I asked, you answered, and its going to happen! I will be creating and hosting a new Windows Phone Development show.
I want to create an open forum for developers. I want to make the show YOU want to see about developing for Windows Phone.
I need two more things from you. Comment below to tell me what you think the show should be called and if you have any ideas on what kinds of subjects you would like me to focus on, let me know.
Like I said, this show is for YOU, the developer, so don’t be shy, say what’s on your mind and I will do my best to give you what you tell me you need.
Let’s get this show rolling!!!
1. Free stuff!
2. Sample and demos
3. Tips and tools
4. Special guests (helpfully some spilled secrets)
5. Developer spot light
All good options!!!
ah . 4 days ?? i thugoht they achieved those figures even before the release lolz Comparisions apart , the WP7 platform looks solid when compared to WM and thats very important ..
Windows Phone-etics 7 or “Windows Phoneaddicts 7”
Sounds like an apt name to me. Just like learning the alphabet we start with phonetics.
A short series idea:
1 – brief history of Windows phone, and where it’s going + question answer
2- Cover the marketplace, dev tools and available extensions
3- Open discussion to gleen where developers are having the most problems / issues and base the following segments on those findings.
You could approach the series on an a – z approach and that would be good for newbies to WP7 development. I suppose you could also alternate the segments for newbies / experienced. That would give time for feedback from each group between segments and an opportunity for attendies to practice what was covered.
Of couse a mud wrestling match with the Iphone girls would be a good intermission.
Looking forward to the series. Have a good trip to Redmond!
Sorry, I never got around to replying to the end of the thread on LinkedIn. Hope I’m not to late to reply here, now.
Recommend having a simple descriptive title which doesn’t include the number 7 in it. You need to have good SEO on the title and don’t want to be changing it for a foreseeable future change in name in the platform.
If it’s for devs, make it for devs. Avoid doing “power user” stuff too. You don’t need two masters and if you focus on the power users (which is easier as there’s more content) you’ll alienate the developers. (Other dev related podcasts have suffered in this way – mentioning no names)
Are you just going to focus on WP? or branch out to other things in the future? It’s worth deciding now if you’re going to want to be a Metro dev podcast in a few weeks/months.
Know, in advance, what you want to get out of organising/ putting this together. Know what success looks like. Be aware it will likely change over time.
Don’t be reliant on a single person for this happening – if you can avoid it. Or try to move away from this as time goes on.
Prepare to start an ongoing thing. Don’t just focus on the first one. If you do you’ll likely (hopefully) be stuck after the first, successful, one with having to put the next one together in less time. Don’t let it be rushed and sub-standard after all the effort of the first.
Know/decide your planned shedule/frequency from the start.
Don’t be afraid to change things which don’t work.
Try and avoid doing what others are doing. Be unique. Have your own personality.
If you’re going to do it live / in real time, be aware that you won’t be able to appeal to a global audience. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you’re after.
Participation and watching/listening to something pre-recorded are different. What’s good for one isn’t good for the other. You can reach more people if they don’t have to be watching/listening live.
Disussing code can be hard in an audio podcast.
Generally, you want to appeal to beginners and those with experience. You also want to appeal to those working in XNA and Silverlight. (Realistically there’s very little overlap.) Yes, there are more Silverlight devs but the XNA ones are more enthusiastic.
Yes, that’s a broad range of people to appeal to, but try and appeal to people in all those groups each time. (As far as possible.)
While you want to be educational and informative, you also need to be entertaining.
Envolvement increases ownership and increases participation and promotion. However, most people who offer to help will never be heard from again?
Conceptual code advice may be more useful to people than answers to very specific questions. If someone has a specific question it can be quickly answered via StackOverflow or the app hub forums. Showing/explaining good practices may be more appropriate (and is something no-one else AFAIK is doing).
People want free stuff. And most want it for nothing. Beware appealing to those who just want freebies and aren’t contributing or adding value by particpation.
Two topics that I know are hot amongst developers at the moment are “design” and “business skills”. Design is an unknown quantity to them and they forget that it’s a business. – “It’s Microsoft’s responsibilty to promote my app and make sure I get lots of exosure for the app I quickly threw together in my spare time with no consideration of what people actually want or what makes a good app.” – A direct mis-quote 😉
You can’t do enough promotion in advance of launching.
Sad though it may be, guests who work for Microsoft (in any capacity) are a big draw.
Happy to talk more, directly(?), if you’re interested.
We’ll definitely have to talk, thank you so much for the great feedback.
Matt made some really good points in his post.
Regarding live or prerecorded segments…
Thats a good point. Perhaps a combination would work. Do a live segment to draw the questions out of the viewers pertaining to the topic during a live show general discussion.
Then follow up with the prerecorded segment, demonstrating the proceedures / practices to answer the questions collected during the live segment. We know that there is not enough time in a one hour segment to cover all of the material and answer all the questions,unless it is a very specific discussion.
Blending Silverlight / XNA would be a great topic for a few segments at least. As Matt suggested there are Silverlight Devs and XNA Devs, but there are also those developing on the blended platform and I think it is an area that definitely deserves some attention.
Another thing that came up in one of our recent discussions was MVVM. I would love to see this topic given some attention. It is something that I believe applies across the board to all devs.
Looking forward to the start of the series!