Archive for February, 2009
iPhone Development for fun and non-profit
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
As a transplant living in Lafayette, telecommuting to Oregeon, I’m hardly dialed in to the Boulder tech scene. Last year, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Boulder New Tech Meetup, and attended a couple meetings. Then, real life and tight deadlines joined up to keep me heads down in my basement office for most of 2008. Once 2009 rolled around, I came up for air and was lucky enough to attend the February BDNT meetup.
It was standing room only, and I was squeezed way in the back when announcement time came around. Some guy named Dave stood up and said that he was looking for iPhone developers for a volunteering application. A couple books and a crash course on Cocoa hardly makes me an iPhone dev, but I’d been wanting to learn for some time, so I tracked him down after the meetup. And the rest is history. Recent history. Still in the making, actually, since we’re still plugging away.
Which brings me to my point: iPhone development is capital F-U-N fun. I’ve done most of the major languages, but Obj-C is the first one I’ve picked up in a matter of hours vs. days or weeks. Think about it: on Febuary 1st, I had a vague idea that the iPhone used something called Cocoa, and that Objective C “was sort of like C++, but not”. Yesterday I got my first data-bound UI up and running. And this isn’t full time by any means, just an hour here and there where possible, and a couple stints on the weekend.
But the real reason I piqued up at the iVolunteer opprotunity was that, as a telecommuter, I’ve gotten kind of bored with discussing application design and implementation with myself. So, why not share the fun? You really don’t need to know the first thing about iPhone development, just a general computer programming background is more than enough to get started. You don’t even need an iPhone, just a Mac, some curiosity, and patience while the SDK downloads.
We’ve got our data model foundation pretty well worked out, so now it’s the fun stuff: a slick UI, tight look and feel, and all the cool little bells and whistles that make an app really shine. Even if you don’t want to touch a line of code, a keen eye for design is also very welcome. So if you want a chance to learn a new technology while contributing to a really good cause, drop us a line. Or look for us at next week’s BDNT Meetup in Boulder.
iVolunteers meeting Feb 24th at Startup Drinks
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Instead of a traditional meeting next week, we’re opting for a little procrastination at Starup Drinks at 6:30 at the Foundry in Boulder. Come say hi, and buy Rich or Dave a beer, will ya? They bought the last round!
To the iPhone and beyond…..
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Last Tuesday’s meeting was great as we realized that we’ve grown from simply an iPhone application into a website app, Facebook app, and Wordpress plugin! We were giddy to watch Neil Simon demonstrate his hard work on the Wordpress side, all it’s missing now is the data feed! Rockin’ and rollin’ at iVolunteer.
I’m with the less-geeky crew, and we worked on website content (new website coming soon!), user cases, and are starting to develop a plan on how to market when we’re ready. We have an update from our legal volunteers on how to structure our agreements so the spirit of the project stays in tact as we grow, and the geeks talked 1s and 0s. I won’t speak for them here, but it sounds like they’re moving right along.
If you want to get involved, now’s the time! There’s tons to do, and the more people we have, the easier it is for everyone to take on managable size pieces. And if you know anyone at Amazon, help us get the server space donated.
Pics from Feb 10 iVolunteer Meetup
Friday, February 13th, 2009
This week we flushed out development tasks, got developers access to the files, got briefed on the legal aspect of things and took a look at a new homepage mock. Thanks to Rally for providing space, pizza and beer!
Check out Stepan’s iVolunteer set on Flickr.
New Location for Tonight’s iVolunteer Meetup!
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Tonight’s Meetup starts at 5pm and will be taking place at a new location. Rally Software has generously offered use of their space, along with pizza and beer for the troops. Nice!
Rally Software
4001 Discovery Drive, Suite 220
Boulder, CO [map]
Coming tonight? We want to make sure we have enough pizza and beer so please RSVP here.
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