This is going to be a short recap for myself about the DroidCon 2013 in the Kosmos Berlin. In deepest respect I thank every presenter for their hard work who took the time to share their knowledge and insights. The following is purely my observation and might be very subjective. If anything appears to be offending please read it as my personal opinion.
11:45 – Interaction and beyond – Wolter
He basically showed of a couple of different devices to develop for and encouraged everyone to think out of the box to get your application as appropriate as possible to increase the end user experience. For instance:
Nothing new in particular though.
12:45 – Libgdx Thomas
He gave a very brief overview about the high level layer of the framework and some components like the SpriteBatch, InputProcessors, how to get the deltaT value, and how to swap some screens. I was a bit disappointed, since I was – work related – looking forward for this talk in particular.
13:15 FOOD! ^_^ Well there was a very delicious all you can eat lunch buffet, which basically amortised the 10€ entry fee* already. (*which got sponsored by my awesome employer, thank you very much Wooga <3)
14:15 – Push Notifications with Netmera / Android Software Craftsmanship
Well this talk was kinda boring, since the presenter only walked you through the process of using their service layer for using google cloud notifications. He didn’t give much insight or reasoning behind the steps he clicked through. Felt like something I could read up later in a tutorial. So I changed to: Android Software Craftsmanship. Which basically was a free highly unprepared discussion about the common ways to develop software. (not a bad thing in this case) It appeared to be consens for all of he participants to use the test-driven approach. Using version controle like git and svn and even use a continues integration development layer to not mess up things in the long run. If something is not automatable: use conventions and iterate over them so they don’t force outdated rules. Also to abstract layers like DAO-Pattern in order to test them more separately has been recommended. Another recommendation was to use integration and behavioural tests for obvious reasons.
The very most and interesting part for myself was to get to know code retreat. Which basically makes you start a project (possibly pair programming) and work on it for 45 min and then throw every code base away in order to start over the same project again. The goal is not to finish the project but to approach the same problem 6-7 times. Usually differently and most likely better. (e.g. Coneway’s Game of Life) Personal I think it’s a pretty cool and fun idea to improve your own skills.
15:00 Mobility Android
Basically they gave an introduction about their flat search app and some thought process behind certain layout questions. They also opened a discussion on how to improve it even further. Turns out there is always someone with a bright idea to about everything. I think these kind of discussions are very worthwhile attending since you won’t forget the reasons for solving problems in a certain kind of way.
15:45 Reverse Engineering Ingris
Dirk Jäckel put his presentation online. Well – as the title states. If you’re into these kind of stuff it’s worth reading. For me however it was a bit too unrelated to everything I’m doing. So I’m not going into details about that one.
15:45 NFC in Games by Hannes Breul
Since the reverse engineering talk was shorter than expected I joined that talk at the middle. He was giving a good summery about where NFC could be used and about it’s strengths and weaknesses. For instance it can be used for location based games, crowd games with single/multiple locations, since it can be used for transmitting content. I didn’t quiet get all the details, but it sounded quiet interesting. I’m going to link his presentation, as soon as he puts it online.
16:15 Sascha Pallenberg from MobileGeeks opened a discussion about the awareness of the public imagine from younger generations on the internet. And that there should be some sort of education for it. So young people don’t put content online which could ruin their job carrer years ahead before actually applying. Which is troublesome since the knowledge about teachers and younger generations seems to be reverse. Pupils might know more about key technologies than teachers but are not entirely aware of the consequences of their public and transparent internet image and how hard it is to erase unfavourable content. It turned out to be some quiet interesting discussion to follow for one because of Sascha’s well communication skills and for the other because the very different opinion about how transparency could be interpreted in the near future by HR people.
17:15 What to consider when teaming up with a co-founder.
Was quiet interesting as well. Especially the consens to write everything down before starting anything. Better be safe than sorry I suppose.
17:45 Demo/Judgment
Basically a couple of startups showed off their latest android app and were looking for feedback, new designers, developer, business people to join their team or to find new investors. I’m gonna talk about this later when the judgement people are done judging and put their stuff online.
Conclusion
Monday the Barcamp was probably designed for people who haven’t done much with android yet I suppose, since it was rather surficial for my taste. Anyway I got to know some new people which was totally worth participating. It’s all about the people there after all. And the food was quiet enjoyable, which usually convince me to recommend it. :D
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