"Software development and territorial disputes" and "Universal Serial Web"

To further build our community around Cologne we are establishing the Think About! Stammtisch. Join us for great and healthy food with drinks, interesting talks and wonderful attendees.

Our first iteration on the 7th of March will have two talks:

Talk #1:

"Hey, where is my country? Software development and territorial disputes" By Renato Losio (http://saorico.com):

What looks like a simple choice in a drop down list, can turn into a
nightmare Integrating an external mapping service can unintentionally make
many of your users unhappy. How can software developers manage
location-based services in disputed territories or partially recognized
state?

Many airlines were forced recently to change the name of Taiwan on their
booking systems. Hotel chain website where banned in mainland China for
labelling Tibet as an independent country. Ukrainian users were upset
because Crimea was removed from the map of their land. “What is the capital
of Israel?” is a question that has triggered different answers from voice
virtual assistants. We will go on a virtual tour around the world to see
how disputed territories or partially recognized states are handled by
online services and understand the impacts and the challenges of
geolocation services. And how a developer can fix them.

Talk #2:

"The Universal Serial Web. The Web of Things - The story of a browser escaping into the physical world" by Sebastian Golasch (https://asciidisco.com/ - https://twitter.com/asciidisco):

As a web developer it´s easy to feel intimidated by the world of hardware hacking and the physical web, we have to leave our comfort zone and need to get familiar with a completely new development environment. But not anymore, thanks to wonderful possibilities that the WebUSB Api brings to our browsers.

In this talk I will give an intro to the endless wonders we can encounter in the hardware world through our browser windows. Aside from learning the basics of USB and serial port communication, we'll paint on USB displays, live tweet to receipt printers, control an Arduino, steal data from Android phones and many more... The only limit is your imagination.

What will the audience learn from it (Outline)

• Why WebUSB? What´s the use case?
• The (not so) boring bits: How does USB work?
• A 5 minute intro to the WebUSB API
• Paper is patient: Tweet to a receipe printer
• Extend you browser window to USB screens
• Instant Arduino, lets build an educational game for kids
• Control you home with your browser and only your browser
• Create your own public book library with WebUSB
• What about security? A simple example of a website stealing data from your phone.
• Isomorphic WebUSB - Reuse your code in Node.js

Agenda:

18:30 Opening Doors & Reception
19:00 Food Buffet
19:30 Talk #1
20:30 Talk #1
21:30 Having drinks and fun

The talks will be in English, but don't hesitate, your hosts speak German and English.

Think About! (https://think-about.io) is a two-day community event about technology, design and their impacts on society -- a tech conference which focuses not only on technology but also on design and their social impact. It creates a safe and inspirational space for everyone, and we really mean everyone.