Over the Air 24 Hours of Mobile Development

Coffee Breaks a goner

As those of you who have been watching the schedule will have noticed, we have so many great sessions to put on, that we've started squeezing out the formal coffee breaks to fit them all in.

But not to worry, there will be coffee and snacks available throughout the whole event, and plenty of spaces to hang out and visit or work on some code. Basically, we're counting on you to take a break when you need to!

Impromptu Sessions – the ‘unconference’ part

Hopefully you have now taken the time to peruse the fantastic schedule that has been put together by many participants, in the lovely grass-roots fashion that is at the heart of Over the Air.

What you may not realise, is that we also have a room (Huxley 344 C) set aside as a 'Camp Room' throughout the entire programme, where the attendees of Over the Air can spontaneously create and host any session, workshop, round-table discussion that they please!

We'll have a wall schedule posted where you can scribble in your Camp Room bookings with a title for the session. Please use the BackNetwork to propose ideas and to post descriptions of the sessions you've pulled together.

Mobile Website – courtesy of Bemoko

If you'd like a handy way to check out the most up to date schedule, select the sessions you're interested in for your own event schedule, or simply to read the latest tweets, set your mobile browser book marks to http://ota.bemoko.com, or use the handy QR code below:

(If you had already saved m.overtheair.org to your mobile browser bookmarks, don't worry, it will redirect.)

A big thanks go to the team at Bemoko for creating and hosting the mobile website for us!

bemoko have turned the mobile website development market on its head, providing a framework which allows web developers to quickly and easily create mobile websites which are optimised for all devices, The framework is a revolutionary system for developing mobile sites using standard markup languages. This approach allows developers to take full advantage of the new devices coming to market without leaving behind the older devices. With easy application integration and simple to use social networking plugins, the bemoko framework is a fully featured, powerful and flexible method of getting great looking websites on mobile devices.

Sponsorship Announcement – Orange Partner

We are thrilled to announce that Orange is a Gold Sponsor of Over the Air!

It is thanks to the financial support of our sponsors, that we are able to make this event completely free to attend.

Orange Partner – helping you to sell your apps to Orange customers

We are proud to be a Gold sponsor of Over the air 2009

The Orange Partner programme is for existing and potential 3rd party partners, giving you the tools and support you need to create and provide compelling product and services with Orange.

The Orange Application Shop is a distribution route for mobile apps, currently live in the UK, France, Belgium and Spain, with other countries in the pipeline. The Shop can be accessed via WAP, web and/or on-device client, offering multiple ways for potentially millions of consumers to browse and buy your applications.

The app submission process is really simple – just complete a short form, giving us a few details of your downloadable mobile app. You don’t need to be a member of Orange Partner, and your app doesn’t need Industry Testing. And if we want to sell your app, we’ll do any necessary testing for you. For free.

We can offer you tools and resources including testing advice, 1:2:1 support, device specs, design guidelines, access to devices at our worldwide Orange developer centres...

Do you have an app to submit?

Find out more: http://www.orangepartner.com/applicationshop

*News Flash* – more tickets released!

We completely sold out of tickets over the weekend, and have been bombarded with e-mails from all of you who hadn't had a chance to register yet.... so we're releasing more tickets!

They are sure to go fast, so make sure that you make your reservation now - we won't be able to release any more unless we figure out a way to feed you all!

Speaker Announcement: Claire Rowland

We are very pleased that design researcher and user experience design practitioner, Claire Rowland, will be part of our panel for Inspiration / Outspiration: where do ideas come from?

Claire is a Research/Service Design Lead at Fjord and a passionate advocate for user-centred design. She has an academic background in psychology and human-computer interaction and has worked in digital user experience research and interaction design since 1997, for companies such as Razorfish, Flow Interactive and the Press Association.

Her key interest is the role of qualitative research in innovation, to which end she has conducted hundreds of user research sessions, from ethnographic and contextual interviews to photo diary studies, participatory design and user experience/accessibility testing.

Speaker Announcement: Duncan Arbour

We are very pleased that Duncan Arbour will be part of our panel on the sources of innovation; Inspiration / Outspiration: where do ideas come from?

Currently senior consultant at eBusiness consultancy Blue Latitude, Duncan has spent the last decade working at agencies of various sizes on strategy projects spanning multiple sectors.

His present focus is in the global healthcare and pharmaceutical sector, with projects including the development of both patient and professional focused mobile applications.

His approach to design is shaped by past experience of all manner of methodologies ranging from the lithe and agile to the dragged-out and bloated; none of which have ever seemed to successfully guarantee real world success.

Sponsorship Announcement – Vodafone

We are thrilled to announce that Vodafone is the Party Sponsor of Over the Air!

It is thanks to the financial support of our sponsors, that we are able to make this event completely free to attend.

Vodafone is accelerating the uptake of innovative web and mobile technologies on a mass-market scale through the Joint Innovation Lab. This is a collaboration between Vodafone, China Mobile, Softbank Japan and Verizon Wireless to make development and distribution of widgets quick and easy for up to 1 billion customers.

As a developer, you have easy access to the JIL SDK, emulator, getting started guide, complete API documentation, and more. Don't forget to raise your questions to other developers, provide your help and expertise, even post your own guides at the JIL Community forums. Go to jil.org now!

Caroline Lewko to Keynote Over the Air

We're excited to announce that Caroline Lewko will deliver a keynote address at this year's Over the Air!

Caroline has been in the wireless/ telecom industry since 1995, as a coder, funder, business developer and entrepreneur and is known as the ‘connector’. She is sought out by investors, executives and developers alike for insights, contacts and advice; and has advised and funded hundreds of companies. She was named one of the 2009 Top 10 Women in Wireless by Fierce Wireless.

She started WIP to make the path easier for mobile developers, reduce cycle times and increase innovation in the mobile ecosystem, through events like WIPJAM; Go to Market programs and resources like the WIPwiki. Caroline founded the Wireless Innovation Network of BC (WINBC ) in 2001, and Wavefront , a wireless development center, and is Past Chair of both organizations.

Competition Categories – the ‘mobile development’ part

One of the key features of Over the Air is the in-event competition, which gives you a chance to show off the clever and fun ideas you’ve been coding and hacking away at over the course of the event.

To enter the competition, we’ll be setting up an online submission form that we’ll make available during the event. You can always check the Competition page on the blog to find out the latest details. There are no limits to how many times you can enter, nor on the size of the team that you enter with. The application, widget, web app, or service idea that you submit doesn’t have to be ‘complete’ but does need to be presentable to the audience in a way that makes it clear how it works.

If you’ve got an idea you’d like to work on, but want to find a few people to work on it with you, just join the conversation on the BackNetwork forums.

The Sponsored Categories for this year’s competition are:
# OMTP – Best BONDI Widget
# Deutsche Telekom – Best BONDIPIM based Widget
# LiMo Foundation - Best user experience on BONDI widget

# Lonely Planet – Best Lonely Planet Hack

# BBC – Best Dr Who Hack
# BBC – Best Top Gear Hack
# BBC – Best bbc.com Hack
# Yahoo – Best use of Yahoo APIs

The General Categories are:
# Best User Experience / Service Design
# Best Visual Design
# Best Use of WebApp / Widget technology (any platform)
# Best Location Aware App / Service
# Best Use of Wireless, Bluetooth, or RFID
# Best Hardware Hack
# Best of Show (Selected by the Judges Panel)
# Audience Favorite (Selected by all attendees)

We may be adding more general competition categories as we get closer to the event - so keep your eyes peeled!