Please welcome back Mark Scheel. Mark did an excellent job last year of covering the Google IO conference. So take it away Mark!
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Post 1: The Introduction
Guest Reporter: Mark Scheel (of Digital Construction)
Its hard to believe an entire year has flown by since last years Google I/O at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
But it has. And I am back to give you an inside look at the event which takes place next week. Predictions, a travel log, and breaking news will all be yours, loyal Vendor Alley readers. Occasional Apple bashing and Google love is just about guaranteed. Let me hear it in the comments Fan Boys.
What is I/O? Google I/O 2011 is Google’s largest developer event of the year and features deep technical content on Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, GWT, App Engine, open web technologies, and more. It features 80 sessions, more than 5,000 developers, and over 100 demonstrations from developers showcasing their technologies. It also has unlimited beer and a live show from Jane’s Addiction. It is tech nirvana.
I can’t promise to run into any billionaires again this year, but I can promise to entertain and educate. I hope you’ll join me.
At Google IO 2011 I am going to have an awesome time. This year there is an invitation only pre-party (you knew Greg’s beat reporter would get in on that right?), and after the event there is the 100th running of the Bay To Breakers (awesome timing!).
It is going to be a great week!
This year’s IO event was reported by people who had an interest in being sensational to have “sold out in 59 minutes”. An incredible pace compared to the glacial 90 days it took last year. And this in spite of a catastrophic ticketing system. You know how “Idea Man” Paul Allen is behind the scalable genius of TicketMaster? Well, apparently he doesn’t work at Google (or care very much for them either). To those who tried to register this year it seemed like Google outsourced their ticketing system to some trained, miniature giraffes who knew a little Cold Fusion. It crashed every one of those 90 minutes.
My reporting won’t only appeal to the nerds, I will include content for you business types too. This year we have the return of an alpha geek, a show down with pals Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs, and all kinds of things that don’t involve bounding boxes and abstract interfaces.
Back to the fast sellout. It’s easy to see why it happened.
Last year’s $500 or so registration fee was easily eclipsed by the giveaways: a Motorola Droid (or Nexus for international participants) and a HTC Evo, among other schwag items like t-shirts, socks and unbelievable food and entertainment. Being at I/O was like being at an Oprah giveaway show, I shook hands with a billionaire and left with all kinds of goodies. Plus I learned a ton, and its not like San Francisco is a bad place to visit.
So you can see why lots of people would want in on this. And it makes you wonder if for 2012 they might work on that unscaleable mess they passed off as a registration system in 2011.
Not suprisingly a lot of people were pissed off they didn’t get their Wonka ticket this year. Some have gone so far as to suggest that this year nothing should be given away. (Logic: it will discourage free loaders from taking spots next year from legitimate attendees)
Watch online and quit your whining, I say (these events will be “televised” on YouTube).
I fall in a different camp–easy for me to say grinning with my Wonka ticket in hand–I like the giveaways and I fancy myself a legitimate attendee, having brushed up on HTML5 and Android development recently to best take advantage of the educational opportunities the conference affords.
Res ipsa loquitor:
(a neat HTML5 interactive logo, for which I learned bezier curves, linear algebra, closures, anonymous functions and some basic sprite animating techniques. I didn’t make it in photoshop or similar, it’s more than 1000 lines of code! Roll your mouse over it to start and click to toggle on and off. Requires IE9 or higher, or pretty much any other browser: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.)
After this tool sharpening, I am ready with relevant HTML5 questions for Google folk! (Same goes for Android, Google TV, and Chrome development)
And all this said, if there are no giveaways, the food, comraderie, learning, and free Jane’s Addiction concert will be just plenty for me, thank you very much.
Well, that’s it for this installment, tune in again next time to hear my predictions for what will happen next week, ranging from the mundane to the insane (spoiler alert: I fancy some Amazon-Google super partnership is days from rocking the technology world). You will likely hear about Spotify, Google Music, Cr48 (a notebook running ChromeOS), Ice Cream Sandwich (an Android flavor) , GoogleTV, Android domination, Android Video Chat, and much more.
Following up on last years predictions, I was a year too early on my Jane’s Addiction prediction (actually I predicted MGMT or Modest Mouse in 2010, who knew it would be 2011 and Perry Ferrel’s band!)
Bonus Reading Links:
Business – Recent org chart shake up at Google brought alpha geek Larry Page back to the captain’s chair, and mobile wunderkind Andy Rubin (father of Android) a promotion to Senior VP –
Technical – You a developer? Ever worry that a graphical development paradigm would allow your pointy haired boss to take away your job and replace you with a trained, miniature giraffe? That future is a very long away based on this review of App Inventor for Android.
A tutorial on Javascript Closures. Functional scoping is neat, and powerful!
TMZ – Saturday Night Live star Al Franken (wait, he’s a senator?!) is hauling Apple and Google into a congressional inquiry about mobile technology and privacy next week. [Bonus video: the esteemed senator with Michael Jordan on SNL]
About Mark Scheel: You can learn more about Mark Scheel at www.digitalconstruction.com.
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