tag:,2008:/1/tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.5686- 2008-07-07T13:46:42Z Comments for Building Web Apps Really Fast: Why Developers are Drawn to Weekend Code-a-thons Movable Type 4.1 tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.5686 2008-02-19T04:10:58Z 2008-02-19T04:15:39Z Weekend Apps: Building Web Apps Isn't Just About Coding A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the emerging phenomenon of weekend code-a-thons in which programmers and designers get together over a short period of time to try to build web apps really fast. We went over some of the different approaches to the weekend code-a-thon and interviewed a participant in the Rails Rumble... Josh Catone http://www.readwriteweb.com/ A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the emerging phenomenon of weekend code-a-thons in which programmers and designers get together over a short period of time to try to build web apps really fast. We went over some of the different approaches to the weekend code-a-thon and interviewed a participant in the Rails Rumble in an attempt to try and figure out why these get togethers are so attractive. An upcoming event in Santa Clara, California called Weekend Apps is taking a slightly different approach and not just focusing on app building, but also about building a sound business.

]]> The approach that Weekend Apps is taking feels not unlike an attempt to condense the spirit of the 3-month Y Combinator mentorship program into a single weekend. In fact, the organizers of the event refer to it as "a weekend incubator on steroids." In addition to building web apps, participants in the free Weekend Apps program will also be treated to a number of seminars and panels by seasoned developers.

Because Weekend Apps is focusing on Facebook applications, the program includes a presentation by Dave Morin, the Senior Platform Manager at Facebook, as well as presentations by a number of developers of popular apps on the social network's platform. The weekend will also play host to a panel discussion entitled "Micropayments in Facebook."

In addition to creating applications, the weekend's focus will also be on getting entrepreneurs and developers up and running with legitimate businesses. There will be an attorney on site to help people incorporate their new businesses and an ad exchange to help new apps get eyeballs. Unlike other weekend code-a-thons, Weekend Apps isn't hung up on developers using prior work. The goal is to get apps launched, not to get apps built quickly.

"The goal is to launch as many startups as possible in a short period of time, and to create a network of entrepreneurs that cooperate and help each other to increase everyone's chances of success," Waleed Abdulla, one of the event's organizers, told us. The organizers of Weekend Apps met at a Startup Weekend (another weekend app building event) and after discussing a class that Stanford University ran last year about building Facebook platform applications, they decided to try their hand at creating something similar on a more condensed scale.

"As we see it, the class owes it success to many types of learning: experts were brought in to talk to the students for short times, great application designers were available full time to the students who had questions, and there was a layer of oversight that was able to spread to the entire class a lesson learned by one group," they write on the Weekend Apps web site. "The biggest problem with the class, is that not many people attend Stanford. This awesome teaching method wasn’t really available to others who wanted to use it."

Weekend Apps will take place February 22nd - 24th, 2008 at The Enterprise Network's Santa Clara Venture Accelerator building. The event has a group on Facebook with over 200 members.

]]> tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.5686-comment:47085 Comment from Dwayne Charrington on 2008-02-18 Dwayne Charrington http://www.dwaynecharrington.com/ Sure coding applications in one weekend may be good for generating buzz and competition, but what happens when we are all of a sudden flooded with rushed, insecure applications that do more harm than good?

Is it possible to code an application in one weekend and have it completely secured for release? Makes me a bit worried that people are coding these apps in one weekend and then just releasing them. Sure they're probably continually working on them, but how does this help secure our information.

The buzz around Facebook is surely attractive enough for a hacker to want to exploit Facebook applications.

Seems a bit worrisome to me.

- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

]]> 2008-02-19T07:00:54Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.5686-comment:47091 Comment from Waleed Abdulla on 2008-02-19 Waleed Abdulla http://weekendapps.com Josh, Thanks for the great coverage. We're super excited about this project and hope to see many successful startups come out of it.

]]> 2008-02-19T09:45:06Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.5686-comment:47092 Comment from Tyler Willis on 2008-02-19 Tyler Willis http://www.tylerhwillis.com Josh - Thanks for the coverage, I hope you'll come down and see how the event goes!

To Dwayne: Your concerns are certainly good ones to have. The majority of successful apps on Facebook take a very iterative development process. Not all problems can be solved this way, but our hope is to spend much of the time teaching people how to continue their development and tweak the live application after a push. The development timeline will always very. RockYou said their average initial development time is 11-48 hours, and they certainly have a lot to lose from an insecure app.

I personally feel as the platform matures, we'll see more complex apps and more complex and lengthy development cycles. But, this weekend I think you'll see every team get value from experiencing development that fast and I think many teams will create products that will show that good developers can create solid products in that amount of time.

Tyler Willis
Organizer (Startup Weekend: SF and Weekend Apps)

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