Mashing-up and developing with Orange

This event - held at the Orange Labs offices in San Francisco - was the first opportunity to discuss the area of web 2.0 with our members.The event went down very well, and provided a great platform for widget and API development.

As so much interest has been shown in this area by our members, we'll be holding events in London, Paris and Barcelona between now and the end of the year, to help

(and learn from!) our European members.

We're putting the details together now, so why not let us know what you want from us through an event such as this, by sending an email to developers@orange.com with
'mash-up' in the subject line. In the body of the email let us know what you'd want to come away with, either in a commercial capacity, developer capacity or both. If you send us an email, we'll – of course – let you know as soon as the dates have been confirmed.

So, what was it all about?

And the results?

More about the two days…

Download the presentations

What next?

So, what was it all about?

Orange recently extended its reach into the area of
web 2.0 with the launch of Bubbletop (its webtop product) and Pikeo (its photo sharing product).

Working with the relevant Orange teams in San Francisco, France and the UK, we at Orange Partner wanted to start reaching out to our members to help them understand the area (and provide us with valuable feedback), with a view to both parties being able to benefit from the development of widgets for Bubbletop and mash-ups for Pikeo.

We'd like to thank all those who came along – both experienced developers, and those wanting to learn.

Your feedback was invaluable, and we hope the support we gave was of use to you too.

If you are interested in attending further events just send an email to
developers@orange.com with 'web 2.0' in the subject line and we'll let you know as soon as the dates have been confirmed.

A couple of weeks before the event we made the Bubbletop Foundry available to interested parties (http://dev.bubbletop.com).
And then we made the Pikeo developer site available for the first time at the event itself (http://dev.pikeo.com)

Developers came along to the 'Orange C0ding C4mp' on Saturday 1st August to get an overview of the developer sites, and then to start coding and developing widgets!

Those wanting a more commercial view of the France Telecom Group aims and ambitions in the area of web 2.0, members came to the 'Orange Open House' which took place the following Monday.

'I found the event to be very useful! I actually have limited experience with coding and have never before created a widget, so to leave the room with a working widget in a few hours time was very exciting! The Bubbletop framework allows developers to forget technical details of web development and focus on content, which is the most valuable part of any application.'

(Sean Stauth - mashing-up and developing with Orange, San Francisco 2007)

(back to top)

And the results?

Saturday was buzzing as developers worked intensely to create a wealth of widgets, assisted by the Orange, Bubbletop and Pikeo design and development teams (in particular Virginie, Vincent, Ben and Phil).

take a look at some photos from the event (hosted on Pikeo of course!)

After the hours of hard work some 14 finished widgets were created and presented to a judging panel by the end of the day.

The quality of widgets was outstanding and short-listing winners was a difficult task.

The prizes were awarded to...

1st prize - 'Jackson Hole Ski Resort' widget by Sean Stauth and Dan Sharoni
winning prize: Apple MacBook widget type: information what is it? Comprising of two live 'webcam' shots of the Jackson Hole WY resort, current snow conditions, a weather map and a 'picture of the day', this widget demonstrates the value that can be created from bringing together disparate data sources into a simple widget to create a convenient centralized experience around a single theme or topic (in this case ski conditions in Jackson Hole). This widget also has the potential for a number of different monetization strategies, including affiliate links to up sell ski passes and vacations.
2nd prize - 'Cheeze' widget by Willy Wong
winning prize: Apple TV widget type: application associated with a larger application what is it? The Cheeze widget displays and manages photos sent via your camera phone or emailed from your desktop. It uses email to manage the photos and to facilitate collaboration through sending the photos to family and friends. This widget could conceivably be hooked into Pikeo to provide further functionality.
3rd prize - 'Islamic Prayer' widget by Qirfiraz Siddique
winning prize: Apple Ipod widget type: accessory what is it? Muslim faithfuls need to pray 5 times daily, in five specific slices of time, which depend upon the sunset & sunrise timings of their current location. The widget is designed to automatically detect the location (of a computer or cellular handset), and thus is able to inform user about the correct timings of these prayers. This widget also has the potential to give driving directions to the local mosque and 'halal' restaurants in the area.

(back to top)

More about the two days...

Saturday 4th August: 'Orange C0ding C4mp'
Saturday was a hands on coding camp that gave a crash course into developing mash-ups and widgets with the Bubbletop Foundry and Pikeo API.

here's Saturday's agenda

Monday 6th August: 'Orange Open House'
Monday was an open house session that gave an insight into what we're doing with web 2.0, how and why.

We shared our thoughts with you, explain our rationale, introduce some concepts for discussion, gained your views, and took a look at the widgets and integrated apps produced by the Saturday group.

here's Monday's agenda

Download the presentations

What are we up to in the world of web 2.0	Presented by Pascal Thomas - VP NExT.com Download presentation
What's in it for you?	Presented by Satya Mallya - Orange Labs, San Francicso Download presentation
Bubbletop and Bubbletop Foundry	Presented by Ben Metcalfe - Platform Evangelist, Bubbletop Download presentation
Pikeo and its developer site	Presented by Vincent Roussilhon - Orange Labs, San Francicso Download presentation

(back to top)

What next?

This event was the first chance we had to explain what's going on with France Telecom Group and the world of web 2.0, and to gain your valuable feedback / input into widget / mash-up creation opportunities with the first of our social networking products.

As mentioned earlier, the event was the first opportunity to discuss the area of web 2.0 with our members, and we have announced a full programme of activities across Europe, initiated as a result of the success of the event.
find out more about the mash-ups in Europe

Meanwhile, take a look at the Bubbletop Foundry and the Pikeo developer site as they're pretty self-explanatory, and there are a whole host of people behind-the-scenes just waiting to help you to use them!

(back to top)

What is Bubbletop?

Bubbletop allows end-users to create a personalised view of the Web and keep on top of what interests them.

They can view content that they're interested in by personalising it in their own specific way. End-users can design organise, access, slice, re-slice, re-discover the content they're interested in so that they can keep up-to-date in a fast and easy fashion that suits them.

Visit www.bubbletop.com

What is Pikeo?

Pikeo is a photo sharing website and an online community platform.

Users can share their photos with either the entire community of users or their friends and family. A "who", "what" and "where" tagging is available for users to better label their pictures. Visitors will discover photos using a search engine or a map of the world with geo-localized pictures, and by following a network of contacts, tags, and home pages. In addition to being a Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service can widely be used by bloggers as a photo repository.

Visit www.pikeo.com

(back to top)