On 24th November 2012, possibly the most productive single hack event started.... I may be biased
After a few years of organising hack events, I was beginning to get a bit annoyed by the fact that we can bring together some super smart people with amazing skills and ideas, but not get around to pushing these ideas out to market. Maybe we were doing something wrong, targeting the wrong charities?
To prove to myself that you could build an MVP project in a weekend I built a dev4good windows 8 app in around 30 hours, so I knew it would be possible as long as you kept it as a simple a product, it could be pushed to market. With knowledge I had some mental leverage (not the crazy kind) to show people what could be done.
This time around we decided to bypass the charities altogether, instead we invited developers designers, marketers, ideas people and anyone who was interested to join us at Google Campus for the weekend. In the end we had 40 people, a few familiar faces, a few crazy ideas and a load of passionate volunteers looking to make a difference.
Our holiday hack mantra for the weekend: MVP MVP MVP (keep your eye on the Minimum Viable Product) Along with things like "you are not at work, if it is wrong tell your team, they cant fire you", "hey crazy boy, no we are not adding that to the project", it will all come together shortly"
The only rules were each team must be made up of different skills, a team of developers would never get finished and a team of designers might look good but wouldn't get out of Photoshop, it was all about co-operation and finding the right people with the right skills when you needed them.
With an initial intro from Heidi (our co-organiser from The Giving lab), Amy (the dev4good design/UX guru), myself and Jas (API architect from the Giving lab) we started everyone off with ta simple question. Think up new ways for people to give to charity, you have 10 minutes....
20 minutes later (scope creep can start at anytime), the groups came together and pitched their initial ideas to the masses. This (for me anyway) is where the magic happens at these events and if it doesn't happen you might as well head for the hills, people just start working in teams. It reminds me of those 60s horror films with each idea (the blob) just moving about consuming people, spitting them out until it finds the right group of people to start hacking.
Throw in some coffee, pasta, work tables, beanbags, sweets and the whole place was alive with people sketching ideas, writing code (and in one case launching their project before 1pm on the first day http://www.shevember.org .
At 4pm we had a quick meetup with everyone to see where they were or what they needed to get things done.
Other than Shevember ho were onto making their site work better and trying to arm twist people to donate through their site, the other teams were all at different points of their build. But the Shevember roject really highlighted the fact that keeping it simple makes sense and most importantly means you can push ideas out to the internet very quickly. Which I think spurred the other teams on, there is nothing like a constant reminder of 'hey my site is live, how is yours' to make any developer grit their teeth and weep a little.
Unfortunately I wasn't on site for the Sunday, but when I left on Saturday night I was stoked and very very proud of the work everyone had done. These people had given up their weekend to come along to a building with absolutely no idea what was going to happen or what they would achieve. And the fact that we were looking at 3 maybe four projects being ready to go live, I was a happy organiser.
All in all we had 5 or so products live by the end of the weekend, with a couple more close to going live and one in the iTunes store being authorised..... A massive achievement by anyone's standards and as far as I know (I could be wrong) the most 'to market' projects ever written during a hack weekend (imagine if we were allowed to stay overnight)
As for 2013, there are a lot of plans for new events, bigger events and even more products to market! If you have an idea that could help a charity or a community in general, send it to ask@dev4good.net you never know we could build it in a weekend.
Massive thanks to everyone who came along to work with us, even bigger thanks to Heidi, Amy, Jas, Dom and all those who made it possible, see you all next time!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
My Learning worx, turning the corner in e-learning
A few months ago I joined forces with a team of people with an idea to try and change the way people teach and learn online.
Our goal is to ultimately change the world, nothing big there then.
At the moment there are a large number of sites around that allow people to take courses, mostly based on SCORM which is the industry standard for e-learning. If you have taken any courses at work for Office, Health & Safety etc it was proabably a SCORM based package.
The problem with SCORM is you need to buy software and know how to use it before you start.
Making a course is relatively easy, but you then need to host it somehow, or run it locally on your own PC, which could make it difficult for others to use.
What we want to achieve is to give the power of authoring to anyone with an internet connection, without the need for a training course on how to build a training course.
My learning worx allows anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet the ability to create a course, promote it and then sell it (or give it away for free).
The better your course and the more sales you make, the more money you can make.
So if you have an itch to teach or want to learn the easy way, we would like you to check out the site and give us feedback - but most of all to try your hand at authoring some courses.
We will be looking for developers to help me build a Windows 8 (& phone) app for the platform in the near future, so keep an eye out if you are interested in e-learning.
We're giving prizes of Amazon Kindle Fires to the best courses published before Christmas.
Course authoring is really easy, all you need is an idea on what you want to teach people.
To read the blog and get more information go to: My Learning Worx Blog
Or signup and start making courses - http://www.mylearningworx.com
Our goal is to ultimately change the world, nothing big there then.
At the moment there are a large number of sites around that allow people to take courses, mostly based on SCORM which is the industry standard for e-learning. If you have taken any courses at work for Office, Health & Safety etc it was proabably a SCORM based package.
The problem with SCORM is you need to buy software and know how to use it before you start.
Making a course is relatively easy, but you then need to host it somehow, or run it locally on your own PC, which could make it difficult for others to use.
What we want to achieve is to give the power of authoring to anyone with an internet connection, without the need for a training course on how to build a training course.
My learning worx allows anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet the ability to create a course, promote it and then sell it (or give it away for free).
The better your course and the more sales you make, the more money you can make.
So if you have an itch to teach or want to learn the easy way, we would like you to check out the site and give us feedback - but most of all to try your hand at authoring some courses.
We will be looking for developers to help me build a Windows 8 (& phone) app for the platform in the near future, so keep an eye out if you are interested in e-learning.
We're giving prizes of Amazon Kindle Fires to the best courses published before Christmas.
Course authoring is really easy, all you need is an idea on what you want to teach people.
To read the blog and get more information go to: My Learning Worx Blog
Or signup and start making courses - http://www.mylearningworx.com
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Is windows 8 that bad - I dont think so
This is a reposnse to www.pcgamesn.com/article/why-i-m-uninstalling-windows-8
I started writing it as a comment to the looooong 'uninstalling windows 8' post, but it got a bit out of hand so here it is instead;
Dear Tim,
A few things, I have had windows 8 running for ages and yes it is 'different' to other windows experiences and yes some of it works better on touch devices, but I dont think uninstalling it is really the answer. The more feedback we can get out for others to comment on the better, good/bad or otherwise.
Microsoft needs to see and use this feedback to make it better and to be fair they have listened to some of the feedback with regards to the new Visual Studio, maybe this will herald a new beginning for the application life-cycle of MS products?
I really don't think Windows 8 is that bad, its not 'Oh my god, the best OS in the world' but none of the current ones are either, they all have their quirks.
They are built by humans, I mean we aren't perfect and creating an OS that keeps every single user happy is impossible.
There are a few keys that you have missed off your comments that I think may help you with some of your usability issues.
The windows key will always take you to 'home' (this being the tiled metro homepage)
Using windows key combinations you imitate touch gestures;
Windows + Z, Windows + X, Windows + C all bring up different menus while inside an app or 'home'
Windows + D still works to take you back to the old faithful desktop
Windows + Tab & Alt + Tab still shuffles you through the active windows
Windows + R still brings up the run command
The full list of old and new key combinations is here - http://www.pcworld.com/article/251022/windows_8_consumer_preview_keyboard_shortcuts.html
Yes I realise that we shouldn't have to use the keyboard, but it is one of the 2 most used input devices we have.
Okay there is no start button (start scary horror soundtrack music), but to be fair most consumers and remember Windows 8 is designed for the general public who are consumers of information, not geeks like most of the people who read this who are pro-sumers - that is we make stuff. They will use a dozen or so 'apps' on a day to day basis and don't care if they cant see the 'control panel' menu or most of the other options under the start button as they everything they need will be visible on 'home'.
So as long as they see their main app tiles they wont care either way.
I think if you are a geek or gamer you will feel unjustly forced down the 'app' centric route, it took me a long time to come to like iPad because of this. For a long time I wanted to get into the nitty-gritty and play with the folders hidden inside the OS. I even bought an android pad to do this... waste of time and money. Anything with a 10" screen is NOT designed for inputting large amounts of data.
You take a picture upload it to face book, send 140 character message to a friend, tell the world what you are eating for dinner, check whats on TV, watch a TV show,find a recipe, listen to a song, job done - it is nearly always consuming data.
I was also a bit confused with the whole home vs desktop idea. I am a dektop man, we all are I guess, everything gets dumped on the desktop first (or in the downloads folder) to be used whenever we need it and then left to clutter up the view, I used fences for ages to help clear this up.
But in windows 8 there is this clean (and easily read) blocked out 'home' interface that just allows me to see the top 20 or so tiles that link to the apps I use the most, not 4 screens (I have a lot of desktop space) of random files, links and shortcut, I mean really how on earth could that be easier and more productive? (sarcasm)
Windows 8 has made me do things differently, much the same way Mac users do things differently to windows folk. I now store nearly everything on skydrive and dropbox, very little is stored locally.
My laptop only gets the files I need to use, then they are stored or deleted, I just don't need them.
It has forced me to be more organised, I have not installed anything that I dont really need and do install a lot of crap that just hangs around, but if a tile stares at me long enough and I don't use it I remove the app, as the old meerkats say 'Simplesss'.
I will be lining up to buy a Microsoft Surface (not the old surface or pixelsense as it's called now, the new tablet one) when it launches in the UK. Why you may ask, well its really because android and I just don not see eye to eye and I am still not convinced the iPad is for me. Don't get me wrong it is a great platform with an awesome design/UX, however it just does things I don't like and I want to see if a Windows 8 touch device feels better and this is the big thing for me.
This is the crux of the whole mobile device OS issue. The difference between one OS and another is not how it works or what it looks like or if it crashes every 2 seconds, but how it 'feels' when I am using it; is it tactile?, does it make sense when I am doing a task?, does it allow me to access something in a way that feels right? can I use it how I want to use it?
I might be biased towards Windows 8 as I have a windows 7.5 phone, an Xbox 360 and rely on Microsoft stack and it's technologies to help pay my mortgage, but I personally think that Windows 8 is going to make people stop and think about how they work and what they 'really' use their PC/tablet/mobile device for.
And from a financial point of view, even if only half all current windows users move to Windows 8 that is still a shed-load of consumers who will be in the market for new shiny apps and that can't be a bad thing for us developers/designers.
One last thing, when reviewing an OS we shouldn't really focus on the apps that it runs, I know the mail client is pretty basic (although not that bad really), it is Outlook express at the end of the day and is not Outlook.
In general the apps are written outside of the OS, so shouldn't we review them in their own context?
regards,
Craig
I started writing it as a comment to the looooong 'uninstalling windows 8' post, but it got a bit out of hand so here it is instead;
Dear Tim,
A few things, I have had windows 8 running for ages and yes it is 'different' to other windows experiences and yes some of it works better on touch devices, but I dont think uninstalling it is really the answer. The more feedback we can get out for others to comment on the better, good/bad or otherwise.
Microsoft needs to see and use this feedback to make it better and to be fair they have listened to some of the feedback with regards to the new Visual Studio, maybe this will herald a new beginning for the application life-cycle of MS products?
I really don't think Windows 8 is that bad, its not 'Oh my god, the best OS in the world' but none of the current ones are either, they all have their quirks.
They are built by humans, I mean we aren't perfect and creating an OS that keeps every single user happy is impossible.
There are a few keys that you have missed off your comments that I think may help you with some of your usability issues.
The windows key will always take you to 'home' (this being the tiled metro homepage)
Using windows key combinations you imitate touch gestures;
Windows + Z, Windows + X, Windows + C all bring up different menus while inside an app or 'home'
Windows + D still works to take you back to the old faithful desktop
Windows + Tab & Alt + Tab still shuffles you through the active windows
Windows + R still brings up the run command
The full list of old and new key combinations is here - http://www.pcworld.com/article/251022/windows_8_consumer_preview_keyboard_shortcuts.html
Yes I realise that we shouldn't have to use the keyboard, but it is one of the 2 most used input devices we have.
Okay there is no start button (start scary horror soundtrack music), but to be fair most consumers and remember Windows 8 is designed for the general public who are consumers of information, not geeks like most of the people who read this who are pro-sumers - that is we make stuff. They will use a dozen or so 'apps' on a day to day basis and don't care if they cant see the 'control panel' menu or most of the other options under the start button as they everything they need will be visible on 'home'.
So as long as they see their main app tiles they wont care either way.
I think if you are a geek or gamer you will feel unjustly forced down the 'app' centric route, it took me a long time to come to like iPad because of this. For a long time I wanted to get into the nitty-gritty and play with the folders hidden inside the OS. I even bought an android pad to do this... waste of time and money. Anything with a 10" screen is NOT designed for inputting large amounts of data.
You take a picture upload it to face book, send 140 character message to a friend, tell the world what you are eating for dinner, check whats on TV, watch a TV show,find a recipe, listen to a song, job done - it is nearly always consuming data.
I was also a bit confused with the whole home vs desktop idea. I am a dektop man, we all are I guess, everything gets dumped on the desktop first (or in the downloads folder) to be used whenever we need it and then left to clutter up the view, I used fences for ages to help clear this up.
But in windows 8 there is this clean (and easily read) blocked out 'home' interface that just allows me to see the top 20 or so tiles that link to the apps I use the most, not 4 screens (I have a lot of desktop space) of random files, links and shortcut, I mean really how on earth could that be easier and more productive? (sarcasm)
Windows 8 has made me do things differently, much the same way Mac users do things differently to windows folk. I now store nearly everything on skydrive and dropbox, very little is stored locally.
My laptop only gets the files I need to use, then they are stored or deleted, I just don't need them.
It has forced me to be more organised, I have not installed anything that I dont really need and do install a lot of crap that just hangs around, but if a tile stares at me long enough and I don't use it I remove the app, as the old meerkats say 'Simplesss'.
I will be lining up to buy a Microsoft Surface (not the old surface or pixelsense as it's called now, the new tablet one) when it launches in the UK. Why you may ask, well its really because android and I just don not see eye to eye and I am still not convinced the iPad is for me. Don't get me wrong it is a great platform with an awesome design/UX, however it just does things I don't like and I want to see if a Windows 8 touch device feels better and this is the big thing for me.
This is the crux of the whole mobile device OS issue. The difference between one OS and another is not how it works or what it looks like or if it crashes every 2 seconds, but how it 'feels' when I am using it; is it tactile?, does it make sense when I am doing a task?, does it allow me to access something in a way that feels right? can I use it how I want to use it?
I might be biased towards Windows 8 as I have a windows 7.5 phone, an Xbox 360 and rely on Microsoft stack and it's technologies to help pay my mortgage, but I personally think that Windows 8 is going to make people stop and think about how they work and what they 'really' use their PC/tablet/mobile device for.
And from a financial point of view, even if only half all current windows users move to Windows 8 that is still a shed-load of consumers who will be in the market for new shiny apps and that can't be a bad thing for us developers/designers.
One last thing, when reviewing an OS we shouldn't really focus on the apps that it runs, I know the mail client is pretty basic (although not that bad really), it is Outlook express at the end of the day and is not Outlook.
In general the apps are written outside of the OS, so shouldn't we review them in their own context?
regards,
Craig
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Dev4good 2012 deconstructed - part 2
Please, please, please listen! I've got one or two things to say.
I have been writing code of some description since 2000 and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to UI design, user interactions etc. I am realistic and know that I couldn't design my way out of a paper bag and that there are always better ways to do things...And I guess most developers think the same, we all code our systems to be designed around the functions we build and the specifications we are given...
My way of thinking was about to be beaten with a stick (probably with a few rusty nails stuck in it).
Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly!
Picture the setting (this isn't me), its 230am on a Sunday morning, you have been coding a project since 11am the previous morning and you turn the developer across the table and say 'something just isn't right'. The UX consultant who has been trying to tell everyone in the team about something called 'stakeholder', behavior, touch points for the last 15 hours turns and says "Boys I have an idea".Queue 3 mini coopers, a bus going over the alps, or at least - 3 developers a super smart UX consultant and a whiteboard....
As I mentioned, I wasn't actually in the scene above (a lot of literary licence was used), I called in right towards the end (heading for what would turn out to be an incredibly uncomfortable bean bag) just to say goodnight, only to be told "Craig, Amy has just told us we don't need an IT solution for the Gaza project". Bearing in mind the gaza team had already split and it was nearly 3am, I thought what the hell this could be interesting.
Amy went through her presentation and I went from being completely shattered to being completely awake, everything she was talking about made sense. It appeared we had all missed the 'human' aspect of the problem and looking at the problem from a different angle (not the developer 'must write code' angle) meant the solution was extremely simple - we need somewhere for people to meet and share information.
This was where I dropped a bombshell, 'why dont you just do a mashup?'. Use the data feeds from all of the other projects, plus blogs etc and create a place for people to see the information they need to see.
The Gaza1 team came in as well to say they had realised that their solution was not going to work, mainly for technical reasons. They had framework issues and were stuck, everyone discussed options and they headed back to try some new options.
After an hour of discussing the different approaches of developer and designers I went to bed, feeling enlightened.
I've been here five years, they only hung me the right way up yesterday.
It will probably sound very cheesy, but the early morning lesson really struck home. I am reading the Nail it, then scale it book at the moment and there is a lot of talk about doing the minimum right first. You build a minimum feature set first and seeing what people think/need before adding more to it, this is exactly what the teams should be doing (lightbulb moment), thinking as a developer you always build to the end specification and would never (rarely) remove functionality just to get a build/release.However thinking about the human problems and behaviours of the stakeholders you very quickly realise that actually most of the functionality in the spec is down to what you (or they) think they need not what they need.
This would prove to be a valuable lesson that I think nearly everyone learnt over the weekend, all for different reasons
Two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Roman Imperialist State
I digress, the morning started slowly, actually I think it was more like Saturday, just became Sunday so there was no real start and everyone just got up and carried on.More coffee, monster energy, coca-cola was drank while the teams started on the home straight.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Dev4good 2012 deconstructed - part 1
Life of Dev4good 2012 - part 1
I have to admit there are a few grey spots from the dev4good weekend,
I think the lack of sleep and overdoses of caffeine, taurine and sugar are
probably the reason or a middle aged brain or a bit of both, anyway here is my dev4good,
deconstructed.
I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of...
On the 7th of July at 8am I wandered up from
Charing Cross station to 101 St Martins Lane (mozSpace London) to begin dev4good
2012. As ever when I run events I like to get there really early, more out of a
weird recurring dream that I sleep in and missed my own event, than anything
else.
I am always apprehensive about how many people actually turn up, I had 57 registered but with 4 other hack events within a 20 mile radius it was a busy weekend for developers.
I am always apprehensive about how many people actually turn up, I had 57 registered but with 4 other hack events within a 20 mile radius it was a busy weekend for developers.
I had everything organised, from badges indicating the
skills of the wearer (developer, designer, other) to chilled beer and energy
drinks.
But what had I forgotten?
This when the fear (F**k Everything And Run)
kicks in, the nervous energy and adrenalin start pumping….
Thankfully people started to arrive, massive relief and more
adrenalin (wuick flash back to Waynes World - if you book them they will come). John from Mozilla let us in and
the fun began.
The early starters were given jobs while I headed to Tesco to pick up breakfast. All I had to pick up was 80 pastries to go with the Lavazza coffee we had been given. However the staff at Tesco had an issue with this and kept asking me how I was going to carry 80 pastries, “in a bag” I kept saying but they still couldn’t comprehend the purchase.
The early starters were given jobs while I headed to Tesco to pick up breakfast. All I had to pick up was 80 pastries to go with the Lavazza coffee we had been given. However the staff at Tesco had an issue with this and kept asking me how I was going to carry 80 pastries, “in a bag” I kept saying but they still couldn’t comprehend the purchase.
Anyway after much packing of pastries I got back to mozSpace
to find a few more people getting ready to go drinking the freshly brewed
coffee. Still not the 50 or so people I was expecting, but by this stage I had
forgot the numbers problem, we had enough for 1 solid team and that’s all you
need for a good hack.
We waited for a bit longer than I had wanted to, but
everyone was happily chatting and meeting the other geeks, just on 30 people had turned up - stoked!
Welease the dewelopers
After Intros from me, the Givey Team (Dave and Nick), Mozilla
(John) and Iyas who runs Hope and Play, plus a quick cameo from the naked guy out of friends at the window across the
courtyard kicked the weekend off.
As you will see only one charity had a representative, this might be down to me not communicating the importance of this as well as I should (note to try harder next year) and to be honest it was something I was initially concerned about. This worry was quickly dispelled while listening to Iyas talk about his recent trip to Gaza, how bad it really is on the ground and what we could to do help.
As you will see only one charity had a representative, this might be down to me not communicating the importance of this as well as I should (note to try harder next year) and to be honest it was something I was initially concerned about. This worry was quickly dispelled while listening to Iyas talk about his recent trip to Gaza, how bad it really is on the ground and what we could to do help.
I remembered that we are
working on problems ‘seeded’ by charities and the more input the charities have
in front of the teams the bigger the chance our projects will come to solving
the ‘real’ problems, more on this later.
I have to admit some of things I used in my opening speech
may have had a bigger impact on the weekend than I had anticipated (in a good a
way I hope).
Things that come to mind “if you are in a team and are not
doing anything constructive, leave and join a team that needs you”, “last year
teams wasted a lot time on trying to make an existing platform do something
that it wasn’t designed to do, it might be quicker make it from scratch than to
rebuild existing code” or “use the skills you have already, focus on your
strengths and use them, learn where you can and teach where you can, but
remember time is limited”...
What have the Developers ever done for us?
The goal for each team was to produce and demo a mvp
(minimal viable product) in front of everyone else, sounds simple enough doesn’t
it?
Queue the mission impossible theme tune.
So project intros were complete and now the scariest part of
any hack event…. Will the people do anything when the gun goes off?
Another fear moment (probably a recurring dream about this too), everyone has heard the pitches and then decide to not take part and leave. However I forgot I had a room full of some seriously smart and passionate people and after running around, trying to find the man size post-it notes, I came back to find the organic process of a group of individuals turning into teams.
Another fear moment (probably a recurring dream about this too), everyone has heard the pitches and then decide to not take part and leave. However I forgot I had a room full of some seriously smart and passionate people and after running around, trying to find the man size post-it notes, I came back to find the organic process of a group of individuals turning into teams.
Popular people front - splitters
This is a process that if you haven’t seen is quite cool to watch, it’s hard to
explain but is a bit like the opposite of the Big Bang or like kids playing with play dough.
You start with a few people talking and others walking past overhear something interesting and get pulled in, if the conversation isn’t what they want they head off on a different trajectory. The bigger the group the more gravitational pull they seem to have on others, then all of a sudden the group will disband and people start to wander off again.
This continues until the groups stop disbanding and regrouping…. A very weird herd/pack thing I guess.
This happened last year as well, so there must be an
anthropological reason for how/why this happens, whatever it is, it is very cool to watch.
The teams then headed off and started the first stint before
food arrived, time for me to put on the “client” or “devil’s advocate” hat on.
For the next couple of hours I bounced in and out of projects when asked to (or
not) listen to their ideas, pitches and try and help them to keep their ideas
within the rough specs we have. I think I was helping out but it is hard to
tell this early on in the day, I am sure I pissed a few people off. My goal of
the weekend was to make sure everyone built something that worked end-to-end, I
think people enjoy to complete something and show it off.
Otters noses, badgers spleens
Food arrived at 12 on the dot, there was enough food to feed
a small army. The herds snuck out from
the safety of their territories (air conditioned in some cases) to eat at the
watering hole then moved back to continue working. There was a serious buzz
around the place and nearly everyone seemed to be locked in to whatever they
had been tasked with.
More splitters, the developers front of tower.js
This is where the fun began, there had been much talk about
platforms, frameworks etc, with some very strong ideas about which is best for
this and that. One of the teams had already split in 2 by this time, so we had
Gaza1 and Gaza2, this was down to platform/framework choice I think.
I have to admit there had been murmurings from some, those mumbles of wrong framework, bad ideas etc and a few people had moved out of teams to help elsewhere.
Something I really liked (it took some balls to drop out of a team) and not something people can do at their day job - “Sorry boss I don’t like the database structure we are using and I am going to head off and work in the canteen this afternoon, ok, thanks, bye”
One of the best quotes of the weekend has to have come from one of these particular incidents - “They all went for a cigarette, but never came back”.
I have to admit there had been murmurings from some, those mumbles of wrong framework, bad ideas etc and a few people had moved out of teams to help elsewhere.
Something I really liked (it took some balls to drop out of a team) and not something people can do at their day job - “Sorry boss I don’t like the database structure we are using and I am going to head off and work in the canteen this afternoon, ok, thanks, bye”
One of the best quotes of the weekend has to have come from one of these particular incidents - “They all went for a cigarette, but never came back”.
The aliens/ufo scene
Between lunch and dinner there is a large grey spot in my memory, I do remember bouncing in and out of scrum meetings, making fresh pots
of coffee, but not much a lot of detail. There seemed to be a lot of work going on and a lot
of people sitting at their laptops with headphones on, just getting on with it.
Solidarity brothers, solidarity
Pizza arrived and this is where the teams had their first
proper long break of the day, everyone came together for a some chill out time before heading back to the keyboards - dedication!
It was about this stage that I realised what I had asked everyone to do, last year the goal was to have a good weekend hacking and have some fun. This year they had to build something that worked, then show it off and as any developer knows #failure is not an option when it comes to a live demo (Win95 and a USB device anyone).
I also had a chance to check out the project whiteboards and reflect on what had been planned by each team, they all had pretty big ideas and were way above what I thought was possible (proof of the skills and knowledge of the teams taking part).
It was about this stage that I realised what I had asked everyone to do, last year the goal was to have a good weekend hacking and have some fun. This year they had to build something that worked, then show it off and as any developer knows #failure is not an option when it comes to a live demo (Win95 and a USB device anyone).
I also had a chance to check out the project whiteboards and reflect on what had been planned by each team, they all had pretty big ideas and were way above what I thought was possible (proof of the skills and knowledge of the teams taking part).
I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen?
There was a lot of coffee, monster energy drank over the next 12 hours, plus a tiny piece of sleep and in the early hours of Sunday morning, something close to a geek revelation took place for 2 developers (and me).Crucifixion party, one cross each, by the left, wait for it...
big thanks to
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Dev4good, Mozilla Foundation and a lesson learnt
I have learnt a lot while running the dev4good events (registration is open for 2012 – http://dev4good.eventbrite.com) and sometimes you learn something that makes you stop and think.
Last week I was left speechless, which doesn’t happen very often, I was up in London meeting Desigan Chinniah (@cyberdees) who is a firestarter at Mozilla (possibly the coolest job title ever) to talk to him about the Mozilla foundation and if there was anything they could help me with for this year’s dev4good event.
I arrived early so did the normal thing in that everyone who has time to kill in London does and found the nearest US-style branded coffee shop. Grabbed myself a coffee and wasted a 45 minutes thinking about how I could have arrived a little later.
At a few minutes before the appointment I headed into the unassuming building and was met by a burly security guard, after the generic, who/what/where conversation I was issued a visitor badge and escorted to the lift and swiped in….
I arrived up to the Mozilla reception on the 3rd floor and waited a bit as there was no one there, then signed myself in and emailed Dees to say I was here but there was no one on the desk.
I arrived up to the Mozilla reception on the 3rd floor and waited a bit as there was no one there, then signed myself in and emailed Dees to say I was here but there was no one on the desk.
A few minutes later Dees wandered through to the reception, my preconceptions of Mozilla were about to be blown apart.
I have been to a number of tech offices in the past and there is always the feeling that you shouldn’t be there, you are just a visitor, you are a small dude in a big fish tank etc.
Mozilla have been around for ages, since Netscape released their source code and I always assumed they were just another big tech company with loads of staff cubicled up tapping away at their keyboards, powering the corporate engine.
I have been to a number of tech offices in the past and there is always the feeling that you shouldn’t be there, you are just a visitor, you are a small dude in a big fish tank etc.
Mozilla have been around for ages, since Netscape released their source code and I always assumed they were just another big tech company with loads of staff cubicled up tapping away at their keyboards, powering the corporate engine.
I honestly thought I would be filtered off into a meeting room hidden amongst the cubicles to talk shop, get a few obligatory t-shirts and asked kindly to leave, oh how wrong could I have been.
To start with Dees arrived without any shoes on and let me know there wasn’t a receptionist and to make myself at home, I kind of liked the approach that silicon valley chilled feel.
We went through to the main space where Dees explained how the Mozilla foundation works and what a mozspace was
We went through to the main space where Dees explained how the Mozilla foundation works and what a mozspace was
“So, let me get this straight, this place is free to use and anyone can come and use the space at any time?” – ‘yep’
Pause, while I took this all in, “And I can use this for dev4good?” – ‘yes your event fits in with what we are trying to achieve here’
In 5 mins I had just wiped over £2000 off the setup costs for dev4good… stunned, more pausing for thought…
MozSpace?
Mozspace is a new concept here in the UK, there are other spaces all over the world that work really well, but it will interesting to see what the uptake will be. As it is a new venture there is still a lot to work out like a scheduling system (I think we can help out with this at dev4good 2012), written fair use policy, access out of hours etc. The Mozilla community is pretty strong (a lot stronger than I imagined) here in the UK so I can’t see this being a problem as the mozSpace grows in use, it is really up to the people using it now to build the framework for the venue.
I personally think the mozSpace idea could really be a game changer for other places in London that offer this sort of environment at the normal London short term rates.
Places like http://www.centralworking.com/ were a fantastic idea until I found out about mozSpace, even if your average coffee shop is becoming a little more lenient when it comes to people with laptops hanging out for extended periods of time.
Even with the advent of the new centralworking space at google campus, which as a sceptical entrepreneur I can see being an interesting place for google to find new tech while its cheap. The mozSpace has no corporate buy out feel to it, yes they expect the people using the space to hopefully take part in the Mozilla community, some will some wont and it is a gamble for them.
Places like http://www.centralworking.com/ were a fantastic idea until I found out about mozSpace, even if your average coffee shop is becoming a little more lenient when it comes to people with laptops hanging out for extended periods of time.
Even with the advent of the new centralworking space at google campus, which as a sceptical entrepreneur I can see being an interesting place for google to find new tech while its cheap. The mozSpace has no corporate buy out feel to it, yes they expect the people using the space to hopefully take part in the Mozilla community, some will some wont and it is a gamble for them.
This is when I started to realise this simple idea of allowing anyone to use a free space could seriously change the way people like me (freelancers of no real fixed abode) work and run their businesses, not just IT freelancers either, architects, designers, musicians anyone!
I now had the opportunity to use my time in London better, any time that would normally be wasted drinking coffee, being made to feel like a trespasser (some coffee shops are hopeless) could be used to my benefit in an awesome environment with like minded people.
Community space
This kind of concept is also a big reminder/kick in the pants to the other tech companies/organisations who want to have their own active community – (speculate to accumulate?) you really need to give back before you get anything in return.
I remember when the .Net framework was launched and Microsoft was spending a fortune on the MSDN road shows every year and other big developer events, they needed a UK community of people to be passionate about their products.
I remember when the .Net framework was launched and Microsoft was spending a fortune on the MSDN road shows every year and other big developer events, they needed a UK community of people to be passionate about their products.
There was rich pickings (freebies, swag, networking etc) for any developer happy to go along or join the community and use their tools, maybe we pillaged too much all those years ago?
These days the MS developer community is really run by the community leaders, there is very little in comparison coming from Microsoft to what we used to get, please don’t get me wrong Microsoft are still 100% behind the community. It’s just the offers and availaibity of those perks we used to get are no longer there. To be honest this probably isn’t a bad thing, it has forced MS developers and MS themselves to take on different avenues to ‘be good at what they do’
I realise Mozilla and Microsoft run completely different business models and Mozilla is a web thinking company, however there are still a lot of things Microsoft, Google and Yahoo can learn from this open work/community space concept, I mean if a non-profit organisation can rent a space like this and then make it available to everyone, is there any reason larger corporates can’t do this as well?
If you were a big corporate and you had office space in London that what going to waste, the idea of inviting Joe Blogs and his mates in to use the internet would be scary. But what if Joe was a great software developer and was able to help us out with a tricky problem, do you think Joe would charge you for his all of his time if he had been using your office for free? – interesting position to be in….
More on mozSpace London
Basically the entire floor of the building is the mozSpace, which the Mozilla Foundation are using as part office for their staff and part ‘open working environment’ for anyone else who wants to use it. The mozillians (as they like to be called) hang out and work where they want, the rest of us just fit in wherever we can (and there is a lot of options).
Along with the main space there are 3 big board rooms and from memory 5 smaller rooms, plus a couple of smaller breakout rooms as well.
Along with the main space there are 3 big board rooms and from memory 5 smaller rooms, plus a couple of smaller breakout rooms as well.
The main space will have a full AV setup, plus if you run events you might be able to stream live to the web and/or record video too.
Whoever turns up can meet/interact with the Mozilla staff and with anyone else using the space. A fair use policy is in place (community enforced), that is if you think you are going to turn up every day and run your startup/business from this space you should probably find somewhere else before you get a tap on the shoulder.
To use the space I think everyone needs to remember a few things;
- It’s a free environment, don’t abuse it
- Respect the people who are there already
- Use it as much as you want, but not too much
- Tell people about the space, but use it yourself first so you can pass the right info on to them
- You never know who you will meet there, be good
- Treat the place like your parent house, just without the keg party (well….)
I am not a mozillian, not yet anyway, but I can see why their community is a strong one and why it will continue to grow, they engage young people (I met
Everything is centralised around a single idea ‘keep the web open’ and now they have a central space to call home I can see their numbers growing fast (they have a new community member, me at least).
If you are in London and want to check it out, mozSpace is on St Martins Lane, you can miss it if you are looking for a big sign that says ‘Here’; 101 St. Martins Lane,Suite 300,London,WC2 United Kingdom
Next time you need a space to run an event in London, don’t hesitate get a hold of them MOZSPACES@MOZILLA.COM if it fits with what they are doing, or if they like the idea you could be the next event on their calendar
All in all I am very impressed with what Mozilla are doing, who knows how it will go in London, if it is not abused I really think we could be seeing some awesome community event take place and projects developed all because of the free open space they are making available to us all.
The next dev4good event is on the 7/8th of July, if you can write code, design stuff or know your way around a database – we need you!
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