Category: Events

Submit Mobile Websites and Win $100 Cash

Ryan at MobileMammoth just sent me a link to a contest they launched. The contest is quite simple, provide your favorite top 5 sites, the best list of sites will get 100 USD. It’s not a fortune but I like the idea of sharing the best sites, so let’s post them!

Submit Mobile Websites and Win $100 Cash

Also, I suggest to the visit the homepage because they provide links and comments of mobile sites regularly.

Open Source Events: Bruce Perens and Richard Stallman in Rome

From Roberto Galoppini: “The Innovation Festival, that will be held in Rome from the 6th till the 10th of June [2007], will guest people from all around the world to talk about traditional and also unconventional routes to innovation. Richard Stallman and Bruce Perens will attend.”

To know more check out Roberto’s post, Open Source Events: Bruce Perens and Richard Stallman in Rome

Swedish Beers, round 2

Last Wed (Apr, 11) I joined the networking event in London. It was the second time I joined a Swedish Beers evening, but it was the first time I did in London. Last time was in Barcelona, during the 3GSM (Parties at 3GSM).

It is amazing to see how many people, only from the mobile-space-business, joins these events. It is sad to say this, but in Italy we are VERY far from this level of activity in the mobile space. We do have some big companies such as DADA, Buongiorno! and Zero9 that are actually rocking worldwide, but when you talk about innovation, getting in touch, doing networking, then we’re far behind. We do have MoMo Italy, but it’s very different from MoMo London. If you don’t know it, when registrations open, in London, you must be quick to register, within 4-6 hours all the 150-200 seats are taken; in Milan, once I saw 40-50 people at the evening, the other times I joined about 10-15 people joined the meeting.

So, even if I’m not a networking-professional, I think the evening was a success, I made 3 new connections and got to see other people I already knew (which is already a step ahead since about 2 years ago I did not know anyone of these guys!).

Congratulations to Helen, of course.

“best Java game for the new Samsung D900” contest

Samsung has launched a new contest for the development of the best Java/J2ME game for the new D900.

Prizes are actually very interesting, with a Grand prize of 20,000 USD.

You are required to subscribe to Sharewire, upload your game and then the final winner will be calculated summing the number of downloads and the votes casted by a number of “selected experts” evaluating innovation, fun, usability, graphics and sound quality.

Considering the high prize it is certainly interesting for new and young developers.

This is also a demonstration of how hard it can be for a developer or a small company to reach large audiences. Appearing in a big site or in an operator’s portal is not easy and often the top listed games are developed and distributed by large firms. Smaller companies generally don’t get the same visibility.
Not very different from the music and movie industries where big names are always highly visible and the less famous, but maybe as good (or better), are relegated in the back of shops or rarely aired by radios.
On one side I’m glad this could give a boost to someone and maybe provide some fresh money, on the other side it’s disappointing to think they have to give away a fresh and good idea (a game in this case) for free. This is a tough topic, I could write for hours and no one would reach the end of the post, so I won’t go down to the details of my thinking, but I’m sure I’m not alone. Internet gives you the possibility to reach anyone anywhere, but what you really need is a high position on a big site or on a search engine, otherwise it’s so crowded that nobody will see you.