To make the most out of Drop In Night:

1. Take a look at the list of experts (check out the Who’s Who) and think through who you most want to get a session with
2. Practice your elevator pitch — with only 20 minutes, you want to get to your questions as quickly as you can
3. Consider teaming up — perhaps you have the same question as someone else and you can share sessions … more bang for your buck

Here are the list of surgeries on offer:

Viji Pathy — Android, iOS, Symbian & Web
Katrina Damianou — Brand
Paul Phillips — Brand & Design
Ann Zit­ter­kopf — Building a Business
Ian MacMillon — Business Planning
Jeff Antram — Cross Plat­form Devel­op­ment
Tim Brooke — Design & Prototyping
Rani Parmar — Digital Marketing
John Spindler — Funding
Ian Masters - Games & Apps: Design, Development & Publishing
Alastair Moore — General Alastair­ness!
Richard Groves — iOs Development
Sam Skelton — Legal
Liz Myers — Design & Devel­op­ment for Blackberry
Helen Firth — Online Personal Profile Building
Lisa Devaney — PR
Ben Carter — Product Man­age­ment, Devel­op­ment & Marketing
Michel Sabatier — Raising Money (Investors)
Charles Brookson — Security
Adam Cohen Rose — iOS, Android & Mobile Web
Kieran Gutteridge — iOs, Google & Cross Platform
Kriss Baird –Technology Strategy Board Support Oppor­tun­ities for funding

Photos from the sessions last year to whet your appetite!

I first found out about Google I/O Extended via the Londroid Meetup Group and managed to get my event registrations for both days at the Google Campus.  This was quiet exciting for a few reasons – it was the first time I have been to Google Campus, my first Google I/O Extended and my first dedicated Android meetup! There is already a lot written about, around, before, during and after Google I/O so I will keep this writeup to a few of my highlights as you will probably have your own to share too.

Changes to the Google Play Store Console

I arrived just in time to find out what changes were being rolled out at the Google Play Store.  One to note that I really liked are the changes involved developers regarding the console giving a lot more bang for the developers’ buck (and time and attention).  Staged roll outs and beta/alpha testing meant product-friendly development stages enabling select users to provide feedback to you directly.  The updated console also has the following great new updates (sneakily sourced here):

1. App translation service.  From one of the Mobile Academy presenters, it is recommended to localised your app accordingly which would help bump up its visibility in international stores where English is not your main user language.
2. Revenue graphs.  Provides a summary of your global app revenue over time.  I wonder if this will keep all revenue data or if there is a time limit?
3. Alpha and beta testing, staged rolluuts.  As mentioned before.
4. Optimisation tips.
5. Google Analytics directly in the Console.  This had a fair amount of clapping.
6. Referral tracking.  This is great to know and by the looks of this and a few other features, the new Console looks to be grabbing features from external services such as App Annie or Flurry.

Read more about it and be kept up to date on any further developments on the Google Play Android Developer area.  Looking forward to Play around with the new Console when these and more features are out!

Android Studio

After the keynote was a stream showcasing Android Studio which is based on the IntelliJ IDE.  Definitely worth checking out Android Studioand you can also explore what IntelliJ IDEA is all about beyond android development.

Game On, Google tells Apple

The below pic shows a demo of a multiplayer game being played across five different devices which can be linked across Android, iOS AND web.  Find out more on the Google Developers blog or start playing.

Being Beautiful

The focus on being beautiful brought down the House of Google on its knees.  It could be through the improved Google Maps and Google+ Hangouts or beautifying your holiday pics.  The most obvious product at the moment that captures it has been Google Glass. Product evangelist Timothy Jordan presented a live demo of Glass in action as well as delivered a set of recommended UI guidelines for a product that is ‘technology not in the way of living’.  Go beyond the surface and into the guts of it by reading up on the Google Mirror API.  As for making Glassware, there is already a Londroid Meetup set up.

And that’s all there is…

Google I/O Extended London was interesting.  I not only left with goodies but I also left with a lot more enthusiasm for Android development and a bit more kudos for Google.

This is also compounded by the fact that the last time I saw an event at the Moscone Center was the 2012 Macworld iWorld which left me a bit ‘meh’ after.  Just like the image below of a Steve Jobs quote, Google is also at this type of cross-road – and a bit of Apple app store numbers tailgating being doesn’t hurt too.

Pleasantly bemused perhaps to receive an invitation that came from Bloomberg on Monday, to attend a lunchtime networking and panel discussion on the subject of the Flat White economy yesterday, I graciously accepted. Arriving, it was a pleasant surprise to see some familiar, friendly faces over the buffet, before we were seated to listen to a interesting debate on the history, growth and prospects for London’s Silicon Roundabout, entitled “The Rise of London’s Tech Entrepreneurs”. The buffet was exemplary and the chocolate brownies would have bought out the best in any flat white!

The panel consisted of:

Ben Southworth: Deputy CEo, Tech City
Divinia Knowles: COO of Mindy Candy
Bindi Karia: Silicon Valley Bank
Eze Vidra: Campus London
Jeremy Kahn: Senior Writer, Bloomberg
Guy Johnson, the Bloomberg TV anchor

The flat white economy was I believe a term coined by Jeremy Kahn recently: http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013–05-15/-flat-white-buzz-in-london.html#slide1 and then reported about in Bloomberg’s press: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/tech-city-and-the-flat-white-economy-9lLd90IkQMuBakF4BWxC3w.html

The phrase Silicon Roundabout has emerged since the current government took over, and was I believe a name generated in part to energise a movement around a phenomenon that had already begun to take shape, in order to encourage start-ups and entrepreneurship in the tech sector, and subsequently to stimulate economic growth through innovation. This was gathering momentum until, just over a year ago, Google set up a campus space in Bonhill St, where young people with the aspiration to start companies could congregate, connect, learn and grow, with the chancellor himself as I recall, declaring it open.

Since that time, there has been an exponential rate of growth among not only those from the sector, graduates, (who as Eze pointed out tend to flock to the open plan working space each September, filling it to near capacity only for it to contract back to an optimum volume in due course), but also existing talent from abroad. There has been a definite change in perception amongst graduates from good universities to consider the advantages of working for start-ups as oppose to the traditional milk round roles, which are fewer and further between than they once were. Only last week, silicon milk roundabout, a grad fair for talent attracted more visitors than ever before. Yet all seemed in agreement that more must continue to be done.

Comparison was drawn to Cambridge, where Tech City’s Deputy CEO Ben, coincidentally hails from, and which, as a bastian of academic excellence, has been home to tech entrepreneurship for some time longer, (with inevitable businesses springing out of academic research and those that have migrated there to support them). Whilst not far away, it was mentioned that whereas Cambridge excels in business to business models, what’s happening in Shoreditch has been and continues to be, principally focused more on creative people, designers, hackers and hustlers, maybe some of whom have either left or had to leave corporate jobs in the financial services sector, inventing their way out of a crisis by joining forces to invent smart and compelling, popular consumer experiences that intend to add value to peoples daily lives and can scale beyond our shores.

Inevitably, a name like Silicon Roundabout throws down the gauntlet to California and other technology centres of excellence such as Israel, in implying that the UK means business, and much of the discussions topic focused on London as being now the optimum climate on the world stage for not only being a financial services epicentre, but also a centre for the new economy as a result of the inevitable symbiosis necessary between the two. In fact, of course, physically the districts are next to one another, but Guy pointed out that most VC money is in West London, around St James’. Whilst in the overall economic picture, I read recently that investor confidence is beginning to return, it was mentioned that investors here as opposed to US, need to be lead a little, as this territory is unfamiliar to them, but nevertheless the financial capital that is locked away in the square mile is starting to be put to use. A problem was identified that there seems to be some difficulty in companies raising finances between certain fiscal milestones here, that is not a factor in the States. Whilst start-ups, with an innovative idea, a team capable of executing on it and a solid business plan can raise a seed round in this climate of up to 250K or thereabouts; be it from friends, family and fools, incubators, crowd-funding or more likely Angels (at the top end of that figure). Also the finance for B rounds in excess of 2 million is there for businesses that have demonstrated the requisite capacity for growth, between those two stages is where the shortage of investment occurs here. Despite this however, Bindi was keen to point out, the Americans have woken up to London’s emerging significance and, she said that her company Silicon Valley Bank, wanted a UK banking licence for a reason.

Saul Klein, a governor of SCA 2.0, gave a notable talk recently at internet week Europe, entitled: we are the 8%, where he was keen to point out the value that this sector now has to the economy and the importance that it must be recognised, as it is predicted to grow yet further.

I think it is the entrenched nature of this trend that’s lead a financial company such a Bloomberg, to give this section of the economy a memorable name. In the talk, London was championed as the best city in the world, to both live and do business, but as now also having the optimum overall ecosystem conducive to starting a tech company. Davina spoke about Moshi Monsters having chosen to move in 2010 from Battersea, to Shoreditch, in the Tea building, where they are happy and plan to remain, despite the fact, she noted that the area is only really conducive to a mid level company’s dwellings at most and once the need to scale is imperative and companies reach a stage of rapid growth, they intentionally intend to accelerate by adding additional employees, at increasingly frequent increments. There are relatively few buildings where it is practical to house this growth, but for the moment they are themselves content. It is hard to believe this company is only 5 years old. The panel noted the increasing rental overheads, as the phenomenon the powers that be intended to breathe life into, has taken on an established shape. I have myself noticed that events, that were once free and about establishing a community in Old St, have begun becoming so popular that fees are now necessary as-well.

So where does the Zenith of Silicon Roundabout’s aspiration lie?

This was made quite clear by the panel; the UK has yet to produce a Billion Dollar exit from a home grown start-up, and this has been cited as the milestone to demonstrate that the growth strategy of creating this hub, has clearly worked, and that the talent, international outlook and inherent British creativity, combined with London’s significance as a centre of trade and commerce has paid off, and that it can be a force to compete with Silicon Valley in the future. All speakers seemed convinced that this was going to happen and that when it does, such a company would create enough millionaires among the stakeholders, who’ve got that start-up bug, that most likely they will proceed to start their own ventures, or indeed become investors themselves, with the finance feeding back into the ecosystem and propelling it even further forward.

The questions at the end of this carefully timetabled event, touched on education policy and the need to educate the tech talent of tomorrow, here at grass roots so that kids finishing school in five years time or more will be equipped to participate in what may then well comprise of more than 8% of our economy. It was pointed out that a lot of the best technical talent gaining places in computer science at our elite Universities apply from India and China respectively, but apparently, whilst the benefit in attracting the very best talent to the UK is appreciated discussions, are taking place in Whitehall regarding pre-empting future skills gaps.

An interesting talk to have been party to yesterday lunchtime indeed, sitting at the Shoreditch Grind some time later and gazing across the Old St Roundabout, I remembered arriving in London in 1997 to study art, and there being a hugely trendy area called Hoxton, where, if you were prepared to brave the potential danger of venturing into a rough neighbourhood, you might catch a glimpse of Tracey Emin, with Sarah Lucas hanging out at the Lux Centre. The area gradually became gentrified and established, and increasingly inert; the Opening of the White Cube Hoxton Square, serving to demonstrate the transformation into an establishment area for trendies. In the intervening years, the artists ran away to Dalston and the Hipsters moved in. In turn the media migrated east, with some ad agencies and most of their digital counterparts setting up shop and fashion businesses likewise; the area grew mainstream to the point where, people travelling into the capital from outside for a night out, were as likely to arrive here as in Soho, whilst the hipsters moved to Dalston. By the time Nathan Barley aired on TV, the artists had most probably grown up and were to be seen pushing prams in Stoke Newington and Hackney. Now the geeks, techies and fresh faced Russel group grads, the co-working spaces where they’re conceiving the digital future, and the flat whites that fuel this energy have taken over Old St (and this will be validated by the building of a new tech site in the middle of the roundabout itself). The White Cube Gallery is shutting up shop (it was still open the last time I looked), and even the hipsters disdain Dalston preferring perhaps Peckham instead. I will say this for London, it is an entertaining city to watch as it evolves.

I believe Tech City’s Deputy CEO’s parting words in the discussion were:

“The geek shall inherit the Earth.”

We’ll see!

So this line of thinking is based on Alex Osterwalder’s advanced level of business model proficiency, where the focus is on understanding and validating dynamics, rather than using the Canvas as a dashboard on your wall. (If your sticky notes are gathering dust, it’s a sign that stepping up to the advanced level could be valuable now.)

http://www.marcelmuench.de/2013/05/option-cards-for-testing-business-models/

Value proposition is the value you deliver to your users based on their needs that is sufficiently differentiated from your competition.  A good value proposition creates value for your users, your partners and a solid revenue stream foundation for your business model.

The good ones are quite disruptive and can make many business models out-dated.

We recommend you catchup with these presentations and Prof Ha-Joon Chang’s book, to get more insights on economic drivers to base your value proposition on that can help inform your business model better.

Presentation by Alexander Grunsteidl — at a talk in LBi on The rise of disruptive digital business-models. : Darwinism goes digital–how will businesses adapt or die
http://www.slideshare.net/digitalwellbeing/evolution-digital-designbmodels

Great book to read over next week to look at hidden undelrlying economic drivers & myths
23 things they don’t tell you about Capitalism by Prof Ha-Joon Chang, Cambridge University
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/ha-joon-chang-23-things

On the panel was Michel Sabatier – Investor and former software programmer; Adam Cohen-Rose — who has been developing mobile since 199,works at Sky and Cloud initiatives and Ian Masters – Video Games, runs a small studio and run short courses at Birkbeck. (Read more about them on the Who’s Who)

Q1. When is it advisable to use Cross Platform Development Tools?
If the scope is achievable within a cross platform tool (for example, IOS and Android), then it can work well. Examples of cross platform tools include Corona SDK, Unity 3D Engine (gaming).  It can be more efficient to develop, can save time on testing and cost less to develop

Q2.  How can you bridge the gap between Web and Native Apps?
A hybrid approach can allow web pages to be accessed using a browser inside the app.  However, the Apple App store might reject apps that have purely web pages.

Q3.  What is best practice to managing content on mobile platforms?
Responsive design is an appreciation of the customer experience, rather than just a focus on technology. It is about how content adapts to the space available across multiple devices.  Twitter bootstrap, is a very good example of responsive design framework; The Boston Globe website is another example of responsive design. In terms of content creation, it is advisable to have training and to use an appropriate management system. It is also useful to adopt a journalistic approach to writing content on the web, and making sure that the full story is covered in the first two paragraphs.

Q4. Tell us about Testing and Continuous Integration
During development, as you make changes, it gets integrated with all of the other changes. Tests are then run against the full integrated view nightly, to spot any integration issues early. Continuous integration is used on website development, however, it is not yet available on apps.

Q5.  What is the ideal brief for a developer?
It is very important that you manage developers very closely. It can make or break a project. If the business is technology focused, then it is important that you have your own technology capability.  Having a list of every feature is not really helpful. It is important to be focused in terms of the features. It is useful to sit down with the developer to find the easy win.  A good brief, is one that is understood and is agreed by both parties. It is useful to share the budget early, so that it is clear what they are working towards.

Other topics were raised — many of which will be covered as we move through this programme. Opportunities are also available on Drop in Night. We also had feedback that the live coding “Hello Word” was great — so we will also be bringing that back and showing that to more people — thanks to Ian Masters in advance!

For me, presenting from the stage, the “no way” moment was reaching the STOP slide in the deck exactly at the same time as my backing track Lemon Jelly’s “In the Bath” pauses to take it up a notch — particularly poignant as one of our key messages are contained on the few following slides: (Thanks to Ian MacMillan, one of our tutors, for creating the slide deck)

Juan discussing the competition with Rosie

In true Moblacad co-curation style, we launched 2 competitions: thanks to @calypsoharland, there are 3 lucky winners off to Angelhack this weekend and we also launched the Develapps 40 hour free development offer, thanks to @juahones.

Tom Jenkins (alumni), Marvin and Andy Davis (alumni)

Thanks also to some alumni that showed up to share advice on how to get the most out of the programme — Mark Woodbridge, Andy Davis and the bombastic Tom Jenkins.

If anyone missed the Welcome Night, I am doing a catch up session next Tuesday, 4.30 sharp at the venue.

Finally, as promised, I want to share the behind-the-scenes planning of last night as an example of service design approach — this was produced by Katrina, who is a tutor on the programme and one of our Moblacad team.

“Again” everyone cried! And so we shall but in the meantime, Mobile Monday London events are a great way to keep up to date and to keep seeing each other — next event 18th March. Register here and come and help us talk about this programme in relation to the overall topic which is Finance, Incubators and Accelerators, chaired by John Spindler of Capital Enterprise — one of our lovely tutors and sponsor of our first programme.

To get us started, our friends at the ICT KTN are once again offering bursary places for 3 lucky people!  (if you have already bought a ticket and are selected, we will refund you)

Funded through the Technology Strategy Board, the ICT KTN seeks to bring a competitive advantage to the UK by facilitating the development and take up of information and communications technologies and their adoption as key enablers in other industries.  Membership is free, and open to all involved in any way in the ICT value chain.  You can join at www.ictktn.org.uk.

Applying for an ICT KTN funded place is simple: Make your case in 100 words, email it to info@ictktn.org.uk by 8 March and the winners will be announced by 13 March. This offer is open to all ICKTN members. Membership is free, and if you are not already a member, you can join by visiting www.ictktn.org.uk Your details will also be added to The Mobile Academy mailing list so that you can be kept up to date with their latest news. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us: info@themobileacademy.org.uk.

As you may know, one of the principles of our programme is co-curation, well, below is a lovely promotional video that Ian MacMillan - one of our fab tutors has made. We love it!