MOTODEV Blog

[#1]

The Ji-V Hackathon and Seminar Series II was held last Saturday, June 25 from 8am to 8pm, at Ascend Training on Michigan Avenue.  It was the second Hackathon this year, and brought together Chicago mobile app developers, in a competition to develop the best mobile device app within a twelve hour time-span. I was invited to represent MOTODEV in the panel discussion.

There were seven competing teams. Each team had 4 to 6 members, with at least one experienced developer, one beginner/student, and one designer.  The Hackathon's main sponsor, GiveForward, set these requirements:

1) Create a prototype/mockup of a mobile-friendly version of GiveForward website, which provides users the ability to:

• View a fundraiser's details
• Donate to the fundraiser
• spread the word about the fundraiser
• Send a "hug" to the fundraiser

2) Create a mobile app that would help fundraisers engage with donors by giving the ability to:

• Thank donors from their mobile device
• invite more donors
• post updates, photos, and videos to their fundraisers
• create a fundraiser event
  

3) Suggest/demonstrate ideas on how to make the site fun and engaging for users so they are encouraged to make more donations or spread the word to others.

It was a perfect early summer's day in Chicago with temperatures around mid-70s F.  The annual "Taste of Chicago" event was right across the street in Grant Park.

I was pleased to see more than 100 developers enter on this sunny, tasty Saturday. Seven participating teams sat in three different rooms, for 8 hours to design and implement their apps/websites.

Two panel discussions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, were held in the main conference room. I joined representatives from Google, RIM and the Chicago local developer communities to discuss smart phone adoptions in enterprise, APIs, UX vs UI, Geolocation, NFC/RFID, developer communities, and more.

This Hackathon was not just about the technology. Right before all the results, we enjoyed a Flameco dancing show performed by a local dancing team, and a Gong-Fu show from a local Gong-fu master and his students. That was a refreshing surprise to developers, after their marathon coding sessions!

A team of developers from DePaul University and cars.com won the 1st price of $1000 cash, and further business opportunities with GiveForward. It's just amazing to see developers and designers working together in a few hours to build a working charity application for Android and other platforms.

MOTODEV sponsored the event with a DroidPro handset.  This was awarded to developer Andrew Conlisk in the team that was second placed overall. Andrew is an software engineer from Keylimetie. He was thrilled to win DroidPro, and is looking forward to using it to test his Android apps.

It was a long and very productive day. I was impressed by how this event benefited everyone there - individual developers, community, and sponsors like MOTODEV. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

Jinnan Sun

Product Manager, Developer Platforms and Services,  Motorola Mobility