Engagement/Developer/Newsletter
July 2012
MDN Kuma Update
The new MDN wiki platform, Kuma, which leverages the Kitsune codebase and will replace Deki, is scheduled to launch on July 16. More information on the kuma wiki page: https://wiki.mozilla.org/MDN/Kuma
FISL - Porto Alegre, 25-28 July
- Community Dinner: 24 July
- MDN Apps Hack Day: 27 July on site at FISL with Christian Heilmann, Jeff Griffiths, Shez Prasad, John Hammink, Artur Adib and many more! Learn about DevTools and Hacking on Apps.
- Docs Localization Sprint: 28 July on site at FISL with Sheppy
- Community Work Day: 29 July in Porto Allegre
plus additional events in Brazil:
- Developer Meet Up in Sao Paulo: August 1
- Evangelism Reps Training in Sao Paulo: August 2
Upcoming Dev Derbies
July: No JavaScript
Code with no.js!
Who needs JavaScript? The expanding capabilities of HTML and CSS make it easier than ever to create rich user experiences for the Web. Mark Pilgrim captures this in Dive into HTML5 when he advises, "Scripting is here to stay, but should be avoided where more convenient declarative markup can be used." Today, declarative markup can be used to accomplish more than ever.
Dynamically adapt to different screen sizes using CSS media queries. Make a page come alive with CSS transitions and animations. Create eye-popping graphics and animations with 3D transforms. Warn users about invalid input with HTML form validation. Provide rich media with graceful fallbacks using HTML5 video and audio. The open Web lets you do all of this and more, all without a single line of JavaScript.
So hold the JavaScript and show us what you can do this month in the July Dev Derby!
August: Camera API
Say cheese!
The Camera API lets you access (with permission) the cameras of mobile devices. With the Camera API, users can easily take pictures and upload them to your web page.
September: Geolocation & Camera API
Wish you were here!
With Geolocation, you can get the user's physical location. With the Camera API, you can access their mobile camera. What can you do by combining the two? People, places, photos. Go!
Mobile Web Development best practices
- Note
- I'm not sure what content is applicable for this newsletter but, if it does fit, I would like to see us showcase some mobile Web development docs and events as part of the mobile Web compatibility effort.
- Short intro to mobile Web dev and links to some key MDN articles
- I think it makes sense to start with feature detection and mobile browser detection
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Browser_detection_using_the_user_agent
- https://developer.mozilla.org/Writing_Forward_Compatible_Websites
- There are a number of pages on MDN about browser and feature detection. There may be a better reference but this is the best that I found.
Beyond the Code
As you probably know, Mozilla is a not-for-profit organization. So if the bottom line is not what drives our efforts, what is it? What are the motives behind the code we write? This is what we're trying to answer in Beyond the Code, a blog that shows why and how people engage with Mozilla. In short, it's for the betterment of the Web. But make sure to read Beyond the Code for more details on community, standards, events and open-source code and how this all works together!