OpenSocial events, past, present, and future
January 30th, 2009 | Published in Google OpenSocial
Mahatma Gandhi once observed that "man is a social being," that "without inter-relation with society, he cannot realize his oneness with the universe."
While, of course, the universe is much bigger than OpenSocial, one way to realize your "oneness" with the OpenSocial community is by planning and attending events with other developers who share your passion for OpenSocial development. With this in mind, we have added an events page to the OpenSocial wiki which features, among other things, a planning guide for new events. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for organizing, marketing, and executing OpenSocial-themed meetups and hackathons and makes coordination as simple as following a checklist. Plus, the planning guide is "wikified," so as you hold events, please feel free to share your lessons learned with the community.
A number of OpenSocial events have already been held in the past weeks. For example, a group of over 100 self-proclaimed OpenSocial enthusiasts gathered in Pune, India in late December for a full day of speaker tracks and application demos. And two weeks ago, around 20 developers who were new to the API gathered in Dallas, Texas, walked through the tutorial together, and even had a break-out session about implementing OpenSocial on their own sites before ending the day with some drinks.
New events are already in the pipeline:
Even as the community organizes great events, OpenSocial containers are bringing developers together as well:
Social events make communities stronger and closer. Start using the planning guide today so you and fellow OpenSocial developers can begin realizing your "oneness" with the community.
Updated January 30th for clarification
While, of course, the universe is much bigger than OpenSocial, one way to realize your "oneness" with the OpenSocial community is by planning and attending events with other developers who share your passion for OpenSocial development. With this in mind, we have added an events page to the OpenSocial wiki which features, among other things, a planning guide for new events. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for organizing, marketing, and executing OpenSocial-themed meetups and hackathons and makes coordination as simple as following a checklist. Plus, the planning guide is "wikified," so as you hold events, please feel free to share your lessons learned with the community.
A number of OpenSocial events have already been held in the past weeks. For example, a group of over 100 self-proclaimed OpenSocial enthusiasts gathered in Pune, India in late December for a full day of speaker tracks and application demos. And two weeks ago, around 20 developers who were new to the API gathered in Dallas, Texas, walked through the tutorial together, and even had a break-out session about implementing OpenSocial on their own sites before ending the day with some drinks.
New events are already in the pipeline:
- The Silicon Valley Google Technology User Group (GTUG) is scheduled to discuss Java development with OpenSocial at their February 4th meetup. Two developer advocates from Google will present on the Java flavor of Shindig, as well as the Java client library which allows developers to interact with OpenSocial containers from Java-based apps.
- WeekendApps is a three-day "codefest" starting February 20th at the Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. Developers and general social enthusiasts will form teams, brainstorm new concepts for social applications, and then design and build these apps over the weekend. On the evening of the 22nd, the teams will demo their apps and those with the most popular apps will score prizes and publicity.
Even as the community organizes great events, OpenSocial containers are bringing developers together as well:
- A MySpace DevJam is scheduled for February 5th in San Francisco. The event will be focused on monetizing applications via virtual currency and is being sponsored by Offerpal, which is providing up to four developers in attendance the opportunity to have their applications reviewed by Offerpal's consultant team.
Social events make communities stronger and closer. Start using the planning guide today so you and fellow OpenSocial developers can begin realizing your "oneness" with the community.
Updated January 30th for clarification