Category Archives: Interviews

I have an idea: eco-game

Audawe ElesedyAudawe Elesedy, environmentalist

“My idea is for an eco game. It’s going to be open source from the very beginning, which means there is no fixed plan for exactly how it will look, or what it will do. It’s still very much in the concept stages and we need people to get involved and help us guide it.

The game needs to be centred around environmental issues. Perhaps we could use real-world data like Government statistics on climate change, or people’s individual carbon footprints.

We could look at aggregating tweets or allowing people to record their browsing history, we could even hook in with arduinos to help people bring the game into their real worlds and create sensors for their homes.

The game would be a challenge for players, with problems to solve and rewards to win – it would have to be a satisfying experience to make it fun to play.

We’re still at the very start of how we work on this, and we want it to be a shared open source development from the very start. So get in touch with me if you’d like to get involved!”

Interview: Corinne Welsh

Corinne WelshI provide organisational support services, primarily in the support sector.

What’s your interest in Dev8D?

I do lots of work across different organisations such as education and government agencies, so I have quite a broad range of interests.

I’m very interested in open source software, and also linked data – looking at how things join up together, and how to produce data which is visually interesting to people. Tony Hirst’s talk on Yahoo Pipes was also very good, as was the talk on vector graphics.

A lot of the stuff you get at an event like this are like the discussions you have in the kitchen at a party. it’s all the interesting stuff on the edges.

There’s lots of crossover in the kid of work I do – discussions on how you manage your workload, how to explain what you’re doing, issues around transparency. It’s interesting to make those connections.

Are you involved in any other communities? If so, what and why?

I’m part of a Google group working around open source software. I’m also involved in other  non-technical communities through my work.

Of all the projects or ideas you’ve seen, which will have a longer-term impact?

The project with the wow factor has definitely been the 3D printer. It’s another great example of a cross-over service.

Corinne Welsh is on Twitter at @corinnewelsh

Interview: Kieran Marron

kieranKieran Marron is a web developer at Eduserv, a not-for-profit organisation which delivers technology for various public sector services.

What are you hoping to get out of Dev8D?

This if the first time I’ve ever been to this kind of thing. I’m here out of sheer intrigue! Yesterday morning I attended all of the lightning talks, and I’ve also been to the Zenity coding dojo. The dojo was a very good session, it was a great way to learn from other people.

What kind of skills are you gaining by being here?

I’m very keen to learn more about Zenity, as it’s about repository data stores and sharing data. It’s definitely something we’re going to be using so it’s good to see how it’s been applied early on.

More generally it’s also good to see a whole hall of people working on madcap ideas, just trying things out together and seeing what can happen.

Of all the projects or ideas you’ve seen, which will have the greatest impact?

The 3D printer has definitely stolen the show, It’s absolutely mind boggling! The fact that anyone can do it, and it’s so cheap.

I have an idea: democratic web development

Chuck SeveranceCharles Severance (aka “Dr Chuck”) believes anyone can be a web developer. Here he explains how.

“My crazy dream is for everyone in the world to build their own web applications. Non-technical people are creating content online with text, images and video, but I think there’s scope for so much more. I want to help people create their own Twitters, their own Facebooks – any database-backed website they can think of.

Google have created a way in for this democratisation of web development with their Google Application Engine, which is a free hosted service for apps.

$10 a month for php hosting might not be a big deal for someone in the UK or USA, but for much of the world it’s a lot of money. But now we’re opening up web development to people who might only have access to a computer once a week, from an internet cafe.

So Google have provided the infrastructure for low-cost web applications, but we also need to give non-developers the skills to create whatever they want.

My intention with the book was to take someone who knew nothing about programming, and in a couple of weeks teach them the HTML, CSS and Python they need to create an app which can run in the Google cloud.

I want to bring down the limitations of what you can do online. I want people to leave the limitations of MySpace and instead start thinking of ‘my space’ – their space. Everyone on this planet has the right to own their presence on the internet.

Web development is art, and programming is our paintbrush. We should be opening up this community and giving everyone the tools they need to become artists in our digital landscape.”

Charles Severance’s book Using Google App Engine is published by O’Reilly.

Interview: Steve Lee talks about accessibility

Steve Lee from OSS Watch and Will Walker from GNOMESteve Lee gave a lightning talk on accessibility. Here Steve talks about why accessibility is an important issue for web developers.

“There are a several views with accessibility – the most prevalent is that it’s about helping people with disabilities to interact with technology. But it’s also about widening technology use generally.

The emergence of mobile platforms, for example, has increased the ways in which people use devices. A classic example is a SatNav in a car – it needs audio instructions because it wouldn’t be practical to use a mouse in that situation.

There are certain accessibility issues that we see all the time – one of the worst offenders is requiring users to use a mouse. Blind people don’t use mice, and many people with physical impairments use switches which use keyboard commands. So there’s no way those people would be able to use some whizzy feature you can only see if you wave the mouse cursor.

The other one we see a lot is the alt attribute of images. If you’ve got an important image on a website – and by important I mean an image with isn’t just eye candy – then you need a description of the image so that visually impaired users know what is the purpose of the picture.”

Interview: Ben Charlton talks about web security

Ben CharlotonBen Charlton is the systems administrator at the University of Kent. He gave a lightning talk on web security, going through the OWASP 10 worst web security mistakes – and how to fix them.

Why did you give a web security talk?

It’s a hobby interest for me and my day job as well, and it seemed an area that was missing on the programme.

Web security is something we’ve had a problem with at Kent, and I imagine lot of other universities will be having similar issues. Universities tend to have a lot of people doing a lot of things online, and there’s not always a great deal of attention paid to security.

I’ve already had someone come up and ask for more details – it’s impossible to cover everything on web security in 15 minutes. Hopefully the people who were in the room can now go and find out more about the issues, and it will lead to more secure websites.

What do you think your institution gains by sending you here?

Kent gain from a greater breadth of knowledge. I’ve found out about LTI – a really useful way of embedding learning objects in a VLE. That’s something we had no idea about until today. So it’s great for picking up on new technology.

Are you involved in any other communities?

List8d is another project I’ve been involved. I’m also interested in library systems.

What kind of skills are you gaining or improving by being here?

From attending Dev8D last year I knew there would be loads of different areas to get involved in. It’s amazing the things you pick up that you never expected to, just from chatting to people.

Of all the projects or ideas you’ve seen, are there any you think can be put into action straight away?

Wookie is interesting, and of course LTI has immediate applications for the University of Kent. There’s also lots of stuff that isn’t directly relevant but makes you a better programmer, like the stuff on genetic algorithms or learning about Clojure.

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