App development and the web standards community

Registered by John Oxton

There are a wide and ever growing variety of html5/web-based apps out there already and by that measure a large untapped community of developers we are not talking to.

Given the issues around html5 right now, what are the things we can do now to encourage them to participate and what are the things that are stopping us/slowing us down?

Why would this be good for Ubuntu anyway? What’s in it for the developers? and why ' the web standards community'?

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
Charline Poirier
Priority:
Undefined
Drafter:
John Oxton
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
John Oxton
Definition:
New
Series goal:
Accepted for precise
Implementation:
Unknown
Milestone target:
None

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

Work items:
[aquarius] Write an article end to end on how to develop an app and publish it to software center (including packaging)
Create a sample app (open source) to use as an example
[jml] Update AppDeveloper Ubuntu wiki page to have all communication channels: POSTPONED
[aquarius] Write an article on HTML webapps
[repete] Write an article on HTML webapps
[yaili] Write an article on HTML webapps (more on the design side of things)
[johnoxton] Write an article on HTML webapps (more on the design side of things)
[newz] Write an article on HTML webapps
[johnoxton] find apps to highlight on the app developer blog. To help show Ubuntu's interest in web apps

Session notes:

Purpose:
There are a wide and ever growing variety of html5/web-based apps out there already and by that measure a large untapped community of developers we are not talking to.
Given the issues we have around html5 right now. What are the things we can do now to encourage them to participate and what are the things that are stopping us/slowing us down?
Why would this be good for Ubuntu anyway? What’s in it for the developers?
Web app examples:

    http://chrome.angrybirds.com/

Notes:

    HTML5 a complicated subject, this session not too technical.

    Why the ‘web standards community’... because they care about the things we care about. Openness, freedom, accessibility and community among a few

    Should someone be participating in HTML5 Doctor?

    What are our connections with Opera? i.e. Bruce Lawson, Google i.e. Ian Hickson who else?

    What about the grass roots?

Ongoing discussion on webapps in Ubuntu
- Not about creating webapps, rather raising awareness as a platform for webapps (this session)
- How do they integrate into Ubuntu?
  - This is ongoing work, but there are several degrees of integration
What's great about Ubuntu for html5 web app authors?
- Integration with the Ubuntu Software Center (not yet implemented, though)
Ideas:
- Chase people who've written an article to ensure Ubuntu is mentioned?
- Talk to everyone
- Add a HTML5 page to developer.ubuntu.com
- Write articles for magazines (see below)
- Seek out a high profile web app for the Software Center
- Tweet
- Go to conferences
Significantly, at the moment there isn't a very strong story for web apps in Ubuntu. There are lots of initiatives underway to make this better. This limits the sorts of promotion we can do.
Tech ideas:
- Prism-like thing for showing web apps
  - Ideal would be Firefox (c.f. https://apps.mozillalabs.com/; http://mozillalabs.com/chromeless)
- Put webapps in the software center
- Provide a library that makes it easy to integrate U1 into a webapp
- Submit a patch for an Ubuntu backend to PhoneGap
- Mozilla's WebRT - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Apps/WebRT
What would you want as the Ubuntu story for web apps when presenting:
- Look native insofar as desktop integration
  - Launcher
  - Notifications
  - Not obviously in browser
  - Ability to charge
  - Window matching (alt-tab, etc)
  - Can become default app for opening a particular kind of file
  - Offline awareness
  - Browse to a web app, and provide an easy facility to add it to the Launcher
  - In general
    - What hooks are provided by mobile browsers? Maybe we can take advantage of them.
- We are a different audience
Places to stay up to date on web app development:
- App developer blog (http://developer.ubuntu.com/community/app-developer-blog)
- App developer mailing list (<email address hidden>)
- App developer IRC channel (#ubuntu-app-devel)
- Twitter: @ubuntuappdev
Mags:
- A list apart
- Smashing magazineConferences:Conferences:
- SitePoint
-
Game sites
- Ludum dare
Conferences:

(?)

Work Items