Events – nathan's open ideals

eWeek coverage of NYLUG Android Event

Darryl K. Taft, a reporter from eWeek magazine, was in the room at the NYLUG event last week, and I didn’t even know it! I am still working on getting some audio, video and slides up from that talk, but in the meantime, some good quotes from the evening below, and after the link…

Freitas, who has worked at Palm as a program manager building Java code, said he appreciates Android as “the first open mobile platform. There’s really a lot to hack on. It’s really the first open platform developer-tools-wise. No one’s ever put the effort into delivering a fully cross-platform development environment.”

and this….

Making a comparison to the iPhone development environment, Freitas said, “There’s a big difference between APIs and a thoughtful platform…The iPhone is a beautiful device and a great user experience.”

However, the iPhone world does not focus as much on providing an ecosystem of services for developers like Android does, Freitas said, noting the OpenIntents.org site, which is a place to collect, design and implement open intents and interfaces to make Android mobile applications work more closely together. In addition, Freitas mentioned the PhoneGap project, which is a development tool that allows Web developers to take advantage of the core features in the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry SDK using JavaScript.

Read the full story on eWeek

My Christmas Vlog on a Flip Mino HD

MC bought me a swell gift for Christmas – the Flip Mino HD – a tiny wonder that delivers on the promise of high quality video in a small package. The only real issue I have with it is that being so small, it is difficult to keep steady. Perhaps with time and practice I’ll improve. However, the upside of the stealth profile is that almost no one notices I am filming them at all, allowing me to capture people in very natural moments. Also, according to my buddy noneck, you can hack your flip, adding a wide angle lens to it!

Anyhow, enjoy this four minute peek into my Christmas day revelry….

Christmas in the Colonies from natdefreitas on Vimeo.

This was definitely the year of gadgets for me, as I also was given a Polaroid Pogo mobile printer and a ThinkGeek Wifi Finder T-Shirt! More on these awesome toys in a later post…

Many thanks to Snr. Sufjan Stevens for the tune… go buy his Christmas album if you like it!

Spread the Word: 2008 Nonprofit Software Dev Summit

My good friend Gunner of Aspiration Tech is putting together what should be a great event. Gunner is one of the best session facilitators, activist trainers and geek wranglers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and learning from. Hope to see you there…

Aspiration is organizing an extremely exciting event in November, and we’re trying to get the most diverse audience we can possibly get together.

The 2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit is shaping up to be a magical convergence of folks creating technology for social change. I invite you and anyone you know who might be interested to join us.

And please help us spread the word!

Details: http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/devsummit08

Sessions: http://devsummit08.aspirationtech.org/index.php?title=Sessions_List

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32187241823

I hope to see lots of you there!

thanks & peace,
gunner

Cruxy presenting at Nov 2nd “Amateur Hour” Conference NYLS

Nathan will be speaking on November 2nd at the first “Amateur Hour” conference hosted by the New York Law School. Other speakers include NYU’s Clay Shirky, executives from ESPN, CBS, Forbes, Warner Brothers, and more, along with a whole host of lawyers and law professors. The cost to attend is only $50, and it seems well worth it. Here’s a little more detail:

From television (YouTube and Revver) to advertising (Craigslist and consumer-made TV ads), movies (Machinima), photography (Flickr and iStockPhoto), encyclopedias (Wikipedia and UrbanDictionary), and news (blogs and citizen journalism) technology is enabling amateurs to produce and distribute high-quality product that people want to
watch, read, consume, buy, and re-use. This type of media is sometimes labeled “user-generated”, “amateur”, or “peer-produced” content, and there has been a huge amount of discussion on why people produce it. Any number of commentators have suggested that this is a fundamental change in the way that media is produced, and have foretold a future full of people producing media for the love of it. For all the overblown rhetoric, it’s clear that many established assumptions in media are now being overturned.

What isn’t as clear is what happens to existing media businesses in the age of the amateur. What has been the response of these businesses in light of the rise of the amateur, and what should be their response? Media and entertainment businesses companies are faced with a range of business, legal and management issues that are both new and challenging. The time is ripe to ask what to do about this, and what happens next.

You can learn more about and register for the conference at http://www.nyls.edu/amhr