The Simpleweb Challenge: Realtime

Oh Yeah! The Simpleweb Challenge is back and this time we’re going Realtime.

For this challenge, we’ve teamed up with Pusher, a simple hosted API for quickly, easily and securely adding realtime bi-directional functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps, or any other Internet connected device. With Pusher, you can add realtime chat, push notifications, activity streams and more to your apps.

Your challenge will be to create a web or mobile app from scratch, based around realtime technology using Pusher.

You can work in teams of up to 3 people. The winning team will take away an awesome prize and the chance to have your project showcased by Pusher.

The rules

Blerg. Rules?!

We want The Simpleweb Challenge to be totally fair so this time, we’re going to lay a few ground rules… Actually just one ground rule. Here goes...

No coding before the night - preparation is good, and you’re welcome to research, gather docs or relevant open source projects and draw up plans beforehand, but you can’t have started on the code for your project until the night.

I know, I know, there’s not a lot of time, but at least we’re all in the same boat, eh?!

Who can come?

You don’t have to be a hard-core developer to try your hand at The Simpleweb Challenge (but you’ll probably want one on your team!)

As you’ll be creating an app using Pusher’s APIs, you (or someone on your team) will need an understanding of either Ruby, PHP and/or Javascript.

If you’re a designer or UXer, feel free to leave a message in the comments to find a developer to team up with.

There will be points for design and “wow factor” so a bit of design knowhow is recommended!

What should I expect?

We’ll start the night with a quick introduction from Pusher.

After that it’s time to get hacking. You’ll have about 3 and a half hours to work on your project.

A couple of members of the Pusher team will be with us on the night to answer your questions and give you a hand where they can!

We’ll be serving up home cooked food, craft beers, proper cider and delicious soft drinks so there’s no need to have dinner before you get here.

At the end of the night, each team will get a couple of minutes to show off their idea to the Pusher team who will choose the winner(s).

Prizes will be revealed on the night ;)

Next: The next Simpleweb Challenge hack night will be in April 2015 and will be based around building social campaigns. Details coming soon!