Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2010 is over already? wow. Although it would be insanely challenging for me to cover everything that happened in 2010, I’d like to cover some highlights on the professional side of things.

Consider this a quick retrospective, on some, but not by any means, all … of 2010.

2010 has been a big changer for me in a lot of ways, but I’d like to share some of my thoughts on this “year of years” for the mobile and device industry.

Also, be aware, this is all from the vantage point of a 4 year veteran of the mobile and device industry, living in the US, actively working and playing with the latest and greatest gizmos and gadgets.

2010 was the “Year of Devices”
2010 was the year of devices. Notice I’m not saying “mobile”. TVs, tablets, smartphones, and more. This was the year of it all … and it’s only the beginning.

With CES kicking off 2011, it’s going to be very exciting for all involved.

DIRECTION
First off, you might be surprised to find yourself reading this post off www.scottjanousek.com instead of flashmobile.scottjanousek.com. This is intentional. Let me explain.

I’ve been focusing on Mobile for the last 4 or 5 years. Yes, I was an early adopter here in the U.S with mobile development (with carriers back then, actually).

Yes, I spent a lot of early adoption years working with Adobe and its partners to foster the Flash community on Devices. Yes, this was mostly Flash Lite work. Yes, I have written books on it, articles, and other educational material about it. Finally, yes … I am still actively doing projects in this realm (i.e. “Flash Mobile“).

However, 2010 was a year of diversification for me.

I’m working under Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and other platforms and/or devices.

Given that, it should be no surprise, I’m also using both Adobe and non-Adobe tooling for projects (yes, I’m now doing paid Flash 10.1 and AIR projects on devices, BTW). Yes, I’m doing native and non-native development on many of “target devices”.

One more point. Many aren’t aware, but I manage several blogs which cover my work interests. Look for these to expand and grow into 2011, as I twitter about my endeavors on social media channels (e.g. @scottjanousek).

Flash Mobile and Adobe is just one of many technology companies I work with, but independently and with my consulting company: Hooken Mobile.

We use tools to get jobs done, simple as that. Adobe just happens to make some tools that make life easier (most of the time).

2010 HIGHLIGHTS (in no particular order)
So, 2010 was actually jam packed with a lot of work and travel. Here is some stuff I can talk about, openly:

Every year, I dedicate a lot of my time (both personal and professional) to community events. Some people ask me if I get paid for this, and the answer is no, I typically do not.

The reasons I do these events are: a.) I like to travel (well, the “being there part”, anyways) b.) I have to market myself and company by networking, c.) I like to share knowledge and experiences & d.) I like to learn and stay current in my profession (i.e. mobile and device industry).

Here are some of the events I can remember going to (may be updated at a later point!):

FITC 2010 (Toronto)
I do believe my 1st conference of 2010 was FITC. I’m not going to go into what FITC is here, other than it’s one of the best interactive and media conferences on the planet.

Although on some previous occasions I have spoken at this conference, this year I stuck to being an attendee to absorb as much info and inspiration as possible.

Turns out that was a great plan. Lots of inspiration, and not a lot of perspiration (fellow speakers will now what I mean there!).

More Info: FITC 2010 (Toronto)

Flash and the City 2010 (NYC)
I was happy to be invited by Elad and Jose to speak and give a workshop at FATC 2010 (NYC) this year.

The Flash on devices workshop was actually a bunch of us: Max Antinori, Veronique Brossier, Chuck Freedman & Kathryne from litl.

I was also a panel on Flash across devices with Lee Brimelow, Elad Elrom, and Thomas Joos (moderated by Chuck Freedman). That was fun (if a bit impromptu).

Other notable experiences was the night time cruise event, visiting the State of Liberty, as well as roof top parties …

From my understanding 2010 was successful enough for a 2011 event. Yes, I’ll be giving a talk and workshop at 2011. Yes, the the material will be Flash related. I’ll post more about all that starting in 2011.

I’m really looking forward to Flash and the City 2011. It has a nice vibe to it, even if the 1st one was a bit rough around the edges. 2011 should be more formalized.

More Info: FATC

Flash Belt 2010 (Minneapolis)
This was my first year to Flash Belt, and it was a blast.

Dave (the organizer) is a nice guy and puts on a great conference in the Belt area.

Although most of the conference is catering towards Flash in 2010, I have a feeling it could open a bit in 2011.

This year, I gave a talk on Flash on Devices called the “Flash Evolution on Devices”. It was more of a business type talk than inspirational or technical/creative.

If invited back next year, I think I’d probably talk more about some of the experimental work I do. Seems the audience is more into that sort of material.

Some memorable moments of the conference were hanging out with (Flash) community members watching World Soccer, as well as the traditional bike city tour, bus rides, speaker dinner, Nyes Karaoke, and more.

Among many great sessions at the event, I also mention that Jer Thorpe’s conference ender talk was still very memorable (which says a lot).

More Info: Flash Belt 2010 (Minneapolis)

FITC Mobile 2010 (Toronto)
This was my 2nd FITC Mobile event. The first year I gave a couple presentation, but this year I decided to take in the whole event as an attendee.

I got to see a lot of varying mobile talks including Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, as more. I also did a BADA workshop.

Can’t say I’m doing much with BADA right now, but it was interesting to talk with the Samsung folks at the event … also this was the 1st opportunity I got to do a hands-on with the Galaxy Tab. They also had very nice Samsung displays at the event.

Got to say the HTML5 session at the event didn’t really get me excited about HTML5. This has changed though. Seems like even Adobe realizes they can’t afford to wait for it to hit … successful or not! (i.e. they are investing into tooling to support HTML5, etc).

Although I don’t have immediate plans for HTML5, I do think projects will come. I’ve already been approached by a few on some, in fact.

More info: FITC Mobile 2010

FITC 2010 (San Francisco)
This year I was invited to FITC 2010 in San Francisco to give a workshop on AIR for Android, as well as a session on Flash on Devices.

It was quite a change to see 35-40 people in a workshop to learn about Flash development on devices (sorry Seb and Branden! ). I also gave my Evolution of Flash on Devices talk at this conference. It was fun, but I think I was up against a well known film producer, as may attendance was minimal.

This particular conference was quite an adventure. Some notable moments were hanging out with seb.ly? and getting to know Jared Flickin, Jer Thorp, and other “community folks” I’d never talked to.

There was a rooftop party, and Tycho at the conference event as well.

Adobe MAX 2010 (LA)
This year’s MAX was pretty wild. A lot of emphasis was put on mobile and devices, and for good reason.

Adobe finally pushed a lot of their development tools forward with AIR on devices (for Android, at least), as well as Flash for TV, Flash Player 10.1 across Android, as well as bringing Flash Builder into the mix, as well as finally offering up AS 3 support to deploy to iOS and Android devices. So … essentially Adobe finally dumped Flash Lite for Flash 10.1 (cue: <crowd cheering>).

At MAX, we got to hear from a few of Open Screen Partners, and how they are leveraging Adobe technology such as Flash Player and AIR on their devices and platforms. Pretty cool. Lots of Android and also a lot of emphasis on the Blackberry camp.

This year, there wasn’t a whole lot on iOS. I guess Adobe learned their lesson. Be careful in your mobile moves and with your partners.

Still, despite the whole iOS debacle it was nice to finally be able to leverage Adobe tooling to deploy to new devices and platforms. Is Open Screen a success? Well, to me 2011 will finally tell.

Adobe MAX was proof that the dream is still alive, and just judging from all the community and evangelist activity in mobile and devices you can tell they have quite a lot riding on the success of Flash on devices.

2011 should be very telling. Adobe is a tooling company first and foremost, and I although I hope Flash sticks around for a number of more years, it’s become obvious they really need to take it to next levels. Flash 10.2 is exciting … HTML5 seems to capture a lot more people’s gaze (unfortunately).

I hope things like Stage Video, 3D accelerated graphics, and USB gaming peripherals are just the beginning for Flash 10.2 and beyond.

For me, Adobe MAX was the lifeblood that needed to get pumped into the Adobe Community, and gets developers (finally) excited about developing mobile applications using Adobe tooling. Hope it goes well as planned.

Oh yah, at the event I gave my AR Drone session (aka “AIR Wolf”) at FITC unconference and 360|FLEX.

Thanks for everyone attended. It was a blast showing my experiments off, and I hope to be doing so again in 2011, with so additions and refinements. Stay tuned!

More info: Adobe MAX 2010 (LA)

RIA Unleashed 2010 (Boston)
I’ve been to a few RIA Unleashed conferences. This one was pretty special. I gave my workshop: Android for Flash Professionals at the event (i.e. AIR development targeting Android devices).

I didn’t give a session talk at this venue, but I did get to catch a few. Most notably was the Flash for TV session with the litl crew. I also catch some of JF’s bliting session. Managed to drag myself to a JQuery talk as well.

Looking forward to next year when RIA Unleashed is organized under the FITC brand. It may not be necessary to go to Toronto each year for FITC, which would be very nice (both on my time and wallet). Have to see how that turns out.

More info: RIA Unleashed 2010

LOCAL STUFF (to Boston and Mobile):
Momoboston – I didn’t get to many this year, besides the summer party.

These events are typically 300 or 400 people, now. I find I’m not getting much from them as much. They are marketing events for the speakers.

I don’t have plans to attend any in 2011 unless the format changes, or there is a relevant topic I can’t stand to miss.

I did see that there was new organization leadership for the event, so I look forward to seeing how future events are planned and managed in 2011.

Drinks on Tap – I did manage to get myself to a couple of these this year. Unfortunately due to conflicts I missed a bunch as well.

Overall, it’s great to see the excitement about an industry I’ve been in for a while. There are a lot of newcomers, but I’ll gladly accept the competition, as it only stimulates more clients on my end to get interested in mobile and devices.

B.U.G – I went to my 1st Boston Unity Developers Group meeting. Lots of fun. Hope to be doing more Unity 2011!

PEOPLE
So, yes, I met quite a few folks in 2010. Sorry I can’t name names, but if I met you in 2010, be sure you link to me on twitter, facebook, or linkedin.

You can also drop me an email, or add me to skype (Sorry if I don’t respond quickly, nothing personal).

Also bare in mind that if I haven’t met you in personal there is a 50% chance I won’t add you to my network.

2011 will be a year where I try to slim down my networking contacts and purge all the spammers in my network.

PROJECTS
Well, I can’t disclose a lot in this area. I can say that up till now my model has been working under cover with OEMs and partners.

However, going forward into 2011, you should see a lot more public facing work. Stuff I can share and discuss much more openly.

For 2011, you can also expect more diversification on my part. Doing Flash development on devices for the past 4 years has lead to some great work opportunities, and yes, I’m active in this area. In that time, however, I haven’t managed to grow my company (Hooken Mobile) as much as I would have liked.

Although some of the Flash specific jobs have been lucrative, that has been the exception rather than rule. To this effect, rather than specialize in Adobe related projects, I’m now diversifying into other areas of work in mobile and other form factors.

Also, now that Adobe has “bridged the roadmap” so that any Flash professional can do mobile, you’ll most likely see me doing less daily evangelism about new products, services, etc. The age of experimentation is over for me, and it’s about making sustaining revenue. I’m going to use tools that make me and my company, money. If it happens to be Adobe tooling then great, but it doesn’t have to be, nor should it be.

As a rule of thumb, the more revenue I make using Adobe tooling, the more I will discuss it via social sites, and my blogs. I know a lot of people reading this will say, oh, “Scott is it just for the money”. lol. Simply not true.

I got into the industry because of passion and genuine interest, and love for pocket sized devices. Now that mobile is trendy, it’s part of the business, pure and simple.

In 2011, with Flash, myself and my company, it’s going to be a question or whether not the clients come calling, or I see actual #’s which suggest my vested time (and money) for products and services. I can tell you, though, that I do have projects extending into 2011 which are, indeed, Flash related.

That’s not to say that I won’t be providing educational materials or (blog) posting, just not as much. You can also expect diversification at conferences. Don’t expect me to necessarily be talking about all about Flash at events in 2011. I don’t work for Adobe (although rumor has it, I may have be offered to at one point), so I shouldn’t have to. Adobe has evangelists for that job anyways, and they seem to be very *very* busy these days … just an observation from a long time community member.

Anyways, I know this might sadden and/or surprise some Adobe folks, but it’s reality, and unfortunately, I can’t dedicate as much time to community and/or evangelizing as I used to (well, not unless I’m compensated in ways behind marketing and free swag).

Evangelizing is a full time position at companies now … and if I were to send a bill totaling my time spent in the community evangelizing Flash on Devices it would easily exceed a 300k bill.

Let me say this … in 2011, I will do my part in disseminating info to the broader (Flash) community which I think is good work and viable opportunities coming from Adobe and its partners … but it’s going to be dished out like the cold hard reality it is.

To me, “Flash on Devices” had it’s “early adopter” days and now it’s about business, and finally delivering on the promises of the Open Screen Project.

Folks are still going to “tinker” and experiment which is fine by me. My goals in 2011 are to move clients forward, and create products and services which yield the most ROI, whatever that technology may be.

I do hope 2011 is a real success for Adobe in the device space, and all it’s hard work leading up to next year. Some of us have been waiting for quite a while … years, in fact.

ok, I think I’ve ranted enough for one post … here’s some stuff to look forward to in 2011.

2011 Notables

So … what does 2011 have in store for me?

• Flash – Flex, AIR almost exclusively on devices (mobile, TV, and other form factors)
• Mobile – Corona, Unity 3D, iOS, Windows Phone 7 … and some other work.
• Computational Art – Processing
• Physical Computing – Arduino, Openframeworks, etc
• Hint: Look out for Lasers in 2011!
• More AR DRONE development, experimentation and fun in 2011!
• Expanding mobiledevjobs.org
• Some other “surprises” in 2011 (to be posted Jan 1st, 2011!) …

Anyways, 2010 was nice, but I’m welcoming 2011. Hope to see some folks at conferences and events in 2011.

I’ll post more about where I’ll be in a post starting 2011.

Until then … Happy Holidays and Happy New years, everyone!

My take on FITC Mobile 2010 this year

Has it really been a year since last year’s FITC Mobile? Yep. And with this FITC Mobile event, 2010 did not disappoint.

Congrats to the whole crew who help organize & produce the event.

I’d like to take some time to spill out my gut reactions on what I saw and heard here at FITC on this blog.

For more Flash Mobile commentary, please check out flashmobile.scottjanousek.com (post is pending, BTW).

This year, due to my schedule and other events, I deicided to go as an attendee rather than a speaker.

As one who has been involved with mobile and devices for quite some time, here are some thoughts on the day 2 conference and what I had a chance to see and hear (on a very high level):

DAY 0
ok. So day “0″ it was a rainy day, but a good one to attend an indoor all day workshop. Of course at FITC there were several to choose from. Among them, one for Unity on Mobile (iOS, specifically), one on iOS development (specifically iPad), a native Android development session, as well as a (free) BADA event sponsored for Samsung.

I attended the BADA even primarily for my lack of general knowledge about the platform and its capabilities … Ok, I also attended to also to see the Galaxy Tab in person and gets some hands on (which I eventually did). I’ll post my reactions about the Galaxy Tab in another post, but in summary : “it’s a very nifty device and the closest thing I’ve held in my hands that comes close to an iPad … and in some respects even surpasses it”.

Back to BADA … so BADA is Samsung’s platform to target lower to mid range feature phones. Upper elchon (aka “smartphones” and premier tablets, etc) is reserved for Android, which is a really a good way of moving IMHO. It’s a move I’d would have expected from Nokia, but they are all tied up with Meego, and Symbianv3 as part of their strategy.

Anyways, BADA is a C++ framework developers can utilize to create applications for feature phones in Samsung’s worldwide lineup. Overall, I found the platform to be like OF and/or objective-C workflow. The development is very low level, yet powerful.

There’s also a tie in to Samsung’s App Marketplace, but I haven’t really explored that quite yet to be honest.

I’m not exactly sure on the future of feature phones and on BADA, but it is something I’ll be thinking more about.

DAY 1

Developing Apps on Android as an Entrepreneur with Ash Kheradmand – overall this was in my top 5 presos. Good business presentation, not technical. Of course it was a marketing schpeal for the service Ash & Fasaid are working on, but it still had some very valuable insight into “business savvy 101″.

Building Applications for Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft Silverlight (Part 1) with Mark Arteaga – I stepped into the WINPHONE 7 session to see what Mark had to say. Basically, it was “101″ into some of the toolset involved with creating Windows Phone 7 apps. Pretty cool, but overall it was bit dry, technical material, but still yielded a lot of info into the overall platform and its quirks.

Networking – I did some networking rather than attend any sessions.

Flash Platform for Mobile and Devices with Mark Doherty – Mark talked about the overall Flash Platform and recent activities, including AIR on Android, as well as Flash Player 10.1 on Android. He gave some great insight into the mindshare of Adobe’s philosophy and take on multiscreen. He also attempted to demo some of the Flash apps on devices. Of course the demo Gods weren’t on his side for some of them, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Still, it was good to hear what Adobe had to say on Flash across devices in these recent days of “HTML5 vs. Flash”.

Catalyst for AIR on Devices with Terry Ryan – I caught some of Terry’s preso. Basically the idea of creating prototypes quickly from Flash Catalyst. Overall I found the session to be interesting. Right now Catalyst does not support any kind of mobile flow, but you can “fake it” to a degree. I think this material was more of Terry exploring the possibility. Of course whether or not Adobe decides to make Catalyst a prototyping tool for mobile and devices is to be seen. Once Hero gets closer, it would make a whole lot more sense for marketing and sales at Adobe to take another look at it.

Intro to Unity – High-Quality Interactive 3D Content with Tom Higgins – this was one of my favorite presentations at the event. Tom gave a great overview of the ideas and philosophies around Unity, as well as lot of business insight. I didn’t see much in the way of technical usage of Unity, but he did run a Unity workshop so I imagine that was the place to be for that knowledge transfer. Overall, I found his explanations and forthcoming of Unity mindshare to be refreshing and brutally honest.

Google Event Party – The Google event was pretty cool. The venue was not bad. The thing about FITC after hour events is that they are almost always noisy and not very conducive to networking. Still, I managed to find some less noisy locations at the venue to talk with some folks.

Dinner with Adobe – Some Adobe folk (i.e. Brian Rinaldi, Terry Ryan, Mark Doherty, and Paul Trani) took Rob Rusher and I out to an Indian place for some dinner (AROMA?). Oddly enough this is the same place, I had lunch with Nokia several months earlier this year. Great food and conversation. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about any of it here.

DAY 2

HTML5 and Mobile Web Development with Alex Kennberg – Given that there’s so much hub-bub about how HTML5 will “kill Flash”, or how HTML5 this or that, I thought I’d check in and see how Google is approaching HTML5. Although the session was bit disjointed I did come off with how Google felt about HTML5. What struck me about the session was it was mostly how HTML5 was leveraged internally at Google. I don’t think I saw one demo shown in a real browser during the session. This kind of threw me for a loop. If you are going to promote technology, it’s best to show some live demos of pushing the limits, even if it’s not your limits you’re pushing … and no … a canned video of Doom or Quake playing within a highly unstable and massively configurable setup does NOT COUNT!

An Android App Case Study with Adrian Lee-Kwen – this was about how Adrian took an idea to hobby, and then eventually sold off the property. His session had some good stats and numbers, as well as some insight into the app market. Some of his presentation I agreed with, but other parts, not. Hobbyist app developers are a double edged sword for the Mobile (App) Industry.

networking – caught up with some folks at the event

Best UI Practices Across Various Mobile Platforms with Boris Chan – basically this was a common sense approach to building mobile apps and experiences. The material validated a lot of thoughts. “Know your audience. Know your device …” was the motto. To me it could be summed up as “Know your Industry”.

Coding practices for Android developers with Anna Schaller – Motodev is where Anna works. Nice to see the Motorola thoughts on Android. Some tips and tricks were shown.

networking – I spent the remainder of the conference talking with folks about mobile and devices.

EVENING – I spent it working.

MISC – Of course I glossed over playing around with the Galaxy Tab or playing games on the huge 55″ Samsung LED. Plus there was some talking with Microsoft about Windows Phone7 as well as some other Canadian mobile app developers.

So, overall that’s in a nutshell of what happened at FITC.

Overall vibe:
In terms of platform outlooks, well … last year might have been about iOS, but this year it was diverse, but there was definitely a lot more focus on Android. There was only a couple RIM sessions and I didn’t spot even one session covering working with any Nokia platform development this year. It was mostly iOS, Android, and WinPhone7 … and who knows, next year it could be Windows Phone 7 that’s the big winner for # of sessions at FITC.

On another note, seemed like based on some sessions, Telcoms might be on the verge of striking back to reclaim developers in 2011. Telecoms with their own app stores and new models. We’ll have to see how that pans out for them.

Oh yes, before I forget … anyone traveling from the US into Toronto should checkout Porter Airlines. It takes only < 1 hour to get there, arrives at harbor island downtown, and is really easy avoid the crowds at the International Airport.

Also, if you want a decent hotel and can’t get into the venue chosen hotel, Hilton Garden Inn in Toronto is not a totally bad choice.

The event was held at the same venue … The Toronto Convention Center. Space is definitely not a problem there! No need to change it for 2011, I don’t think.

Anyways, just some thoughts on this year’s event. I’ll be going through my business cards, and hope to be in contact with some shortly. If not, get in touch at @scottjanousek.

FITC Mobile 2010 Pocket Collage

A few months back I started doing collages of stuff I bring back in my bag. Here’s a snapshot of FITC Mobile 2010.

I’m working on a post conference summary which I hope to have here sometime very soon. Stay tuned.

FITC San Francisco 2010 highlight reel

FITC has posted a highlight reel of the San Fran event.

Although the overall event felt smaller than Toronto, I think the large venue at the University had a lot to do with it. Lots of space.

Still, the content and experience of FITC in San Francisco were fantastic.

FITC San Francisco 2010 from FITC on Vimeo.

FITC gathered over 70 internationally renowned presenters from around the globe for this epic three day Flash, Design & Technology event.

FITC has held sold out events in Toronto, Hollywood, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Seoul, and Chicago, and is was excited to be in San Francisco, Adobe’s head office home town.

With 4 tracks of presentations, including 10 Adobe ‘Under the Hood’ sessions and a 4th day of optional workshops, this event left you inspired, energized, and awed.

In a couple of weeks I’m headed up to Toronto for the 2nd incarnation of FITC Mobile. There’s also FITC Unconference (Oct) in LA, and FITC Edmonton (Nov) to round out 2010.

If you’ve never attended an FITC, I highly recommend getting to one. It is one of the best interactive and media conferences around. I put it in my top 5 … and I do attend a lot of conferences.

Giving a talk and workshop at FITC 2010 in San Francisco in August 2010

Just an FYI, but I’ll be speaking about Flash on Devices (“Evolution of Flash on Devices“) at FITC 2010 in San Francisco in August.

I’ll also be giving a workshop for those looking to gain some experience with mobile development under the Android platform (we’ll cover a bit of native, but mostly in-browser/out-of-browser Flash on Android).

If you’re hesitating to register, do not do so. FITC is in the top 5 conferences worldwide to attend for Flash and interactive technologies (I’m not going to list them out because I would get emails by all the other organizers. ).

I can guarantee it will sell out in July (look at the speaker line up), don’t delay.

See you there (maybe).