Phonegap, Old School Graphics, Adobe Air, and Git

This Wednesday night July 25th, we're going to have 5 break out groups, each with their own separate topic and speaker. The room itself will be divided into two by wall panels. Each group will be huddled in one corner of the room(s).

Each speaker will be expected to talk 30 minutes, and repeat their talk a second time that same night - especially if their talk is popular.

Audience members will be encouraged to break customs and get up and walk from one huddle to the other if for whatever reason a talk they sit down for doesn't hold their interest.

6:20 - Introduction
6:30 - Break out topics (1st time slot)
7:05 - Break out topics (2nd time slot)
7:40 - One minute summary of what was learned for each topic by an audience volunteer.
7:50 - Meeting wrap-up (and possible continuance at a coffee shop a few blocks away for those few that don't want the meeting to end!)

There is no plan for food. Please eat earlier, or later, or bring your own sandwich to eat during.

Our Topics:

A. PhoneGap Development on Android - Tools and Tutorials from MDS. Mobile Developer Solutions (http://www.mobiledevelopersolutions.com/)' Libby Baldwin (https://www.meetup.com/AndroidClasses/members/8248900/) will give an overview of PhoneGap and how to get started developing on Android. Depending on the group, topics can range from Getting Started (http://www.mobiledevelopersolutions.com/home/start) to a review of
tutorials to a preview of Libby's latest Two-Minute Tutorial (http://www.mobiledevelopersolutions.com/home/start/twominutetutorials). If you're already using MDS AppLaud, bring a demo and any questions - we can discuss as a group.

B. Old School Graphics and Animation Using the android.graphics Classes by Kelley Nielsen (https://www.meetup.com/AndroidClasses/members/45075382/). Want to create a game or app with a retro look and feel? Do you want graphics that will run well on almost any hardware, or just feel that OpenGL is too much for your needs? Take a look at the Android drawing primitives, and see how much they can do.

C. Using Adobe Air for Cross-Platform Development & the Business Aspect of Publishing on the iPhone App Store vs. the Android Markets by Edward de Jong (https://www.meetup.com/AndroidClasses/members/12230192/). Edward has published 71 apps on the Apple App Store and 8 apps on Google Play.

D. Learn How to Use Git and GitHub by me (Stephan Branczyk (https://www.meetup.com/AndroidClasses/members/3793177/)). This talk will cover the basics of using command-line Git (http://git-scm.com/) with GitHub (http://github.com), and some of the mistakes newbies of Git, like myself, usually make.

E. Cancelled: Developing an Android Client Application with a Ruby on Rails Restful Interface.

Objectives:

My objectives for having these smaller break out groups is three-fold.

I'd like to increase the selection of interesting tech talks we can choose from, make it easier for developers/speakers to prepare for and practice giving their own particular talk, and at the same time, give a chance for shyer audience members to ask questions and participate more actively.

With these smaller break out groups, I believe these things are more doable.

This is an idea that was originally suggested by Robert Hancock, one of the organizers of the New York - Google Developer Group, that I'm adapting to our group.

To the Speakers:

What's Available for your Talk?

There will good public library free wifi. If you need to show things on a screen, you'll have to present it huddled around your own laptop. The projection screen will not be available. Some grounded electrical outlets will be available, but I recommend you bring each at least one power strip if you can, because some of your audience members will want to plug in their laptops/phones. I will bring some power strips as well.

Slides will not be required, but if you do try to use slides, use very large fonts, and use them only to present quotes, images, code snippets, or web site urls, but please no bullet points. By no bullet points, I mean do not write down what you're going to say on your slides, otherwise your audience may try to pay more attention to your slides than to what you have to say.

After you've already given your talk, you can always post a link to supplementary materials, or post a link to any slides you've made, as an appended comment on this page (this is optional, but some of your audience members will certainly ask for that). Then it may be appropriate for you to add notes to some of those materials, or add bullet points to those slides, since some people may be accessing those materials later without necessarily having listened to your talk in the first place (but again, this is entirely optional and shouldn't be done, if done at all, until after you've finished giving your talk).