Over the Air 24 Hours of Mobile Development

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!

Draft Schedule Now Live!

We've posted a draft version of the event schedule! Some elements of the schedule are still subject to change but this will give you a good idea of what the two days will be like. Wondering what all these sessions are about? We'll be filling in the gaps with session detail pages over the coming days so keep coming back for updates.

Speaker Announcement: Ben Reason

We are very pleased to have Ben Reason of live|work presenting an Introduction to Service Design, as well as moderating our panel on Service Design in Mobile.

Ben is a co-founder of live|work and over the past eight years has directed his passion for social impact projects into delivering successful change for the public sector.

Ben graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 1994 with a BA in Fine Arts, following this in 2000 with an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath.

Ben has a background in design and innovation in network enabled services with Razorfish and Oyster partners working with Orange, Vodafone, Nokia, Sony, Experian and Oracle. He founded livework to create a dedicated service innovation company.

Ben works closely on Service Innovation for the NHS Innovation Institute, The Design Council and the Cabinet Office.

Ben has written articles for the NHS ‘In View’ magazine and has been featured in the Independent Herald Tribune. In 2009 he was voted one of the Top 20 most influential designers in IKON magazine.

Ben has provided strategic guidance and project delivery management on a range of high profile public sector projects for organisations such as BBC NHS, Home Office, Vodafone, Experian & RSA.

Sponsor Announcement – Microsoft

We are thrilled to announce that Microsoft 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.

About the Microsoft Developer Network

The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is Microsoft’s central resource for developers, but with the launch of Windows phone we have a complimentary resource to help you use the development tools and technologies you are familiar with. Once you have your mobile application Windows® Marketplace for Mobile makes it easy to manage and distribute your applications, and will directly connect you with millions of Windows Mobile users worldwide.

http://developer.windowsmobile.com/

Speaker Announcement: Mark Curtis

Name an example of service design in mobile... Did you think of Flirtomatic?

Mark Curtis, who will be part of the panel on Service Design in Mobile is CEO of Handmade Mobile, the company behind Flirtomatic. Mark was previously a partner at Fjord, inventing and building cross platform and mobile products for clients such as Nokia & Orange. Prior to that he was a global EVP for Razorfish responsible for 1500 staff. Together with a partner, he set up CHBi in 1994 to develop interactive technology solutions for marketing clients; by 1998 it was one of the top 3 new media agencies in London and was acquired by Razorfish.

He has a track record in media innovation (for clients such as Yell, RAC & Allied Domecq). Prior to becoming involved in digital media, Mark had set up Curtis Hoy, a successful media promotion company which spearheaded the use of radio for sales promotion in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

He is also the author of Distraction – Being Human in the Digital Age (Futuretext 2005). He likes cycling and mountains and wine and has five children.

Speaker Announcement: Nico Macdonald

We are very pleased to announce Nico Macdonald as the moderator on a panel on the sources of innovation; Inspiration / Outspiration: where do ideas come from?

Nico is a writer and consultant working around innovation, technology and design, with a focus on media. He writes for publications including BBC News Online, Guardian Technology, and The Register, and has written for most English language design publications. He is author of 'What is Web Design?'. In 1996 he co-programmed the first UK conference on design and the Internet, and in 2000 founded the Experience Design London group, which informed the development of interaction design thinking and practice around the fixed and mobile Web. His work is documented at Nico Macdonald | Spy .

Speaker Announcement: Brendan Walker

We are very pleased that Brendan Walker will be speaking as part of the panel of artists and designers for Inspiration / Outspiration: Where do ideas come from?

Brendan Walker is the director of Aerial. Blending strategies from the arts, design, engineering and psychology, Aerial offers strategic consultancy; the design and production of intriguing interactive electromechanical installations, sculptures and rides; and the curating and staging of engaging events. Brendan is most noted for his Thrill Laboratory performances and research, which have earned him recognition as “the world’s only Thrill Engineer”.

Brendan originally trained as an aeronautical engineer at Imperial College and worked for British Aerospace Military Aircraft for five years before undertaking an MA in Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art. Brendan is currently collaborating on the University of Nottingham's Digital Economy Research Hub, Horizon. www.aerial.fm

Speaker Announcement: Paul Coulton

Dr Paul Coulton's presentation on location-based games and applications ("From Frisbees to Silly Glasses") was one of the highlights of last year's event. We're happy to announce that Paul will return to Over the Air with a session on "Mobile Games as Social Information Appliances."

Although the original definition was unrestricted, the term ‘information appliance’ has become synonymous with personal hardware device specializing in information and designed to perform a specific activity in a simple and user-friendly way. In many respects many mobile applications if well designed provide the attributes of the information appliance through software as they generally perform a specific activity centered around information and are simple to operate. Due to the constraints of the mobile phone environment these attributes are also those most often associated with casual mobile games. Paul's presentation proposes treating casual mobile game design as the creation of social information appliances. In particular he will research relating to social capital and draw parallels with knowledge of player behavior before defining how these can be applied within mobile games.

Paul has over 15 years experience in mobile as a developer/researcher and is at the forefront of creativity in mobile entertainment, particularly games and social networking. Paul has produced some of the world's first mobile games utilizing location, proximity, and tangible objects/ interfaces and more recently mobile driven social networks. Paul devised the worlds first MSc in Mobile Games and Social Networks and has written a book on S60 development and the chapter on novel mobile game interfaces for the book on Symbian programming for games. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer in creating uniquely mobile experiences and was selected as one of the 50 most talented mobile developers worldwide from a community of over 2 million to be a Nokia Champion in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.