hi guys

[Robert Gichohi]

we have a month so lets get a move on things

[Amadou Daffe]

Ok what technology do you propose we use?
The app should provide at the least the following:

1. A form entry that allows coders to identify themselves by location, skills etc...
2. A map locator that shows where the coders are (base on the entries)
3. A list of identified by username and skills
4. etc...

We can either code from scratch or use existing solutions such as Ushahidi which has a mechanism for people to send their entries using SMS.

Thoughts?

On Apr 30, 2012 1:37 AM, "Robert Gichohi" <robert....@gmail.com> wrote:

we have a month so lets get a move on tidhings

[Robert Gichohi]

Joseph Mokaya said we have to use android as for sms we can talk to him n see i can code the gateway n the sms app... if am not wrong we have a month right?

[Joseph Mokaya]

Use whatever you learnt yesterday, i.e Android or J2me so that it can reinforce what you have learnt

[Amadou Daffe]

I think for the coder locator SMS is best because most african coders do not yet own Android  devices. That may be true in Kenya but not in the rest of Africa :). The other option is a web based interface for those who can access the internet and submit their info

--
Regards
Amadou Daffe

[Robert Gichohi]

cool am game with anything.. although android is growing rapidly n it has a lot of cool things we can add on funtionality of sms n mobile web

[Ian Magero]

i think a website will have to accompany the app or what do you think

 

--
Regards
Amadou Daffe

[Amadou Daffe]

Of course!!. There are two ways to collect the data web and mobile device. We also need a backend Admin to manage the entries.

--
Regards
Amadou Daffe

[Betsy Muriithi]

so we are creating a web interface and a web view for the mobile app?


--
Betsy Muriithi,

0738027179

00506-3292, Nairobi

[Amadou Daffe]

Hi Betsy,

Yes we are. I think for mobile we may create boy a mobile app and mobile web view.

Thoughts?

--
Regards
Amadou Daffe

[Catherine Mugure]

Why the two?Whats the difference?

On Apr 30, 10:52 pm, Amadou Daffe <daf...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Betsy,
>
> Yes we are. I think for mobile we may create boy a mobile app and mobile
> web view.
>
> Thoughts?
>

> On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 3:18 PM, Betsy Muriithi <bnmurii...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > so we are creating a web interface and a web view for the mobile app?
>
> > --

> > *Betsy Muriithi,*
> > *0738027179*
> > *00506-3292, Nairobi*
>
> --
> Regards
> Amadou Daffe

[Catherine Mugure]

Does one give access to users not capable of hosting mobile apps on
their phones while the other does?

[Paul Njaaga]

Hi all,

 

Android is big and contrary to beliefs it is widely used in Africa, Kenya growing exponentially…we use android. The web interface is an additional feature as the app is meant to be published on google play (Android market) meaning it is an android feature.

The question is what information are we looking for from the coders?

Joseph mentioned profiling of coders which I believe would be their bio, their personal details, their location….ideally from my view I think it is like a coder’s forum app where information is shared.

 

My two cents…

[Amadou Daffe]

Hi Paul,

The goal of coder locator is to help identify the number of developers are in Africa or from Africa, map out their location, summarizes their skills, and classify them according Skills, regions, gender, profession etc... 

The value added service of that will be discussed later. At the moment we always get questions such as how many coders are they in Africa, where are they located and what are they skills. A value added services can be in the form of outsourcing for example just saying.

Android is a great platform, I own several devices myself. However, having travel to several other Africa countries, let me assure you that those smartphones are sometimes in-existent in some African countries. However Nokia symbian and other non smartphone OS are ubiquitous across the continent. Kenya and some Eastern countries are special in the sense that telecom has become one of the pillar of the Kenya economic ecosystem. Which justify the investment from companies such as Huewai that introduce Android smartphone such as IDEOs into the Kenya market. If you notice the Android phones on your market are tied in to a telecom provider. The case is not the same in other parts of Africa.

That being said. if we want African coder locator to be inclusive of all Africans we need to be flexible. The fist step before doing any mobile dev, is in my opinion to put in place a backend portal site that will help us store the data of each coder. Then we create web interface to allow developers to identify themselves via web. The second step is now to have an app for each platform Android, Nokia and other to allow those who want to submit their requests via phone to do so. 

This work can be concurrent it does not have to be done separately. One group can handle the phone app and another can handle the web app coupled with the backend.

Some of the data we are looking to capture is:

1. Name or (Nickname)
2. Email
3. Phone
4. City and Country
5. Programming languages (choice of several)
6. Profession (professional, student etc...)
7. Age
8. Gender
9. Maybe some other data you guys think maybe helpfull

I hop this help

Amadou Daffe

--
Regards
Amadou Daffe

[Catherine Mugure]

yeah, on my side, it does. A quick question though, as I am not so familiar with mobile web app, will creating a web app as normally done (PHP, MySQL....etc) allow users to view it on a mobile phone? If not, what is the other option for this?If so, then what language do we use, because they are many?

--
Kind Regards,
Ndururi Catherine Mugure
0773-580173/0723-237234.

[Catherine Mugure]

[Paul Njaaga]

Hi Daffe,

 

Thanks for the clarification and information. I now get the whole concept. In the data required, is the phone data the telephone number, type/model of phone or the OS of the phone?  I think the idea is to get what type of OS is used to be able to group guys in whatever platform they are on..i.e. android, Symbian, windows mobile etc

[Amadou Daffe]

Hi paul
Well I did not think of it that way. The phone for me is more of your phone contact I.e. cellphone or land phone. I am not sure how easy will it be to capture phone os using sms. That may work for smartphone app though. However If you want to capture data about platforms (mobile) that coders used we can ask for that in the registration form.

[Amadou Daffe]

Cat
When develop mobile aware web application you have to design the website layout in a sepcial kind of you no matter what platfrom you develop in PHP included. You need to be able to detect the browser type (mobile or web) and render an appropriate ui accordingly. I can show some examples online if you like

[Ian Magero]

i thought we are basing our market to the whole world not just in africa and the app should work in a way that a potential client can be able to get a programmer easily and be able to link together to find a solution to a problem using technology and i believe any programmer must be able to have access to the internet so the app should work via net

[Robert Gichohi]

hi guys what if we expand our scope and out reach everyone am sure each of us have different skills and language comprehension we decide to use one database i.e a remote server for android J2ME web mobile web n sms because all great applications have a version that makes all users comfortable. just an idea....

[Catherine Mugure]

Hi Amadou, Please do, it will help a lot.

On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 1:14 AM, Amadou Daffe <daf...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Francis Nderitu]

On Monday, April 30, 2012 8:37:17 AM UTC+3, robert gichohi wrote:

we have a month so lets get a move on things

On Monday, April 30, 2012 8:37:17 AM UTC+3, robert gichohi wrote:

we have a month so lets get a move on things

On Monday, April 30, 2012 8:37:17 AM UTC+3, robert gichohi wrote:

we have a month so lets get a move on things

[Francis Nderitu]

hi guys where are you at..have been having exams for the last two weeks?

On Monday, April 30, 2012 8:37:17 AM UTC+3, robert gichohi wrote: