Challenge to inspire innovation and improve mobile experience

The Android Developer Challenge will provide $10 million to developers who build mobile applications for Android, a complete, open, and free mobile platform. The Challenge is designed to support the developer community and spark innovation on the Android platform by awarding cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000 to developers whose applications are picked by a panel of judges.

“We’ve built some interesting applications for Android but the best applications are not here yet and that’s because they’re going to be written by developers,” said Sergey Brin, Co-founder and President, Technology, Google. “We’d like to reward these developers and recognize them as much as possible.”

Android was announced on November 5 by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile industry leaders committed to fostering innovation on mobile phones and offering a better consumer experience. The Alliance will provide developers with a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively. Today, the Alliance released an early look at the Android software developer kit (SDK) that includes the documentation, sample projects, development tools, emulator, and libraries that developers will need to build an Android application. Today’s Android SDK announcement can be found on the Alliance blog: http://android-developers.blogspot.com.

The $10 million total in the Android Developer Challenge will be distributed equally between the Android Developer Challenge I and II. Submissions for Challenge I will be accepted from January 2 through March 3, 2008, and the 50 most promising entries will be recognized by end of March with each receiving $25,000 awards to fund further development. These 50 entries will then be eligible for even greater recognition by applying by May 1, 2008 for 10 awards worth $275,000 each and another ten worth $100,000 each. Recognition for the top apps among those entries will be announced by end of May 2008. Challenge II will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008.

A panel of technology and mobile experts selected from the Open Handset Alliance member organizations and the industry in general will judge all qualifying entries. Awards will be given to the developers whose applications leverage all that the Android platform has to offer in order to provide consumers with the most compelling experiences. Developers retain all intellectual property and other rights to their applications. Interested developers should:

1. Download the SDK at http://code.google.com/android/download.html
2. Build a great app.
3. Submit an application between January 2 and March 3, 2008.

Source : http://googledeveloper.sys-con.com/read/459518.htm

INTED2008 (International Technology, Education and Development Conference)
3 to 5 March 2008
Valencia, Spain

INTED2008 will be an excellent opportunity for professors, researchers and professionals to share the latest innovations and results in the field of Education, Technology and Development. All that, in such an attractive venue: Valencia.

The deadline for abstracts/proposals is 15 November 2007.

Enquiries: inted2008@iated.org
Web address: http://www.iated.org/inted2008
Sponsored by: IATED (International Association of Technology, Education and Development)

The second International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM ‘07) has just reached its end couple days ago, but the third ICDIM (2008) is already in the schedule. Organized by a group of talented associate professors who teach at INSA Lyon, ICDIM’07 was a successful event and recognized by more than 80 participants, as one of the great conferences they have been to. The two well-known International Conference organizers, IEEE and ACM SIGAPP were the two principal ICDIM’07 sponsors.

I was there at the ICDIM’07 as a member of “Local Organiser Team” A lot of PhD students like me were there too. Thus, I would like to shout out to Claudia, Sana, Tiago, Sodki, Atika, Sonia, Kebaili, Layth… who else? I’m sorry guys if I forgot to mention someone’s name here We had so much fun, I have to tell you that, even we had to be responsible and serious with our assigned tasks. Besides running back and forth during the conference, we had also attended some conference sessions, where most of the presentations were very interesting. Yet, I would like to thank to Mr. Youakim Badr for allowing us to be apart of the team and for teaching us new things, which can be of benefit to our future career.

Left to right : Me, Tiago, Claudia, Sana, Kebaili, Atika