Engagement/Developer Engagement/FirefoxOSAppWorkshops

Firefox OS App Workshops

What: A series of small hands-on technical workshops designed for skilled app developers in key launch countries. The goal of these day-long events is to help individual developers and small teams complete an HTML5 web app for Firefox OS or migrate their existing HTML5 web app to the Firefox OS phone and into the Firefox Marketplace.

Participants must apply to attend, and will be asked to demonstrate Javascript expertise and/or past experience building web apps and working with web APIs.

This program is designed and organized by Mozilla's Tech Evangelism team as part of the Firefox OS launch wave with support from Apps & Marketplace and Firefox OS engineering.

APPLICATION: Register here: http://bit.ly/FxOSAppWorkshop-apply

Our Goals

• Recruit skilled web app developers to complete on HTML5 apps and submit them to the Firefox Marketplace
• Identify local app developers in launch markets
• Create opportunities for local developers to showcase their apps

Event Locales & Contacts

These are the confirmed event locales and dates for Firefox OS App Workshops.

• Madrid, Spain, April 20
• Bogota, Colombia: May, exact date to be determined
• Warsaw, Poland: May/June, exact date to be determined

Docs, Tools & Templates

Docs:

• Introduction to Firefox OS http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefoxos/
• Firefox Marketplace Developer Hub https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/
• Firefox Apps Docs https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps

Tools:

• Firefox OS Simulator - stable release: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-simulator/
• Firefox OS Simulator, latest preview of next release:
  • Windows: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-windows.xpi
  • Mac: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-mac.xpi
  • Linux: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/r2d2b2g/r2d2b2g-linux.xpi

Templates

• Firefox OS Boilerplate App : https://github.com/robnyman/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App
  • Install here: http://robnyman.github.com/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App/
• Building Firefox OS http://buildingfirefoxos.com/
• Mortar - A collection of Open Web App templates https://github.com/mozilla/mortar

Event Schedule

• Example schedule Friday evening (Madrid):
  • Meet & greet

• Example schedule Saturday (Madrid):
  • 9:30am: Check in.
  • 10:00 - 10:30am: Attendees & Staff Introductions
  • 10:30 - 11:00am: Intro to the Firefox OS Developer phone
  • 11:00am – 11:45: Developing Firefox Apps - Removing Obstacles
  • 1:00pm - 2:00pm: Lunch
  • 2:00 - 8:00pm: Hacking/coding
  • 8pm -9pm: Demos & drinks
  • 9pm: Dinner

Creative Assets/ Schwag

Pending

App Ideas

Some app suggestions from our partners:

Priority Categories for our Launch Markets

• Photography: Image editors, picture effects, Instagram style. A big area lacking and with this demographic a key area
• New keyboards and input mechanisms. New mechanisms similar to Swype, Swiftkey to increase screen responsiveness on our devices
• Local apps/services based on local APIs and cool mash-ups e.g. Transport, Government Services, Utilities, News, Weather, Local Commerce/Location services

Commodity Apps

Specific apps in the top 100 downloads not currently available in Marketplace. These app categories could generate big opportunities for a developer (recognition and revenue):

• Emoticons/Emoji keyboard apps
• Fingerprint Scanner
• Candle
• Lighter
• Flashlight
• Advanced Calculator
• Call Timer/Stop Watch
• Local news aggregators