Mobile, Web 2.0, Hype, Reality, and Openness: "How anyone that’s been paying attention to the evolution of mobile can say that mobile AJAX being something like web AJAX is a benefit is beyond me. Like the way that WML being kinda like HTML made that a raging success? No, I don’t think so. Saying that mobile AJAX is a good idea is putting the cart before the horse. AJAX on the web is a hack, every developer knows it’s a hack. What makes it an elegant and compelling hack is that AJAX based websites work with the browser the user already has installed on their desktop while increasing the usability of the web application. That’s the real “AJAX model” that the mobile world should be following: turning the handset and software the user already has into a more pleasant to use and useful device through clever programming."

I had my first experience of the wondrous FreeCycle today, getting rid of my old TV. Advertised it yesterday afternoon, had about 10 folks contact me for it, finally got it bundled out of the house this afternoon. Lovely and local as well as beautifully mundane: a mailing list with a few conventions around subject lines is enough to keep this marketplace going.

I thought it was commendably brave of Ryan Carson to post his monthly profits for DropSend.

 

The event was ably compered by Seb of Plugin Media and Tara from Wired Sussex; I stayed for the first 4 out of 6 presentations before heading over to Mr Flood-Paddock's birthday drinks, and enjoyed most of what I saw. But what struck me more than in any previous year was how irrelevant Flash-the-tool was to the construction of some of the great work we were shown: you couldn't tell that much of it was built in Flash at all, which to mind means that we've finally hit that point where the tool gets out of the way and becomes just a means by which creative ideas are expressed. Apologies if that sounds a bit wanky.

Another surprise: we ran a competition to seek out and expose fantastic mobile Flash work. It was promoted to the local digital community and elsewhere, but in the end we received a single entry from a Brighton Flasher (god bless you, Ribot Minor)... which suggests to me that the majority of Flash developers either can't take their skills onto mobile or don't want to - and that therefore the promise of Flash unlocking a world of content for mobile just won't ring true. Which is a shame.

Elsewhere in the Brighton Digital Festival, we ran SMS voting - courtesy of some fantastic work which Mr Ribot had done to bring the vote to life. The proof of the pudding is in the eating: 803 valid voting messages from 101 different mobile numbers within a 20-minute period is pretty decent, considering that there can't have been more than a hundred or so people there...

6 Signs of Good Software Project Managers: "Although they are often unappreciated by those around them, they are critical to making software development happen.  The best project managers are often the most inconspicuous since things happen so smoothly when they are involved."

I liked the list of positive activities too:

1. Manage Customer Expectations
2. Develop a Rapport with the Customer
3. Understand Where the Project Really Is
4. Increase Visibility
5. Speak the Developer’s Language
6. Know How to Say No