Last week I attended Google I/O in downtown San Fransisco. Google I/O is a conference for promoting and training on Google tools and technologies. I went over Janel's birthday, so I owe her a lot for her patience with my interest in keeping abreast of technology trends. I attended with Brian Pittman and Wes Cothran. Every other conference I've attended has been funded by organizations I work for. This was the first conference I've picked up my own tab for – in terms of time, travel costs, conference fees, food, etc.. I learned a lot, meet some interesting folks, and picked up a ton of cool gadgets. If you're just interested in the list-o-gadgets go here: http://goo.gl/Fcrwi. Here are some pictures.
Google I/O was fascinating. It was splashy. It was hyped. It was crowded. Google spared no expense in the flash. The keynotes were well assembled; speakers delivered punches like a choreographed fight scene. Product announcements, software releases, usage trends, and giveaways were the punches. In 2005'ish I attended a conference in Silicon Valley. Then I was a couple of years into my transition from Windows development to Linux development. I remember attending a Microsoft product demonstration and hearing people in the audience cheer and clap at the impressively rehearsed product demo. At that time I kinda got a sick feeling that the people there had drank too much of the Micro$oft cool-aid. Well, Google I/O reminded me of those same feelings. At times things were a little too hyped. However, I'll readily admit that I've drank the Google cool-aid. Anyone who knows me knows that I use, recommend, and frequently evangelize Google products. Back to the conference... from the registration experience to the last session I loved the experience.
My desire to attend Google I/O was born in a conversation with Brian last July. I had just returned from OSCON where I attend some Android sessions and Google I/O was brought up. We committed with a fist bump to attend I/O this year. In January registration was announced. Registration day came and the hour to register was crazy. Google I/O 2009 sold out in something like a few months; their 2010 conference sold out in something like a month; this year is sold out in less than ONE HOUR. During that hour I only got half way through the registration process; I was sure I wasn't in. Via Twitter Brian discovered that by going back in the browser history that it was possible to complete the registration process. I was caustically relieved. It turns out that a couple of weeks later that Google sent out letters for people who only partial completed the registration process. I know because during that hour of madness I manged to initiate two registrations.
The wait between January and May seemed like years, weeks felt like months, days felt like weeks, hours seemed like days. (Not really, I'm just trying to build the hype :-) Really though - trying to keep-up with the Twitter buzz was frustrating. The #io2011 hash tag was useless because for every useful tweet there were hundreds (or more) re-tweets. The days before the conference were the worst. About a week before the conference Google finalized the schedule details and released an Android App that could be used to browse sessions, view the maps of the floor layout, and some other neat features. I used the app the whole time during the conference to track sessions I wanted to attend, find rooms, and more. The app was open sourced after the conference. The source should be release anytime. I'm continue to be amazed at Android. Ever since I heard about Android in 2007'ish I have been really excited. I believe Android will do for devices what DOS and Windows did for personal computers in the 80's and 90's; namely make them ubiquitous and brain-dead to program for. I thought it was ridiculous that with my first couple cellphones (in about 2004) that I couldn't even connect them via USB and download pictures/videos and manipulate contacts, etc. Now, with Android, this kind of stuff is common. Android is the only reason I signed-up for Google I/O. However, I recently moved into a new position at work, so other sessions held at the conference were useful for that.
The flight to and from SFO was free because of all the work travel I've did in the past year. Thankfully, work lets us keep frequent flier miles. Wes and I flew out together; Brian precede us by a few days and was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. We went for L&L Hawaiian BBQ for lunch after the flight. After registering at the hotel (checkout the room here) we went and checked in at the conference site. Because I'm a student at UAH, the conference only cost $150 bucks. At the gear pickup station we got a cool t-shirt. The t-shirt had Morse code on the back that pointed to this encoded URL. Also with the registration I got an NFC sticker. NFC is an acronym for Near Field Communication. Android now uses this technology to communicate bits of information with NFC thingys, like stickers, credit cards, et al. The NFC sticker they gave out could be use for checking in at on-site vendors or something. I didn't use it.
The opening day keynote was pretty dang cool. Just getting in to the keynote was an experience; it was pure madness. I felt like the crowd was going to rush and trample over anyone that fell to the ground. People were running to the front on the room. I admit I was one of them.... :-) I tool a 15 second video of the "countdown". Many interesting things were announced and demonstrated during this keynote. They showed off some nest video chat technology where the camera will zoom in on the person speaking in a group. Then demonstrated Android's new hardware interface API and talked up a kit that interfaces with an Arduino. I'll spare you to details of all the announcements and point you to Engadget's live blog here. At the end of the keynote it was announced that everyone in the room got a free Samsung Galixy 10.1 Limited Edition Tablet. The place erupted when that was announced. I actually fist bumped a random dude from Brazil. I later saw at tweet that likened Oprah giveaways to Google I/O giveaways.
The day two keynote was just as hyped. Day two was all about Google Chrome. Both the OS and the browser. Here is Engadget’s live blog. For me, it also meant attending sessions less about Android and more about other Web technologies. The Chrome keynote was just as hyped as the Android keynote. It is obvious that there is a bit of tension within Google of the two teams. During the keynotes, it was not one single person who spoke but instead one person after the other took the stage. One person who did NOT work for Google provided a little comedic relief. I still remember when I learned the meaning of the word ubiquitous. Likewise, I recall just last year reading the phrase "viral app". During a keynote session in between announcement product stuff, Google brought out the Angry Birds guy – the place erupted. Angry Birds is the first application I heard the phrase viral app attached to. It was ported to the web and specifically Google Chrome, via WebGL. It was a funny aside. The term Cromebook was introduced and it was announced that we all would get a free on in mid-June. Once again, the crowd went wild.
I meet several people at Google I/O; it was a fantastic networking experience. During the provided breakfast on the first day I sat with men from Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Dubai. Clay, the guy from Oklahoma, had BYU on his badge. After the breakfast I tracked him down and we spoke about the LDS Church. Clay was the first person from his branch in Oklahoma to go on a mission. He is now finishing up a Masters at BYU in Information Systems. He teaching an Android class at BYU and had encouraged his students to come to the conference. Very interesting guy. During lunch one day I ate with a group of people who I was less conversant with. One person I spoke to was a lady who works for Google. She works on Google Chrome from a Germany office. She mentioned that people attending Google I/O from Google did not get the neat gadgets gave away during the keynotes. Google I/O was very crowded, and people were there from all over the world. In between a couple of sessions I ran into a really tall guy that had a badge that read Middle Tennessee State University. I said to him: “I am from Shelbyville”. He mumbled something back. I said the same thing to him again, pointing at his badge. He replied back to me in a thick maybe Russian(?) accent - “eBay.” He had bought his ticket from someone who got a ticket then sold it for an amount much greater that that face value; a lot of people did that. On day one Google held an after hours party where food, drink, entertainment in the form of music and really cool displays like their self driving car. Since the music was not country (I can't imagine why) I left the party early to go catch a movie. I went to see Source Code :-) - very good movie. In the lobby I met a guy who worked for Google, in Boston I think. He manages the GWT UI Designer team. Another interesting guy. He went to see Thor in 3D. On the first leg of the flight home I met a man who worked for T-mobile. He too had attended the conference. He manages a mobile development group for T-mobile and recalls the initial months of Android where T-mobile was the first and then only carrier. Interestingly this man works in SF but lives in LA because of the cost of living – I cannot begin to imagine. On the second leg of the flight home I met a young mortician. We struck up a conversation because he was playing a portable play station device and I mentioned to him that I had an Android playstation device (see the schwag list) that had not even been released yet. During one of our conversations he asked me how he'd go about finding someone to develop a mobile application for morticians. He is going to send me an email and I am going to pass it around to folks who may be interested.
In between meeting people, attending keynotes, and picking up schwag I did actually get to attend some sessions. Here is the low down along with sparse notes on some: http://goo.gl/FDkDu
Google I/O was fascinating. It was splashy. It was hyped. It was crowded. Google spared no expense in the flash. The keynotes were well assembled; speakers delivered punches like a choreographed fight scene. Product announcements, software releases, usage trends, and giveaways were the punches. In 2005'ish I attended a conference in Silicon Valley. Then I was a couple of years into my transition from Windows development to Linux development. I remember attending a Microsoft product demonstration and hearing people in the audience cheer and clap at the impressively rehearsed product demo. At that time I kinda got a sick feeling that the people there had drank too much of the Micro$oft cool-aid. Well, Google I/O reminded me of those same feelings. At times things were a little too hyped. However, I'll readily admit that I've drank the Google cool-aid. Anyone who knows me knows that I use, recommend, and frequently evangelize Google products. Back to the conference... from the registration experience to the last session I loved the experience.
My desire to attend Google I/O was born in a conversation with Brian last July. I had just returned from OSCON where I attend some Android sessions and Google I/O was brought up. We committed with a fist bump to attend I/O this year. In January registration was announced. Registration day came and the hour to register was crazy. Google I/O 2009 sold out in something like a few months; their 2010 conference sold out in something like a month; this year is sold out in less than ONE HOUR. During that hour I only got half way through the registration process; I was sure I wasn't in. Via Twitter Brian discovered that by going back in the browser history that it was possible to complete the registration process. I was caustically relieved. It turns out that a couple of weeks later that Google sent out letters for people who only partial completed the registration process. I know because during that hour of madness I manged to initiate two registrations.
The wait between January and May seemed like years, weeks felt like months, days felt like weeks, hours seemed like days. (Not really, I'm just trying to build the hype :-) Really though - trying to keep-up with the Twitter buzz was frustrating. The #io2011 hash tag was useless because for every useful tweet there were hundreds (or more) re-tweets. The days before the conference were the worst. About a week before the conference Google finalized the schedule details and released an Android App that could be used to browse sessions, view the maps of the floor layout, and some other neat features. I used the app the whole time during the conference to track sessions I wanted to attend, find rooms, and more. The app was open sourced after the conference. The source should be release anytime. I'm continue to be amazed at Android. Ever since I heard about Android in 2007'ish I have been really excited. I believe Android will do for devices what DOS and Windows did for personal computers in the 80's and 90's; namely make them ubiquitous and brain-dead to program for. I thought it was ridiculous that with my first couple cellphones (in about 2004) that I couldn't even connect them via USB and download pictures/videos and manipulate contacts, etc. Now, with Android, this kind of stuff is common. Android is the only reason I signed-up for Google I/O. However, I recently moved into a new position at work, so other sessions held at the conference were useful for that.
The flight to and from SFO was free because of all the work travel I've did in the past year. Thankfully, work lets us keep frequent flier miles. Wes and I flew out together; Brian precede us by a few days and was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. We went for L&L Hawaiian BBQ for lunch after the flight. After registering at the hotel (checkout the room here) we went and checked in at the conference site. Because I'm a student at UAH, the conference only cost $150 bucks. At the gear pickup station we got a cool t-shirt. The t-shirt had Morse code on the back that pointed to this encoded URL. Also with the registration I got an NFC sticker. NFC is an acronym for Near Field Communication. Android now uses this technology to communicate bits of information with NFC thingys, like stickers, credit cards, et al. The NFC sticker they gave out could be use for checking in at on-site vendors or something. I didn't use it.
The opening day keynote was pretty dang cool. Just getting in to the keynote was an experience; it was pure madness. I felt like the crowd was going to rush and trample over anyone that fell to the ground. People were running to the front on the room. I admit I was one of them.... :-) I tool a 15 second video of the "countdown". Many interesting things were announced and demonstrated during this keynote. They showed off some nest video chat technology where the camera will zoom in on the person speaking in a group. Then demonstrated Android's new hardware interface API and talked up a kit that interfaces with an Arduino. I'll spare you to details of all the announcements and point you to Engadget's live blog here. At the end of the keynote it was announced that everyone in the room got a free Samsung Galixy 10.1 Limited Edition Tablet. The place erupted when that was announced. I actually fist bumped a random dude from Brazil. I later saw at tweet that likened Oprah giveaways to Google I/O giveaways.
The day two keynote was just as hyped. Day two was all about Google Chrome. Both the OS and the browser. Here is Engadget’s live blog. For me, it also meant attending sessions less about Android and more about other Web technologies. The Chrome keynote was just as hyped as the Android keynote. It is obvious that there is a bit of tension within Google of the two teams. During the keynotes, it was not one single person who spoke but instead one person after the other took the stage. One person who did NOT work for Google provided a little comedic relief. I still remember when I learned the meaning of the word ubiquitous. Likewise, I recall just last year reading the phrase "viral app". During a keynote session in between announcement product stuff, Google brought out the Angry Birds guy – the place erupted. Angry Birds is the first application I heard the phrase viral app attached to. It was ported to the web and specifically Google Chrome, via WebGL. It was a funny aside. The term Cromebook was introduced and it was announced that we all would get a free on in mid-June. Once again, the crowd went wild.
I meet several people at Google I/O; it was a fantastic networking experience. During the provided breakfast on the first day I sat with men from Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Dubai. Clay, the guy from Oklahoma, had BYU on his badge. After the breakfast I tracked him down and we spoke about the LDS Church. Clay was the first person from his branch in Oklahoma to go on a mission. He is now finishing up a Masters at BYU in Information Systems. He teaching an Android class at BYU and had encouraged his students to come to the conference. Very interesting guy. During lunch one day I ate with a group of people who I was less conversant with. One person I spoke to was a lady who works for Google. She works on Google Chrome from a Germany office. She mentioned that people attending Google I/O from Google did not get the neat gadgets gave away during the keynotes. Google I/O was very crowded, and people were there from all over the world. In between a couple of sessions I ran into a really tall guy that had a badge that read Middle Tennessee State University. I said to him: “I am from Shelbyville”. He mumbled something back. I said the same thing to him again, pointing at his badge. He replied back to me in a thick maybe Russian(?) accent - “eBay.” He had bought his ticket from someone who got a ticket then sold it for an amount much greater that that face value; a lot of people did that. On day one Google held an after hours party where food, drink, entertainment in the form of music and really cool displays like their self driving car. Since the music was not country (I can't imagine why) I left the party early to go catch a movie. I went to see Source Code :-) - very good movie. In the lobby I met a guy who worked for Google, in Boston I think. He manages the GWT UI Designer team. Another interesting guy. He went to see Thor in 3D. On the first leg of the flight home I met a man who worked for T-mobile. He too had attended the conference. He manages a mobile development group for T-mobile and recalls the initial months of Android where T-mobile was the first and then only carrier. Interestingly this man works in SF but lives in LA because of the cost of living – I cannot begin to imagine. On the second leg of the flight home I met a young mortician. We struck up a conversation because he was playing a portable play station device and I mentioned to him that I had an Android playstation device (see the schwag list) that had not even been released yet. During one of our conversations he asked me how he'd go about finding someone to develop a mobile application for morticians. He is going to send me an email and I am going to pass it around to folks who may be interested.
In between meeting people, attending keynotes, and picking up schwag I did actually get to attend some sessions. Here is the low down along with sparse notes on some: http://goo.gl/FDkDu
0 comments:
Post a Comment