Below are the contents of comment cards from the attendees follow by comments from the organizer. Cards were written by hand, tried to keep original capitialization and punctuation as much as possible as it may have been intentional on the part of the commenter.

Thanks allot. I learned a lot of things out of this workshop. Thanks again.

I thought this was really a great setup and presentation. KUDO’S on a great thing. I don’t know how it would have been improved.

Greg, Good Presentation today. Good coverage of the Helloworld App. I would go to the next PreDevCamp or MeetUp. I would like to see more advanced topics. I had already gotten the HelloWorld App working and using Eclipse as well. Maybe we can get people to be more in-sync and prepped before meeting.

I really appreciated the camp and am eager for more. Greg showed a high degree of knowledge and “best practice” experience. I am thankful that he is willing to share this with us.

Feedback for PreDevCamp 98[8[09
Background: My first meeting of this type. It was pretty much what I expected, which is to say I was NOT disappointed.
Thoughts

• - Greg S. = good speaker, helpful
• - Great crowd.

MOST APPRECIATED:

• -walkthrough of HelloWorld
• Tips on planning logic (index cards, stickies)

Organizers comments
I am very pleased that virtually everyone who said they were coming made it to the event. Want to thank Chuq and Palm for allowing him to attend. He was a great asset for the attendees. Pre-event surveys indicated take it was better for me to present introductory material than overseeing a hackfest. From feedback I think this was a good choice. I was very pleased with the way the group worked together. I expect we will have another Meetup within 6 weeks and many of the attendees will have webOS apps ready or nearly ready by that time.

The venue was great and I am very pleased that my approach to presenting HelloWorld was so well received. It is a little non-traditional, but I’m now convinced its probably one of the best ways to introduce the topic. I plan on doing more Intro and Advanced webOS classes soon.

One disappointment was that we did not get the webOS books on time. They are coming and we will get them to attendees. We were also so wrapped up in webOS we forgot about the raffle prizes. I will have my wife to a random drawing and announce those soon. I’ll try to send the prizes with the books. These are the supplementary comments to Forth, Delphi, and now webOS mentioned in the book’s forward.

First, I would like to thank Whurley, Dan, and Giovanni for coming up with (or at least adapting) the idea of pDC and the work they put in for to get the pDC off the ground. I started a local Meetup shortly after the pre was announced, but they had the foresight to think on a much grander scale. However, there were a few decisions made along the way that I think were less than wise.

The first issue was the concept to hold the pDC one week after the SDK was released. Let’s assume that suddenly Palm had announced the mojo SDK on April 15th. If you are an organizer, think to your self, “Could I have got a meeting place together, learned the SDK enough to lead the group, done enough publicity to get a good turnout, etc. all in 10 days to hold the event on the 25th?” I know it rarely happens, but what if you had a big crunch project at work? Or were going to be out of town? Event planning takes time. They should have instead said the date would be announced 1 week after the SDK release date was announced, poll the organizers and pick something at least a month out.

The second issue was, to my knowledge, not providing any planning material for pDC. I’m sure many, if not most, organizers where not familiar with any prior DevCamp. I believe most organizers are still unprepared for the June 13th date. The do not have a venue, they do not know what they are going to discuss, and have done little or no promotion to get developers to the event.

The last issue was announcing pDC as one week after the pre availability was announced not the SDK availablity as originally stated. I am sure all of us expected the SDK well before the pre came out, but Palm never made such a promise. I doubt seriously Palm will release the SDK or lift whatever NDA they might have by June 13th.

In spite this, I do feel Whurley, Dan, and Giovanni were doing their best to try to organize a successful pDC, and cannot thank them enough for their efforts. I wish Whurley, and Giovanni all the best, and pledge my full support to Dan who continues to champion pDC.

Net, Net is that we have a worst case scenario where we have an event announced on June 13th (less than 3 weeks), no SDK to work with, and an event virtually no organizer is prepared for. Does that sound about right? Ok, I think we have six primary options. I personally can go with any of them, but I prefer the last one. The options are:
1. Hold a hands-on pDC on June 13th
2. Hold general tutorial pDC on June 13th
3. Hold a hands-on pDC at a later date. (Maybe after SDK is released.)
4. Hold general tutorial on pDC at a later date. (Maybe after SDK is released.)
5. Hold general tutorial on pDC on June 13th and a hands-on session at a later date.
6. Hold general tutorial on pDC at a later date and a hands-on session at an even later date.

In any case we need to start planning NOW. Given the logistics, I propose the general tutorial option is best unless organizers are willing to wait until after the SDK is generally available.

Yes, it is doable. I have personally already made a two hour presentation on the pre and webOS using only publicly available resources and have three more events planned in the next few months. I’m not counting on the SDK for any of them. (Sure would help though.) There is more than enough material to hold a tutorial style pDC without the SDK. I’m going to outline what would most likely be involved in the next few paragraphs. View this only as a starting point for discussion. However time is limited, so all initial discussion and a final vote on what to do at as a group should happen no later than say midnight, Friday. The Dan should make the final decision and let it be known within 12 hours after that. I personally think the final decision is Dan’s and not necessarily majority rule. Those organizers that decide to drop out should do so, and the rest of us have a lot of work to do.

Task One: Agenda
Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” What do you envision a successful pDC looking like? When does it start? When does in end? Are there sessions, breaks, workshops, etc.? Is every attendee using a laptop? Are the speakers/sessions live or recorded? Slides or live demos? We need to start discussing this as quickly as possible and I think it is best for Dan to give us his vision. We can work from that point.

Task Two: Venue
Hopefully Palm and Sprint will get together to let us use the Sprint training rooms in a lot of their larger stores, but we can not count on it. So starting now, try to arrange a backup venue slightly larger than your expected turn out. Email your current slate of attendees and leaders of developer user groups in to ask for help in securing a meeting location. Also check out computer clubs at local high schools and colleges. You may be able to use a lecture hall for free, if it is a co-sponsored event. Ideal the meeting area will be have table or desks to write on or place laptops on, adjustable lighting, a sound system or good acoustics, etc. Also think how practical it is for attendees to get breakfast before hand, lunch, snacks, etc. There are a lot of other considerations like location, accessibility, etc. But this can get you started. The venue has to be a fit for the agenda.

Task Three: Topics and Speakers
A lot of this will be determined by the Agenda, but I have some suggestions. Remember, none of the content at pDC needs to be cutting edge, hidden secrets, type of stuff. A large percentage of attendee’s will probably not have even seen Mitch Allen’s video and most know little more than that. Even the ones that saw the video probably forgot most of it by now. Also remember that you do not need to be an expert to deliver value to your audience. You just need to know a little more that they do and communicate that knowledge effectively to them. Here is a partial list to get things started:
• Why you should become a pre developer. The intro talk that also gives an overview of the pre, the webOS, as reasons to develop for it.
• webOS development 101: This can be as basic as Mitch Allen’s video, or even better, a live walkthrough of as much of that presentation as can be done without the SDK.
• webOS components: Based on chapters from Allen’s webOS book and emulator screen shots that have made it to the web.
• Using Prototype. Can be done using just normal JavaScript in browser environment and showing how it relates to examples in webOS book.
• webOS storage. I would base it on the tutorial at www.weboshelp.net and supplement it with information from the webOS chapter on data.
• The Palm Application Catalog (PAC) – Describe what exists and is known as of the date of pDC, supplement with the good, bad, and ugly of iPhone, Android, etc. app stores. Lead a discussion to get feedback from your group and we can pass it back to Palm.
• Developing webOS games – I have links to several JavaScript web games should run with little or no modification on the pre. Games are a fun and exciting way showing what I’m convinced is the 90/10 rule of webOS programming. Ninety percent is straight JavaScript, and only 10% is mojo/webOS specific. How accurate my assumptions are can be tested after June 6th. People will want to know what their options are regarding things like rendering engines, speed etc. What makes a good game? We can selecting and discussing some games running in a browser to point out the various issues one needs to consider.
• Marketing Your webOS application. 90% of this information is generic but totally foreign to a lot of developers and really critical.
•
Note: If speakers are needed locally, you can get speakers for or assistance on most of these topics outside of the webOS community. For example, try to locate a developer using prototype or an SEO expert in your area. They may be willing to do the presentation knowing it is an opportunity to give out there contact information and perhaps get some business. We should also try to get Palm and Sprint to provide stuff that could be used to encourage people to speak. (Wouldn’t you be willing to speak if it meant getting a fast pass to the SDK or that you application’s application for PAC acceptance fast tracked?)

Task Four: Attendees and Promotion
This will be the last item and brief because I’m reaching 3 pages. We need to get the word out quickly and get people to decide to attend, and actually attend. Raffle prizes that encourage people to spread the word and attend can be key in this area. Once again, Palm/Sprint can help with items like that. Imagine the viral effect of a contest structured to get people to register, get others to also register to improve odds of winning, and you had to attend to win with grand prize. I suggest the grand prize being a pre with a1yr Everything plan, but that’s up to Palm/Sprint. We need lots of other give-always for local attendees too. Everyone needs to start making a list and sharing with other pDC members about every forum, user group, blog, facebook group, etc. that should be notified once we are ready to make our media blitz. Also contact the leaders of these groups to get buy in, so word will spread fast once the announcement is made.

Ok that will do it for now. Thank you for reading this document. Thanks again to Whurley, Dan, and Giovanni for getting the ball rolling. This document is not meant to criticize you, but make the gDC community more fully aware of the current situation and give options to move forward quickly. Dan as I noted throughout this document, you are now the man and have my full support. Everyone else feel free to criticize and comment about this document or me. This was just to get the ball rolling; now the wisdom of the mob can take over.

Sincerely,
Greg Stevenson

Greg