Microsoft inspired by iPhone for free WinMo mobile application developer event

Microsoft has taken a leaf out of a non-profit organisations book to attract developers. It has announced it will be running a series of free events in different cities, called WinMoDevCamp. These open events are aimed at providing free education and support for mobile developers who want to create apps for the Windows Mobile OS.

What is a “devcamp”?

To understand what Microsoft is doing here, let’s take a very brief look at the history of open DevCamps. It started with BarCamp, a completely non-profit event that absolutely anyone could turn up to. It happened in California 2005 - an off-the-cuff conference for developers. Attendees could just show up and learn. The audience decided the content, and everyone was encouraged to both learn and teach. Since then there have been hundreds of BarCamps all over the world.

Inspired by this and other events, in 2007 someone had the idea for the iPhoneDevCamp. It was a similar event, except only for iPhone developers. Other iPhoneDevCamps have since run in cities all over America, Europe and Asia.

Fast forward to 2009 - Microsoft, eager to attract developers to it’s OS, has announced a series of WinMoDevCamps. The first will be held next week in Seattle, on the 19th. Like it’s predecessors, it’s completely free and open to all comers. Any developer who wants to walk through the door can attend workshops and seminars from members of the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team.

So what’s the deal?

The WinMoDevCamps are intended as a series of support events. Microsofts mobile application store, Marketplace for Mobile, is on its way. Rather than just release an API or SDK, Microsoft intends to put developers in the same room as members of its dedicated Developer Experience team.
More information is available from the WinMoDevCamp blog - according to the blog, the main purpose of the event is for attendees:
* Create new applications for the Windows Mobile Platform.
* Meet and work side-by-side with team members from the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team.
* Migrate existing mobile applications from the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre to the Windows Mobile Platform.
* Create applications to support Windows Enterprise Applications.
* Test and optimize applications for Windows Mobile 6.5

How is this is different from iPhoneDevCamp?

The really big difference is that this event is organised and sanctioned by Microsoft. iPhoneDevCamp has to be careful about the Apple NDA - it carefully states on the website that it has “no intention of violating the terms that individual developers have in place with Apple on the iPhone SDK”. It also advises people to attend the Apple World Developers Conference. Whereas these events are completely organised and arranged by Microsoft themselves. Which could mean one of two things: 1) it will be a hands-on, no-holds-barred event where the minutiae of the platform are thrown open for everyone or 2) the content will be incredibly tightly regulated and controlled by Microsoft.

What we think?

Both Bena and I love this idea. Microsoft is one of the archetypal huge, cold corporations. It never really comes across as friendly or open. A series of events like this could really help spread a little love for WinMo amongst developers. There are a couple of other factors at work here, of course. I can only imagine that Microsoft is desperate to attract developers to its platform. There might not have been that many apps sent in since the site opened for submissions last month.  For iPhone, the developers were so eager to work that they just organised conferences by themselves. Microsoft has had to throw it’s own party, but frankly it’s better that than no party at all.

For more details, check out the WinMoDevCam blog