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Welcome to Cape Town for our first African WIPJam!

If you think there is a slight sense of deja-vu, well, I cannot blame you, Cape Town (in winter) has got a strong resemblance to San Francisco (all year long :D), hilly streets, misty, a bit chilly and a hungry enterpreneurial population!

This WIPJam, sponsored by Nokia, was part of Apps World Africa which was hugely successful with a great crowd and a great mix of people (thanks to an awesome networking party). The whole program of the event can be found here, but here are a few of my selected highlights.

Lesson from Windows on Nokia 2 years too early

This is a bit of nostalgia I will admit, but having Dusan from Device Magic walk us through his lessons learnt from his previous experience running .NET on Symbian was great. Dusan explored the options for enterprises when it comes to mobile software and why it makes sense to go native (because employees are consumers too, and cannot live with a sub-standard experience...

We’ve know for a while that that apps are the key driver in the mobile industry today, driving the demand for devices and network time.  The big players in the industry recognize that too, so are constantly on the lookout for new mobile applications that meet the requirements and imagination of their customers.

There are a variety of entry points to get you and your app noticed, including the AT&T Open Call Contest whose deadline for entry is Tuesday, March 8, 2011.  Get your app in now so you don’t miss out on this opportunity.  

Here’s why we like this contest. Not only is it a great way to get noticed in front of the right decision makers at AT&T, they and some of their partners who participate in the judging (I was a judge last year and will be  again this year), offer alot of advice and connections.  So even just getting a judging/pitch time is a big win!  There are over 100 spots open – so lots of opportunity!

We had an opportunity to speak with Andrea Morton the...

You might think :

"Who has time to read this newsletter when there's so much to do before Mobile World Congress? "

And you might even utter:

 "Who has time to write a newsletter... don't you have a WIPJam to prepare? "

And a rack of tee shirts to line up! "

Yes I do and  many more things, too!! 

• Get the logistics sorted out with the WIP tips and SIM cards tips  and find new chairs as WIPJam is going XL with 100 additional seats available.
• Download the WIP Survival Guide to Mobile World Congress or even better get the mobile app version with the WIPJam app for Android,  Nokia and iPhone (visit your favourite store in the coming days and look for WIPJam)
• Sign up for some of the "cliffhanger" developer events:
  • What will Nokia announce at it's Nokia developer day on Monday ?
  • What's going to happen on the Meego front at Intel Appup Application Labs on Wednesday?
• Get my name in all the cool parties in town, using one of the zillion...

 What do you get when you put mobilists in a bar from Australia, Belize, Cambodia, Canada, China, Finland, France,  Germany, Hong Kong, India,  Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Japan, jordon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan,Thailand,  UK , USA, Vietnam and a Bull Dog??

A WIP Connector party of course!

We hosted 'THE' Developer party @ MAC (Mobile Asia Congress), last week, on Tuesday, November 16th at Bull Dog's pub in Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong.  We had a great turnout of over 175 people that kept the room buzzing and the beer flowing. 

Thanks so much to all of you who came out and enjoyed yourself.  A big shout out to Bull Dog's who were so great to work with, especially helping to retrieve my phone that was left behind in a taxi.  Thankfully it was returned   Thanks also to our marketing partners:  Mobile Alliance of Singapore, Mobile Monday Hong Kong, The Code Project, HKWDC, Mobile Future in Stockholm, StartUps Hong Kong, HKWTIA, and...

Thibaut and I were in Berlin a few weeks back for a Jam Session at the Messe there, running alongside IT-Profits and LinuxTag. Despite the sweltering heat and a greenhouse of a building, it was a day full of great discussions. We had a smaller crowd than at many of our events at major mobile-industry events, but the quality of discussion enabled by its intimate size made up for it! Big thanks to our sponsors, Intel and GetJar, and to our friends at IT-Profits for helping with logistics.

We kicked the day off with a brief recap of some of the latest news from Apple's WWDC and Google I/O. The crowd seemed less interested in the previous day's announcement of the iPhone 4, and more interested in the news from Google -- perhaps explained by the strong open-source influence of LinuxTag and the enthusiasm for open source in Germany overall. One major point that generated some discussion was the expansion of the Android platform into the Google TV set-top box, and the resultant ability...

WIP was represented at CommunicAsia in Singapore this year by Teresa and I, from June 14th to 18th.  My favorite things about Singapore - the food of course (pepper chili crab the new favorite) and the great energy of the people.  Whereas in Vancouver we have two types of high rises - those with green glass, or those with blue glass (quite boring); Singapore is much much more interesting.  Take a look at the picture of this new building in Singapore, a combined hotel, casino and botanical gardens - ready to beat the next tsunami!  CommunicAsia is moving to this location next year!

We started the week attending a series of events hosted by the Canadian High Commission in Singapore, who always does a nice job of supporting Canadian companies.  For a change this year, we did site visits, one to SingTel and the other to StarHub. 

Interesting in the different approaches of the two  companies, SingTel being very aggressively international with interests in the following operators for...

Caroline and I were in San Diego last week for Qualcomm's Uplinq developer conference, where we were invited to present one of our WIPJam unpanels on Thursday. A big thanks to Qualcomm for inviting us, and to the company's CEO, Paul Jacobs, who gave us a nice plug during the keynote session that morning! Uplinq itself was great and packed with a lot of interesting people and good conversations, but more on that later. Our unpanel drew a good crowd, but more importantly, a spirited and wide-ranging discussion.

As we were in San Diego, and since Caroline was working on Canada Day, we went with a beach theme. Caroline and yours truly were decked out in some stunning Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops, and our unpanelists and a few members of the crowd got the memo and dressed along with us as well. We also need to recognize the efforts of our unpanelists, who did an excellent job of not just talking to the audience, but talking with them and keeping the conversation going. So thanks to:

Join us in Singapore!

WIPJam@ CommunicAsia
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Hall 3 Conference Rooms G&H
Singapore Expo
10:30 – 5:00 pm

Sponsored by MoSync

Please Register

WIPJam After Party
Wednesday, June 16^th
6:30 – 10:00 pm

Brewerkz Riverside Point
30 Merchant Road #01-05/06 Riverside Point
Singapore

Sponsored by NAVTEQ.

Please Register:   

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List of  activities/receptions/events/parties at CommunicAsia 2010

(Let us know about others so they can be added to the list)

Monday, June 14th

Canada ICT Partnering Forum and Marketplace 2010
Marriott Singapore, Ballroom, Level 3
3:00 pm – 7:30 pm
RSVP

NAVTEQ LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony
Shangri La Hotel, Azalea Room, 22 Orange Grove Road
3:30 pm Cocktail Reception/Contestant Showcase
4:30 Awards Ceremony

RSVP with name, company & # of Attendees

MobileMonday Singapore Party
Harry's @ Esplanade
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-05/07 Esplanade Mall
6:00 PM –...

Berlin is the mobile place to be for WIP in June:

• Droidcon last week (technically we were still in May)
• MLOVE ConFestival on the 23-25 of June
• And of course next week WIP's headquarters move to Berlin for a week, as Carlo comes over from the US to join me for Mobile Monday Berlin and our WIPJam at IT Profits/LinuxTag on the 9th! (There's still plenty of time to register and get your free tickets, so come join us!)

In addition to the Android App Store competition, Droidcon was also full of cool presentations (all available here) and I was able to interview Kerstin Monzel and Jonas Kollberg from Intel, who presented at the event and will be at the WIPJam next week, too.

While California was abuzz with the Google TV announcement, and Intel powered set top boxes, we chatted more about the mobile device side of things.

WIP:  Judging by the warm tweets welcoming Quake running at 120fps on Moorestown... Your presentation at Droidcon was quite popular!  What was it...

Calling Canadian MobileDevelopers - Join a GSMA OneAPI Hack-a-thon

The GSMA has put together a global initiative called OneAPI.  It's all about network APIs and making it easier for application developers to work with the operators - you only develop to OneAPI, have one set of T&Cs and get access to multiple carriers. 

The first pilot is in Canada, with Bell, Rogersand TELUS! And the first APIs open are messaging, location and operator billing.   We need YOU, the developers, to work it, play with it and tell us WHAT YOU THINK!  Other international operators will follow shortly.  So get in on the ground floor now!

Join us for a briefing session and stay to hack-a-thon with refreshments and prizes.

Sign up on the WIP website for a Hack-a-thon in these cities:

- Montreal:       Thursday, May 13

- Ottawa:          Monday, May 17

- Toronto:         Tuesday, May 18

- Vancouver:    Thursday, May 20

http://www.wipconnector.com/wipjam/oneapi

OR  Get started right away,...