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I really enjoyed delivering my presentation on “Windows Mobile Widgets 101” this past Wednesday at the Boston/New England Windows Mobile User/Developer Group. The goal was to show just how simple it was to get started with widget development. With the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit now available for download, now is as good a time as ever to get ahead of the game.

I have put my presentation deck (as PDF) and samples together into a single ZIP file for download over at BostonPocketPC.com. Enjoy!

Sorry for the late notice, all. I honestly thought that we were not meeting until NEXT week. Way too hectic a month thus far… ;-)

Our next Windows Mobile User/Developer Group meeting will be TOMORROW (June 17th) starting at 6:30 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA (201 Jones Road, 6th Floor).

Among our topics this month -

“Windows Mobile 6.5 Overview” – With the release of the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit, developers and users are getting their first good looks at the latest Windows Mobile OS offering. In this presentation, you will see some of the highlights for both Professional and Standard Edition devices.

“Introduction To Widgets” – With the upcoming release of Windows Mobile 6.5 comes the unveiling of a new application type for Windows Mobile – the widget. In this presentation, you will receive an “Anatomy of a Widget”, how you can create them, what they can do and how you can deploy them to the masses.

As always, there will be lots of items for giveaway!

I just finished reading this article in the Eagle-Tribune regarding the Salem Town Charter Commission. Among the items in the article was the comment that a first organizational meeting will take place this Thursday, June 18th at 7PM at Town Hall. There likely will be little discussion regarding the charter itself at this meeting; there is a lot of “housecleaning” that needs to take place.

After reading the article, I took a few minutes to see if there was any information provided by the town itself regarding the meeting…

• A quick scan of the 3 town cable channels showed regular programming. This is to be expected.
• The Salem Town web site showed nothing. Literally. Went to the Calendar link; the calendar shows nothing past April.I decided to also check the Boards, Committees and Commissions page. This obviously has had no update in months.
  The Eagle-Tribune had an interesting article a couple of weeks back regarding area town web sites and how many are not well maintained. In the year 2009, many look to the Internet as a way of getting the latest information. Unfortunately, it appears as though the town does not see this as a priority for communicating with it’s constituency.
• The web site for the local cable access channel yielded – well, I will let you judge for yourself.

I voiced concern a few weeks back about the need to be as open and transparent about the process as possible. If not for the writing of Jarret Bencks in the Eagle-Tribune, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to have quickly found out about the upcoming meeting. I say this to all the commission members, selectmen and government officials…

You already have concerns within the community regarding the Charter Commission, it’s goals and it’s interest in serving the needs of the community ay-large. Any behavior or action, be it intentional or unintentional, that leaves the voting base feeling “left out” will quickly erode confidence in the commission and process and all involved. It is imperative that information regarding meetings of the Charter Commission (or any town meeting, for that matter) be announced in a timely fashion (1 or 2 days before the meeting does not count and instead gives the impression of trying to keep people away) using whatever means possible.

An outcome of this Thursday’s meeting is the creation of a regular schedule for future meetings. This will be the chance to prove that the commission wishes to be open in communicating with the public. I urge the members of the commission to take the steps necessary to ensure that the word gets out regarding future meetings.  

This is a little “off-topic” for me since it involves an iPhone application, but the moral of the story is relevant to us all…

An old friend of mine recently has proven to me once again that anyone can have a great idea *and* bring it to fruition with the right effort and desire. My friend, Brent Pope, had an idea for a mobile phone application. He’s not a software developer, but believed the idea was worth trying to bring to market. You can read all about this in an article at the Orlando Sentinel web site. The result of his efforts – Wait Times, an application now available at the iPhones App Store.

Outside of huge kudos to Brent for the accomplishment, his story reminds me of something I have talked about for years when it comes to technology in general, and mobile technology in particular.

There are still a world of possibilities when it comes to new ideas for technology. Anyone can be the originator of these ideas as well; it doesn’t have to a hardware or software engineer. The ideas don’t have to come from people who live and breathe the technology world. Often times, the best ideas come from those who have no connection to the target of their idea. Everyday people can come up with the best innovations.

I often hear people with ideas for mobile technology say things like “well, I’m not a programmer”, “I can’t make this hardware” or “I don’t know where to begin”. Brent’s story is example of what I normally reply in response to these statements - He took the step to find out more. What can you do? Well,…

• Ask friends, family and associates for opinions. Bounce the idea off of them to gauge the value in your idea. Just remember to focus on the value of the idea and NOT personal opinions on whether you should be doing this. In other words – don’t let them bring you down.
• Ask friends, family and associates for possible contacts. If what you are thinking of is software-related, it is hard nowadays not to find someone within the ‘Six Degrees of Separation” who could be of assistance.
• Let the Internet be your “research friend”. It is too easy today to use the Internet to find out whether your idea can have value. Whether it is researching the uniqueness of your idea, checking online forums to gauge desire/interest, or to look for the resources that could help to bring your idea to reality, the Internet is always the best way to start the journey.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that Brent could have been like many other people who have an idea. He could have simply said “Nah – I’m sure somebody else is doing that”, or “I’m not a developer – why bother?” He didn’t, though. The result is a great application to meet a unique need. As a developer, the ultimate compliment I could pass along is “Dang – I wish I had thought of it first.” ;-)