I recently found out about this event from a colleague:
It is no secret that one of the fastest growing technologies, smartphones and apps, fit in our pockets, everywhere with us, and keep us constantly connected.
That’s why eCoast, a division of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber and a dynamic network of high-tech businesses and professionals, is announcing the 2011 eCoast Mobile Summit presented by TechWorld.
This educational seminar will be held on July 14 from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel, and followed by the popular “eCruise” aboard the Isles of Shoals M/V Thomas Laighton from 5:30 – 9:00 p.m.
New Hampshire’s eCoast is on the leading edge of the Mobile smartphone revolution.
That’s why eCoast Mobile Summit will focus on this fast growing segment with an impressive array of speakers, topics and panels.
The summit will be divided into two distinct tracks one covering the technical aspects of software development and engineering with the other covering critical marketing and business topics.
The July event will take place at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel and features a full day of speakers, exhibits, and networking. Kicking off the event with his keynote will be best-selling author Chuck Martin.
Mr. Martin’s latest book “The Third Screen, Marketing to Your Customer in a World Gone Mobile”, which has just reached store shelves, will be provided to each attendee, and Chuck will be available during the day to personalize each copy.
Adobe may have been a bit of a sleeping giant for last few years, but at least they are awake now.
We’ve already seen Wallaby, now there’s Adobe Edge, a visual IDE for mocking up web experiences. I’m going to call it “Flash-less Professional CS 6 IDE”.
Adobe Edge preview is an upcoming tool for creating smooth motion and transitions for screens of all sizes, utilizing the latest web standards like HTML/HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.
Highlights include:
Visually create motion content in an easy to use, timeline-based interface
Create new compositions from scratch, import and energize web graphics, or add motion to existing CSS-based HTML layouts.
Trust that your content works reliably on desktops as well as devices.
I think what we’ll see happen in the next couple years is that Adobe will make their tooling perform cross-compiling across the board, depreciate the browser player, and make Flash a niche tool for Game development, video, and other use cases.
After all, Adobe is 1st and foremost a tooling, not a run-time company.
Remember Shockwave? Yep, Flash is going to get niche. Well, that’s the way I see it right now, anyways. Take it or leave it.
This year, because of numerous factors (which I won’t talk about here), I decided to forgo FATC and travel to New York to participate in some workshops offered by some other folks I know and respect within the interactive community.
Here are some thoughts poured out about the excursion, in no particular format. I’m going to save up my “story telling” mode for after eyeofestival in a couple of weeks.
Travel
Jet Blue worked out pretty well. No snags except for a return trip delay.
I’ve taken the Train to NYC before. I haven’t worked out all the math, but it might be slightly cheaper to take the train, if you’re willing to do the 4hr RT commute versus the 1 hour plane ride from Boston.
Lodging
I stayed at the Ace Hotel, something recommended by a friend. Not bad. It wasn’t exactly downtown but it was close enough for both venues. The single rooms are more than adequate for a couple nights stay. I’ve had smaller rooms.
Since I only stayed a couple nights I didn’t really have a chance to explore more of the area around the hotel, nor the amenities. Definitely on my list for next time.
Workshops
Creative JavaScript and HTML5 training (Thursday & Friday) – The workshop was great. Most of the emphasis was on getting up to speed with Canvas.
Seb ran through Canvas drawing, particle generation, 3-D, game development with HTML5, and more.
“HTML5″ is not something you can do entirely in a day or two, but Seb did a great job at conveying the important pieces. The instant results were also gratifying.
I have a lot of thoughts about Flash and HTML5, but I’m not going to post them here. Rather, I’ll leave it to a new post.
Here are some the quick experiments I did during class.
Our class was between 10 and 15 people, a good size for moving along with exercises and being able to cover a lot of material in a quick timeframe. Lisa also did a great job assisting Seb for logistical things, BTW.
Although we didn’t cover every part of the HTML5 spec, we did concentrate heavily on Canvas, where all the “magic” happens, and you can take your JS into many different creative directions.
I picked up A LOT of tips from Seb during this workshop, particularly with advise on tooling, frameworks, and other things related to HTML5. I’ll post about the stuff I find useful on my blog here.
Processing and Data Visualization (Saturday) – I made it down to Jer’s studio in Brooklyn for his Processing workshop. We had a smaller, more intimate group for this workshop.
Since everyone was familiar with Processing, we were able to jump right into the mix with Data Visualization and how to leverage Processing.
There were a lot of good takeaways in terms of how Data & Processing can work well together, and Jer gave some pointers on how to go about looking at data, as well, as ideas on how to get interesting results from it.
First we started out doing basic scatter plotting and then moved into bar, and then grid representations of periodic data.
From there, we moved into working with the “We feel fine” API, and visualizing data from a data feed. I really liked the step by step nature of building up the visualizing tool.
Lastly, we had a chance to experiment with the NYTimes API. We built a basic tool for looking at historical data based on search terms.
Here are some of the experiments we went through. The nature of the workshop made absorbing the material fun.
There were also some hints at what might be “Processing 2.0″. I’m not going to say anything here though. I’m sure Ben Fry will announce what he can, on or after June 26th (i.e. eyeofestival).
Scott Janousek is a Mobile and Device Technologist located in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States.
Scott creates solutions for many mobile platforms; including Android,
iOS, as well as other device form factors (e.g. tablets, smart TVs, photoframes,
and other consumer electronic devices).
