Presenter: Andrew Betts, Assanka
Time: 9:30 – 10:30, Saturday 1 October

In June 2011, the Financial Times became the first major publisher to create a touch optimised app-like HTML5 mobile website experience to rival the best native apps available for the iPad, and in doing so created a platform from which their award winning journalism could reach users regardless of platform. Assanka worked with the FT over 8 months to build the app and optimise it for the widest range of mobile platforms, and every new release further pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved solely with open web standards. This session will introduce the app, the technical challenges of building it, and many of the real-world solutions that have gone into it.

Andrew Betts is a PHP and Javascript developer, founder of Assanka, and maintainer of the Meteor open source project. He has a love for Web technologies and using them in creative ways to improve user experiences of all kinds. He also love baking and will be offering homemade cupcakes to anyone coming to his talk.