A presentation given for the course of ICT Entrepreneurship at Utrecht University. Each group of students is working on a business idea. This presentation aims to give them information on what development platforms are available to develop their prototypes.

1. Platform Selection
Wilco van Duinkerken
November 20th 2009

2. About Me
• 1995: Started Web Development
• 1999-2001: Snakenetworks
• 2001-2004: Dots and Crosses
• 2004-2006: SoundCream
• 2006-2009: Sparkboxx
• 2009-... : Othonis

3. My Target Today

4. Provide you with
enough material to
keep you surfing the
Internet for a day

5. Because Slinger is
getting bored with
the standard PHP/
Joomla prototypes

6. How to choose a
Platform?

9. These are your
Garage Days
• Focus on “proof of concepts”
• Technically, but especially
• Business wise
• Your constraints: Time + Money
• So...

10. Be Lazy...

11. Ask yourself:
“What do we have to
prove?”

12. Excercise
• Find yourself a competitor
• Explain your product as:
• We are similar to [X] but we do [Y]
better
• Your job is to develop [Y]! not [X]!

13. Example
• We are just like Google Search, but we
organize the results better
• Your Job in the Garage days:
• Learn the Google Search API and
present the results differently
• DON’T build a search engine!

14. Example
• We are just like Hyves / LinkedIN /
Facebook, but we focus on the elderly
• Your job:
• Get an open source implementation
like Community Engine
• Redesign it for the elderly

15. Find a Foundation
• Is there any open source
implementation you can start using?
• Are there any WebServices you can
use?
• Are there any apps available with an
API you can use?

16. Example Foundations
• Imaging applications: pixlr.com API
• Document management: zoho.com API
• Search/ localization application:
google and yahoo APIs
• Financial administration: write an
Exact Online plugin

17. Example Foundations
• CRM application: highriseapp.com API
• Messaging: Twitter API
• Community sites: Facebook app or
Community Engine
• Content Management: Radiant,
Mephisto
• E-commerce: Spree

18. Try re-use first!
Focus on your unique
selling point [y]

19. Start Developing
“outside-in”
• Design first!
• Make a prototype
• Start the implementation
• Stay away from a database as long as possible

20. Design First

21. Choose your Platform
• Web
(works on mobile and desktop as well)
• Desktop
• Mobile

22. Web Development
Platforms and Tools

23. Web Basics
• HTML (checkout HAML)
• CSS (checkout SASS and COMPASS)
• Javascript

24. HTML (content)
• Easy to Learn
• HTML 5 is really powerful! (Google
Wave)
• A lot of “ready made” material
available
• Works on (almost) all Devices

25. CSS (layout)
• Easy to Learn, Hard to Master
• Quite some cross-browser issues
• CSS Frameworks to the rescue
• Blueprint CSS
• 960gs (demo)

26. Javascript
• For the Web2.0 Feeling
• Advanced layouts and interactions
• Use a framework:
• JQuery and JQuery UI (demo)
• Prototype + Script.aculo.us
• YUI: Yahoo User Interface

27. Developing for the Web
• LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP)
• Ruby - Rails, Sinatra, merb
• Google Web Toolkit (Java)
• Adobe Flex
• Microsoft Silverlight

29. Rails is used by
• Twitter.com
• Omroep.nl
• Shopify.com
• NEDAP

30. Ruby on Rails
• Turbocharged Web Development
• About 10.000 plugins and “gems”
• Loads and Loads of instruction videos
• railscasts.com
• peepcode.com
• Free hosting at heroku.com

31. Desktop and Mobile

32. Developer Aids
• Traditional
• Visual Studio .NET (Windows)
• Xcode (Mac)
• IntelliJ (Java)

33. Developer Aids
• 4TH generation tools
• Servoy (free academic license)
(demo)
• WinDev (free lite version)
• Cordys process factory (mashups)

34. Appcelerator

35. Proof of Concept(s)
• Are NOT complete products
• Are deliverables that prove a point i.e.
• Technical Feasibility
• User interface
• Customer interest

36. Summary
• Define your unique selling point (USP)
• Try to re-use everything but your USP
• Prototype your USP:
first visually, then technically
• Use the prototype to test your USP
• Be Lazy! Use the right toolset.

37. Some (off-topic)
Personal Notes and
one-liners

38. Competitors are the
best thing that will
ever happen to you.

39. Keep track of the
hours you spend on
the product

40. Keep a sustainable
pace
(check out Pivotal Tracker)

41. Build your own website
in minutes using
• www.rackspace.com
• www.wordpress.com
• www.typepad.com

42. #fail...please, #fail...
(and admit it)