Nitobi/PhoneGap at Bootup 2011

Nitobi/PhoneGap A serious look at serious business.

coincidence?

a meme is born

follow along... @andrecharland @brianleroux @nitobi @phonegap

2007-ishNitobi moving from products to services.

two choicesspecialization or agnosticism

specializeKnow one thing well.

agnostic‣ generalized devs (tricky to do)‣ hire specialists (expensive to do)

pragmatic Be of the web.

detractors of web techare an endangered species Tanner Glass leaves them be.

web tech stack• the new frontline for browser wars is js engine execution• this leading to server impls like NodeJS• also seeing huge grfx perf improvements for things like WebGL

Ruby on Rails?

how we do• billable; hourly --- NO FIXED BIDS EVAR• track our time to the minute• estimates are in the spirit of literal meaning of the word• iterate; weekly or daily builds

crucial factors• revision control• unit tests• issue tracking• automated daily/weekly builds

non technical factors• UX and IxD own the product• Ship a min viable product• YAGNI

Ship EARLY• if a client wants it in a month see what can be launched in two weeks• long hours are detrimental to success: CUT SCOPE

Our ofﬁce is mobile• basecamp to keep clients honest• git and github for issues, rcs, collab• harvest/coopapp for time tracking• google docs for other artifacts

we’ll throw out all those tools if aclient has an existing system in place

key to agnosticismStay on top of new tech. Listen to the devs.

2008mobile web trending

time to build our acumen• @davejohnson started hacking his BlackBerry• @inﬁl00p ordered himeself a G1• rest of us coveted our man jewellery iPhones

Aug 7, 2008http://blogs.nitobi.com/brock/2008/08/07/unofﬁcial-announcement-of-phonegap/

byproduct simple rules1. ﬁnd a tough problem2. *attempting* to solve it is more than anyone else is doing3. you have just created value4. sometimes you can turn value into money

new problems• now our business is 75% services• those services were all over the map but none where in mobile

continued to build the story and acumen• 20% time hacking• related passion projects• informed our clients of our mobile war stories

evolution• phonegap/android came a month later• phonegap/blackberry a month after that• we now support: • ios, android, bb, symbian, webos, bada • soon: meego, wp7

solve problem when you have them.• git and github is fantastic. really you should be using it. (until you shouldn’t)• added a wiki when we needed docs• added a mailing list when we needed to support ppl using the software• formal docs came last year

licensing• MIT/BSD• Apache

growing up• taking outside contributers• having a formal release schedule• planning our future battles

two types of tech problems

• science• big ball of mud

science• distributed map/reduce• mapping the human genome• putting a gyroscope into orbit in one shot on a multibillion dollar budget

big ball of mud• mvc framework for language X• unit test frameworks for language X• dom library• any impedance mismatch, really

take away• tech deprecates: you do not have to• foster learning• use devs wisely; ask them about passion projects

YOUR tech deprecates• maintenance is not a chore• grand rewrites are paths to failure• you need advocates that are customers

marketing• not free but damn cheap• speak at confs• give away as much IP as possible• identify byproducts of value and champion

marketing cont..• blogs last forever: urls• tweets connect ppl• 3 min shitty screencast > polished docs

dev happyness• devs create value writing code• do everything you can to maximize that time inc 20% time• NO OVERTIME.• free them of noise, meetings, etc• give them the best tools, confs, etc• team w/ a rad UX / IxD person

dev happyness 2• don’t hire ‘rockstars’: create them• foster DISPASSIONATE devs• critical thinking > marketing dept zealotry• eradicate attachment to anything: ALL TECH DEPRECATES• have fun with it.

new direction• mullet business model• services that feed products that create services

Questions? Code? Hockey time nao?

Nitobi/PhoneGap at Bootup 2011

by Brian LeRoux on Jun 01, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Nitobi/PhoneGap at Bootup 2011 — Presentation Transcript