This past weekend, GTUGs around the world met for a two-day hack-a-thon event to introduce Android application development to thousands of new people. The challenge was set to build an Android app, competing with other Google community groups around the world for global prizes. Local Android experts were available on site.
I attended the local Boston Google Technology User Group (GTUG) event held at Google’s facilities in Cambridge and was duly impressed by the awesome turnout. As I arrived, I talked with many of the attendees to get a sense for the attendees – how much Android experience they had; what kind of companies they worked for in their “day job”; and if people knew each other. As I expected, most of the people had little Android app-dev experience and represented a mix of students, independent developers and seasoned developers from leading companies in the Boston area. They all shared one thing in common: they had all decided that it was time to learn how to build mobile apps for Android.
During Day 1, people shared project ideas; formed teams; set up their dev environments; and started designing and building their apps. As the teams started to gel, it became clear which teams and projects were to emerge as the leaders for the weekend. Projects included multiple parking apps, a hands-free voice control app, an action adventure game, a music virtualization app, a local restaurant beer and food tracking app, an event selection and sharing app, and a peer-to-peer IM app.
At the end of Day 2, the collective group voted on what they felt was the best app built in the two-day event. Congratulations go out to Jeff Sylvan, David Rose and Lance Perry who built a new interactive game called “Captain Aye Aye.” Along with overwhelming applause from the rest of the developers at the event, they were proudly awarded the grand prize of a new Android tablet device (courtesy of Black Duck Software), but the bigger prize was the experience of learning, working together with other developers and sharing knowledge.
If you’ve never attended an event like this, I’d strongly recommend that you find a local user group in your area and join in the fun. I get inspired every time I attend and look forward to seeing new people, new technologies and new ideas at the next event.
