I'd read great things about The Future Of Web Apps, so I booked my ticket and I was sure that it would be an exciting experience but in fact I was wrong.
I'll update this post with slides and video so stay tuned!
Why?
- Bad wifi: people couldn't be able to use the internet and helloapp
- Great speakers but boring sessions (I don't care about your products, tell me something that I can't find easily on google!)
- Sessions too short: just 25 min; good when you get bored, bad when you are interested
- High level: if you are a senior developer you won't learn anything new
First day
Taking your Site from One to One Million Users by Kevin Rose (Digg)
More info (and video) available here.
Kevin is just amazing! Despite that fact that this talk was really high level, I found it brillant and stimulated.
He gave us 9 points to follow for a successful web app:
- Ego: everyone wants to be popular and your website must consider it (e.g followers for Twitter)
- Simplicity: pick 2-3 things and work on them. Ask yourself if you can remove features (expecially from the Home Page)
- Build and release: stop thinking that you understand your users. Your process should be build/release/test. Learn from your visitors
- Hack the press: a good technique is to lauch your app with a limited number of users allowed (e.g. though invitation)
- Connect to your community: start a podcast, lauch a party, be active in the community
- Find advisors: you don't need money (e.g. stock compensations)
- Leverage your userbase to spread the word: make users push out your app (e.g. FarmVille for Facebook)
- Provide services
- Analyse your traffic
Three Vital Marketing Systems for a Successful Web App by Mike McDerment (FreshBooks)
Nothing to say, really. I could have googled FreshBooks and learn more (I don't care about what your app does!).
The Future of JavaScript Design Patterns - Unleasing Full Object - Orieted Capability by Dustin Diaz (Twitter)
High level talk about javascript as OOP language.
The principal question is: Which is the best framework (Jquery, YUI, Mootools, DoJo, Prototype etc.)? The answer: None!
Really funny when he said that:
Jquery is like cocaine, one line and you're hooked
Use libraries for things they are good at, Jquery for example is good at getting things done but it might be not easy to read.
Use external tools:
Avoid over abstraction:
it's so abstract; it knows about nothing ever
Passion and Paychecks: Open Source Lessons by Addison Berry (Lullabot)
Nothing worth to say. As I've always been an open source user, it didn't add anything significant.
However it might be interesting for high level users.
Introducing Atlas: A Visual Development Tool for creating Web Applications by Francisco Tolmasky (280 North)
More info (and video) available here.
Nothing to say, usual pushing. However I found the demo quite interesting.
Get Niche, Rich, and go Mainstream by David Prager (Revision3)
Nothing to say. Again I could have googled Revision3 and learn more.
Payments Innovation will Unlock the Web's Potential by Osama Bedier (Paypal)
Boring talk about paypal and its potential, absolutely awful (paypal was a FOWA sponsor).
Advanced Web App Marketing Strategies by Chris Abad (Spymaster)
Slides available here.
Nothing to say. Again, I could have googled Spymaster and learn more but in fact I don't think that somebody would do it.
Going Global: The Future of Facebook Connect by Cat Lee (Facebook)
Really really boring talk about facebook connect.
Future of Social Web Apps by Ed Anuff & Mike Malone (Six Apart)
Ed Anuff spoke about Social Web Apps and TypePad Motion, quite annoying.
The Future of HTML5 part 1 by Bruce Lawson (Opera)
More info (and video) available here.
Bruce introduced some of the new features in HTML5.
He started with [canvas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_(HTML_element) which allows you to use immediate graphics without plugins.
Take a look at 9elements for a demo.
Almost every browser supports canvas: FF, Safari, Opera, Chrome except IE of course for which you need an external library, that is ExplorerCanvas.
The problem is that Canvas is not accessible, for instance the text is not selectable and doesn't support the alt attribute.
An alternative to Canvas is SVG which is accessible (text remains text).
Again, almost every browser supports SVG except IE for which you need an external library, that is raphaeljs.
New features in HTML5:
attributes:
- don't need quotes
- support autofocus, required, type=email, type=url etc.
new input types:
- datalist
- calendar
- range
- regular expression
- multiple files
A browser might not provide these new features and therefore you'd better not use HTML5 in production.
However you can use modernizr, a great feature detection library written in javascript, to check if the browser support CSS3/HTML5; it doesn't work if you have javascript disables of course.
geolocation
Supported in FF only (take a look at HTML5 Demo: geolocation for an example).
different kinds of cookies:
- local and session (FF, Chrome, Safari)
- database in browser (Safari)
- off line using a manifest file (Safari)
Finally HTML5 will introduce a video tag and you won't need javascript anymore.
How the Guardian is using API's, Frameworks and Tools to Build a Mutualised Newspaper by Chris Thorpe (The Guardian)
Really interesting talk (nice slides in Helvetica) about how newspapers will change in the future.
Chris spoke about data.hmg.gov.uk (you need username/password) and the importance of public API and DataStore.
The Guardian developed its software infrastructure in a few days with a team of:
- 1 django developer
- 1 designer
- 1 sysadmin
For more information, take a look at The Guardian's Open Platform.
How people will use the Web in the Future by Aza Raskin (Mozilla)
More info (and video) available here.
Aza's view of the Future in 4 steps:
- Identity: we'll use openId to make actions easier (e.g. registration, shopping etc)
- Social: cleaver browsers (e.g. the browser will autocomplete an email field from our friend's list)
- Integrated: browsers will access to GPS/Camera/Files etc.
- easier things: too many funtionalities and too many steps to complete an action (e.g. to include a map in an e-mail). Take a look at ubiquity.
There will be many problems to sort out such as security and privacy problems.
FOWA Party
I had a good time at FOWA Party, nice place, interesting people and free drink! Ryan is a great dancer after a couple of beers. :)
Second day
The Future of Frontend Engineering - Learning from Twitter by Britt Selvitelle (Twitter)
Nothing to say, boring talk about Twitter.
The Future of the Cloud by Simon Wardley (Freelance)
More info (and video) available here.
One of my favourite talk (the slides will be available at http://www.slideshare.net eventually).
Simon spoke about cloud computing with a really easy and funny presentation.
Cloud computing is transaction, that is, there isn't a definition yet.
Analyzing other tecnologies, such as elettricity, we can realize that there is a common pattern which starts with proprietary products and ends with services based on standards. With cloud computing, we are in the middle.
We might risk to loose the possibility of a new standard improved by the competition.
Ubuntu is working hard to avoid that. You can find more information at:
The Future of Agile: Merb + Ruby on Rails by Yehuda Katz (Merb + Ruby on Rails)
I'm a Django Developer and therefore not interested in Rails but I appreciated the talk about Agile.
Your App + Mobile Widgets = Awesome by Joel Moss (Codaset) & Sanj Matharu (Vodafone)
Again, boring talk (Vodafone was a FOWA sponsor).
How to Increase the Accessibility of Your Web App - Live Demo of Screen Reader Issues by Robin Christopherson (AbilityNet)
Robin had a live demo trying to analyze facebook with a screen reader, with awful results of course.
Marketing your Web App - The Future of Brands Online by Alex Hunter (Freelance)
More info (and video) available here.
Alex spoke about the importance of your Brand.
How are you going to get us to love you?
In most of the cases the CEO risks his reputation in order to let his brand grow (e.g. Steve Jobs with Apple or Kerin Rose with Digg).
You have to ask yourself:
Are you going to be the person who represents the brand?
This means being human; you must apologize when you make mistakes, go to parties, define your values.
The Future of Print by [Lynne d Johnson] (FastCompany.com)
Slides available here.
High level talk about the Future of Print. Transition from CPM (cost for visitors) to CPC (cost for click).
Musical Interlude
Pleasant performance of Peter Gregson. Take a look at this video.
Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR! by Dave McClure (Founders Fund)
More info (and video) available here.
Brillant talk about Acquisition/Activation/Retention/Referral/Revenue (AARRR).
You can measure if your site sucks through your community.
When you add new features you add complexity; maybe you should remove features (KILL A FEATURE) instead.
So the process will be:
- take off stuff, 1 feature a week
- see if users care
- when your users complain, you have found your core feature
- work on that feature and throw away everything else
Practical Advice for Managing the Growth of your Web App by [Chris Lea] (Virb)
Efficiency doesn't mean scalability.
Premature optimization is the root of all evil but you must think about scalability when you are small.
The Future of HTML5 Part 2 by Bruce Lawson (Opera)
Second part about HTML5.
HTML5 introduces:
- new doctype: <!doctype html>
- body and html optional
- new tags: header/nav/article/footer/time etc.
- script and style tag don't need attributes anymore
The Q and A Keynote with Gary V by Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV)
More info (and video) available here
Brillant! Absolutely Brillant! After his session you don't learn anything but he makes you feel different.
Kevin & Gary Show!
A lot of fun! I hope to post some videos.
In conclusion
I had a good time and met a lot of interesting people and I think that's all about FOWA.
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