Droidcon India 2014

It’s 2014. Smartphones are everywhere, the app ecosystem is mature, and breaking into the ranks on the app store is more or less a lost cause. Apps today are becoming just a tunnel or gateway for services/content and are increasingly going freemium or totally free, with business models migrating to cloud-based services and with apps as the content interface. When you are in the market amidst thousands of other apps, gaining visibility for apps has become a major issue.

In 2014, the most exciting mobile data opportunities are from wearables. Your mobile app is the conduit to send data into the cloud and retrieve it back as content.

How do you make this strategy work? #

UI: It is a long way from an idea budding in your mind to the MVP. What are the design constraints invloved in delivering the best interface? At the same time, when your users are on multiple platforms, how do you make your brand identity stand out while complying with platform guidelines?

Sync: IO eats battery and 3G is still spotty. How do you keep content fresh without killing the phone? Is there a design that compensates for bad internet connectivity and reliance on 3rd party apps? Do you need two way sync? How do you make that work and how to manage online and offline sync?

Versioning: When you introduce new functionality, how do you get installed apps updated? Or not break them?

Hardware: Do you make hardware? Do you depend on users having specific hardware?

Privacy: With user data flowing through so many conduits, some of them third party services, how do you make your privacy policy work?

Security: Is your versioning and cloud-based update model making your app a leaky bucket? How do you lock down? Discuss best practices and methods for securing your data, especially when there is a reliance on third party app.

Android wearables and IoT: Innovations in the world of Android based wearables and the Internet of Things

App Demos: Demonstrations, discussions and community engagements around Android Apps.

Come to Droidcon India 2014 to discuss how you’ve tackled each of these issues.

Format #

This year’s edition spans two days of hands-on and conference. We invite proposals for:

• Full-length 40 minute talks
• A crisp 15-minute presentation
• Sponsored sessions, 40 minute duration
• Flash talks of 5 minutes duration. Submissions for flash talks will be accepted during the event
• 45-90 minute Hands-on or demo based tutorial sessions on Android internals
• Demo - Showcase your Android apps, Android based wearables and IoT demos

Criteria to submit #

You must be a practising developer or designer, and must be able to show how your own work has advanced the state of the web in the past year. You are expected to present original work that your peers — this event’s audience — recognise as being notable enough to deserve a stage.

If you are excited about someone’s work and believe it deserves wider recognition, we recommend you contact them and ask them to submit a proposal.

Selection Process #

Proposals will be filtered and shortlisted by an Editorial Panel. We will notify you if your proposal is shortlisted. We urge you to add links to videos / slide decks when submitting proposals. This will help us understand your past speaking experience. Blurbs or blog posts covering the relevance of a particular problem statement and how it is tackled, will help the Editorial Panel better judge your proposals.

Proposers must submit presentation drafts as part of the selection process to ensure that the talk is in line with the theme of the conference, and to help the editorial panel build a strong line-up for the event.

There is only one speaker per session. Entry is free for selected speakers. HasGeek will provide a bursary to cover part of your travel and accommodation in Bangalore. Bursaries are limited and made available to speakers delivering full sessions (40 minutes or longer). As our budget is limited, we will prefer speakers from locations closer home, but will do our best to cover for anyone exceptional. If you are able to raise support for your trip, we will count that as speaker travel sponsorship.

If your proposal is not accepted, you can buy a ticket at the same rate as was available on the day you proposed. We’ll send you a code.

Commitment to Open Source #

HasGeek believes in open source as the binding force of our community. If you are describing a codebase for developers to work with, we’d like it to be available under a permissive open source license. If your software is commercially licensed or available under a combination of commercial and restrictive open source licenses (such as the various forms of the GPL), please consider picking up a sponsorship. We recognize that there are valid reasons for commercial licensing, but ask that you support us in return for giving you an audience. Your session will be marked on the schedule as a sponsored session.