situation developers find themselves in today when trying to bring content to market. A key diagram I came up with was this:

Don't worry about following each and every detail in the diagram. The point is to realize that the situation is complex - and for a number of reasons.

Before proceeding I think is important to realize that while the diagram mentions Java it should be clear that it is by no means unique to Java but that it applies (with variations) to the mobile ecosystem in the wider sense. Furthermore, specific market segments that provide a somewhat more straightforward model typically achieve that with a trade-off in flexibility and choice by means of a single vendor approach in the technology or model. At the end of the day such "simplifications" just add another dimension to the situation and don't truly simplify things from the perspective of the developer trying to address the wider market.

The main point to take away from the diagram above is that developers are in a less then enviable position - the place where the rubber meets the road. In order to create exciting applications and content and make a living from that developers need to pull all the pieces together and get things to work across a multitude of technologies, devices, platforms, vendors, networks, and business models - achieving this with constrained resources within a tight market window while somehow keeping their sanity. The bottom line is that the multitude of variables and parties to deal with is truly challenging and seriously inhibits innovation and growth of the entire sector.

But it gets worse still. As a big and established player you typically have relationships with the parties you need to deal with in getting your content into market and you have the resources to throw at the complexity. However, history has shown without a doubt that most innovation comes from unexpected places, from individuals in a garage, from left base - folks without the rolodex and the deep pockets. As described presently the mobile industry is tilted in favor of big established players - so it is highly probable that the industry is currently wittingly or unwittingly depriving itself of the very content it needs to attract in order to catch the next wave.

How did this situation come about? I think there are three main reasons:

1) While mobile platforms have been around for a decade or more it is important to realize that we are still in the midst of the technological evolution - competing standards and platforms are a natural by-product of maturation in a technology space. So that is a historical development.

2) In contrast to the wired Internet the mobile ecosystem adds another dimension with its own set of rules: The network operator. Think of it as the wired Internet being accessible only through CompuServe, AOL, and the like. Remember? Such is the situation the mobile space currently and it hardly makes things easier.

3) Developers are a fragmented group - they have no consistent voice and they are all busy fighting for themselves. Hence, they have no representation and no leverage to influence the industry.

So, where am I going with all this? The bottom line is that the most important and most innovative part of the mobile ecosystem - the small application and content developer - has traditionally been woefully underrepresented in the industry with many detrimental consequences for the entire mobile market.  While many players in the ecosystem claim to understand and cater to the developers it is clear that nobody can speak for the developers but themselves - and drive goals and topics that are truly important to them.

The state of the mobile industry today really begs the question: Do we need a Mobile Developer Alliance? An entity that represents the needs of mobile developers and works towards making application and content development easier and spurs innovation to the benefit of the entire industry. And if so, what would such a Mobile Developer Alliance look like, how would it operate, what were its goals and policies?

It's a topic that will be surely hotly discussed at the upcoming Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days. I'm doing a lightning talk (LT-8) on the subject, there will be a panel discussion (TS-9), and we'll probably talk about it in one or more of the ad-hoc brainstorming sessions.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts. And/or meet you at the conference to discuss it in person.

Cheers,

-- Terrence

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Happy New Year! And only three weeks to go ...

While I did try ;-) to take a much-needed break over the holidays I was still quite busy updating the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days web site with the latest information, speakers, and sessions.

The agenda is now final and we've added some exiting last-minute sessions and lightning talks. For example, Roger Riggs will be talking about "Seamless Integration of Multi-Tasking Applications with CHAPI". If you don't know Roger, he was part of Sun's original Java ME team (squeezing Java onto the Palm Pilot), he wrote code for the original JDK versions 1.1 and 1.2, he is Sun's representative in the JSR 271 (MIDP 3.0) expert group, and of course he is spec lead for JSR 211 (CHAPI).

For more info please check out countdown newsletter #3.

-- Terrence

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