The first meeting of 2010 meeting will take place in Gent on monday the 25th of January. Thanks to Thomas Bouve and the people at IBBT we are able to use their offices again for this meeting. The offices of IBBT are located at Zuiderpoort Office Park, Gaston Crommenlaan 8 (bus 102), B-9050 Gent-Ledeberg. You can find the exact location on Google Maps.

This meeting is a great opportunity to meet up with other Cocoa Heads BE enthousiasts. The schedule for this meeting looks as follows :

• 08:00 PM : As requested during the previous meeting, we have moved the starting time to 8 PM in order for everyone to get here.
• 08:15 PM : Steven Vandeweghe of Blue Crowbar Software has prepared a session on Core Image.
• 09:00 PM : We will be using the remaining time to get to know eachoter as quite a few members of the community have suggested. Everyone will get a few minutes to present who they are, what they do, if they are Mac or iPhone developers, what apps they have created and what they expect from CocoaHeads Belgium.

You can find more information on CocoaHeads Belgium a the CocoaHeads Belgium website, in the CocoaHeads Google Groups and I even created a Linked In group for CocoaHeads Belgium.

Registration for this Meeting can be done on the Eventbrite page. If you have suggestions for future sessions or are willing to give a session, that would be the perfect time to let us know.

Regards,

Stefaan Lesage

This meeting is a great opportunity to meet up with other Cocoa Heads BE enthousiasts. The schedule for this meeting looks as follows :

• 08:00 PM : As requested during the previous meeting, we have moved the starting time to 8 PM in order for everyone to get here.
• 08:15 PM : Cytil Godefroy has prepared a session on the CLANG static ananlyzer, how it is integrated in XCode and how you can benefit from it. He will also talk a little about some ‘Gotchas’ when using the CLANG static analyzer
• 09:00 PM : We will be using the remaining time to get to know eachoter as quite a few members of the community have suggested. Everyone will get a few minutes to present who they are, what they do, if they are Mac or iPhone developers, what apps they have created and what they expect from CocoaHeads Belgium.

You can find more information on CocoaHeads Belgium a the CocoaHeads Belgium website, in the CocoaHeads Google Groups and I even created a Linked In group for CocoaHeads Belgium.

Registration for the November Meeting can be done on the Eventbrite page. If you have suggestions for future sessions or are willing to give a session, that would be the perfect time to let us know.

Regards,

Stefaan Lesage

This article is hopefully the start of a great series of articles in which we will focus on one of the Developers in our CocoaHeads Belgium Community. Apparently we have a big an thriving community of Mac and iPhone developers here in Belgium. In this first article we will be putting the spotlight on Bert Timmermans, the developer behind the Keypoint iPhone Application.

Bert was the first Developer in our Community who was willing to answer a few questions for us, and this is what he had to say :

Who are you and what’s your experience with Mac / iPhone development ?

I am Bert Timmermans and I am a master student Communication Multimedia and design. My experience with real iPhone development is really limited because I used Phonegap to create my first App Store app. With Phonegap you can create applications in HTML and javascript and there is no need to get really into cocoa.

I have to say this is not a perfect solution because the performance is not the same as a full native iPhone app.

What is your application ?

Main Menu

My application is named Keypoint and is my first iPhone Application and is currently available in the iPhone App Store.

Keypoint is the perfect tool to quickly create fast presentations on the go. You can use one of the 8 high quality themes to create a presentation in no time. Afterwards you can publish the presentation online in just one touch, share it with friends or include it into your personal website or blog.

What problems does it solve ?

Add Presentation

Keypoint is a very unique app because it is the only app that lets you create presentations on the iPhone. The goal of Keypoint is to create fast presentations structures on the go and use the export to complete your presentation.

Keypoint achieves that by allowing you to export your Keypoint presentation to a Keynote file, and in the future other file types might be added as well.

Where / How did you get the idea for Keypoint ?

Keypoint started out as a small experiment to create a web application. Eventually I created 3 public beta’s of the webapplication. Keypoint was my way to learn to develop/design for the iPhone.

How did the product evolve from the basic idea to it’s current state ?

When the product evolved the idea stayed. The main goal was to create presentations fast and easy on your phone and that you can use this on your desktop.

What were some of the Technical issues you encountered during the Development Cycle ?

Like I already mentioned Keypoint was build using Phonegap. So the technology behind Keypoint was based on HTML(5), javascript and CSS. The problem with Phonegap is that the performance is not as good as a fully cocoa app, this can limit you in interface and design issues.

How did the User Interface evolve into it’s current state ?

The goal of the interfaces was to make it as easy as possible to create your presentations. You will notice that app and interface evolved through the beta and final release. (see images)

Export

Are there any specific features which you think are missing in other applications ?

The features of Keypoint are still very basic but I am hoping to put some more time into it so I can work on those. So things like Powerpoint and PDF export are still under construction. But then again is Keypoint the only app to give you the option to create presentation.

Where can we find more information about the Application ? Where can people go to download a trial / buy the application ?

You can find more info at http://www.keypointapp.com, and the application is available for purchase in the iPhone App Store. If needed you can still contact me using the contact button on the Keypoint website.

Screenshots

• 08:00 PM : As requested during the previous meeting, we have moved the starting time to 8 PM in order for everyone to get here.
• 08:15 PM : CocoaHeads Belgium Status up date (What has been done so far, what still needs to be done, and how can you help). This shouldn’t take a lot longer than 15 minutes, but we did plan half an hour just in case.
• 08:45 PM : Stephane Winnepenninckx has prepared a session about the iPhone Bootcamp courses at The Big Nerd Ranch. During his session he will tell us everything we need to know about the iPhone Bootcamp and lots more.
• 09:30 PM : Feedback. Well if there is still some time it would be a good idea to hear what the CocoaHeads BE community think of our efforts so far.

Feel free to check out this website, the CocoaHeads Belgium Google Groups and the Linked In group for CocoaHeads Belgium.

Registration for the October Meeting can be done on the Eventbrite page. If you have suggestions for future sessions or are willing to give a session, that would be the perfect time to let us know.

Regards,

Stefaan Lesage

Thanks to the people at IBBT we are able to host the meeting at their venue again !

The date will be picked based on the feedback we get form the Doodle we set up earlier today. If you are interested in joining us, please help us pick a date using the Doodle Poll.

We are looking for some people who are willing to give a Session on a topic related to Mac or iPhone development. If you are willing to give a session, please let us know. You can post a comment on this post or use our Google Group to let us know about the session your are willing to give. Sessions can be Technical or non Technical as long as they are related to Cocoa Development.

We will keep the website updated with the Program for the October meeting.

We are hoping to have a lot of attendees and some interesting sessions to give at the October Meeting. Looking forward to see you all back again.

Regards,

Stefaan

First of all, I would like to thank all attendees for showing up. We had about 50 people from all over the country joining us on this Founding / Brainstorm Meeting. For those who couldn’t make it, or didn’t know about this initiative, no worries, we will be putting all information online anyway.

I have to admit it all started a bit chaotic. There were some Name Tags / Labels available, but I should have been there to welcome each attendee individually. But as I mentioned during the meeting, I don’t fear mistakes, since I can always learn something from them. Hopefully we can get organized a bit more for our next meeting.

We started this Founding Meeting with a little presentation on some of the Ideas I had for CocoaHeads Belgium. If you want to have another look at the presentation, I made it available on SlideShare : http://www.slideshare.net/StefaanLesage/cocoa-heads-belgium-founding-meeting.

But as I mentioned during the meeting as well CocoaHeads Belgium isn’t just me. It’s all about the community. If enough people in the CocoaHeads Belgium community are asking for something, then there is a real need for it, and we should try to figure out how CocoaHeads Belgium can help the community to get those things they are asking.

After the little presentation the Attendees were invited to Brainstorm together and try to come up with some ideas of things they would like to see in the CocoaHeads Belgium community. It started a bit slow, but gradually I heard some pretty good ideas / initiatives.

I have to agree with most of the attendees when they mentioned that it might be difficult to get something done as a single developer, but as a community we might be able to open doors in the future. It will be hard as a starting community, but the bigger and better organized we get, the easier it might become.

Here is a small list of things which were mentioned during the Brainstorm Session :

• It might be easier for users to give feedback in a Forum or Mailing list. It does actually give the community members the ability to think about a few things and give feedback at a later point.
• It would be interesting if we had some kind of Profiles for the attendees / members of the CocoaHeads Belgium Community. This could include general info like Name, First name, Website.
• Additionally it would be quite interesting if we could add other things like : Mac / iPhone Developer, Novice / Advanced / Expert, Twitter Handle, Email, Website, Company, Applications you are creating or have already created. One side note here is that users should be able to make the additional information public or not. It’s indeed great to have all that info for reference and for use by the CocoaHeads Belgium community, but some people might not be too keen to release that info to the ‘big’ public.
• List of applications created by CocoaHeads Belgium developers.
• Additional information about how to get your product out there, legal / copyright support, … Generally most of the things the average developer doesn’t think about.
• Resources on the Website + in the Mailing List. This could be anything, Books, Podcasts, Websites, Tutorials, Courses, …
• This wasn’t mentioned in the session, but it was something I thought about when writing out the notes. Maybe it would be a good idea to ‘Tag’ interesting information on Delicious using a tag like ‘CocoaHeadsBE’ ? That way we could already gather a lot of information / resources as well.
• It would be nice if we could convince some public services to open up their data / API’s to developers. It’s hard to convince a company like the NMBS to share their data when you’re only one developer, but if the community grows and gets stronger, it might be easier to convince them as a groups or CocoaHeads Belgium Community.
  Wouldn’t it be great if we could write apps which simply accessed data from the NMBS, De Lijn, Libraries, Universities, Cultural Centres, …
• We could collect some data ourselves, for example Open Street Maps, Feedbase, …
• Create some kind of Code Base for CocoaHeads Belgium where we could show each other how we solved a specific problem. Share code / tips and tricks and maybe even help each other with individual projects ?
• Many developers are creating applications around the same ‘theme’ or ‘topic’ (e.g. Twitter Clients). It would be great if we could consolidate similar efforts, and maybe get some developers in the CocoaHeads Belgium Community to work together.
• Keep a list of existing API’s for reference purposes (Facebook API, Twitter API, Fiendfeed API, …)
• Open Source apps by the CocoaHeadsBE community for the CocoaHeadsBE community. Links to public repositories (Mat Gemmel, Simon, …)
• Tutorials on Unit Testing / Code Testing.
• Share Hidden Gems in the Cocoa FrameWork
• Other things you are doing, ideas about your projects
• It would be a good idea if we could create sessions aimed at Beginner / Expert / Wizzy Cocoa Devs
• Open the sessions up for Foreign speakers. You never know someone from CocoaHeads US is in Belgium and wants to hop in on one of our Meetins.
• Video taping the sessions would be good for those who couldn’t make it to the live session. That way they still have access to the information shared during that session.
• NSConference in the UK. Get in touch, maybe do something together ???
• CocoaHeads Amsterdam, Get in touch !
• Big Nerd Ranch, get in touch, try to get a discount Apparently both the Atlanta / Germany courses were very well received by those devs in our CocoaHeads Belgium community who had the opportunity to follow one of the courses.
• Once we get bigger and have gained some credibility as CocoaHeads Belgium, we could maybe host a local Cocoa / CocoaTouch conference.

Some questions which were raised during the session :

• Who pays the hosting bill ? Well, no worries, that has been taken care of for another 2 years !
• Who pays for catering / drinks / food on the next CocoaHeads Belgium meeting ? Well if we can find sponsors, that would be great. But if we can’t why not just bring our own drinks / snacks along ?
• What about sessions in other locations ? Well, if we can find a venue in Brussels for example, we could hold sessions there as well. The people of IBBT in Ghent have been so kind to let us use their offices, and they have told us they would be happy to do it again. Meanwhile they questions has also been raised to someone at Apple (yes indeed, we had someone from Apple Belgium in the audience), and he is willing to check if we could use their venue in Brussels !!! Woooohooo :=)
• When will the next meeting take place ? Well we had a little vote and most of the audience was find with mondays, but we will set up a doodle thingie in order to let everyone vote. If we could do it the second week of the month, that would be great. If we need 2 meetings in the future, we could alwasy do one for novices and one for experts ?
• Who is CocoaHeads Belgium ? Well, it not me, it’s not IBBT, it’s US. If we need a spokesman to the outside world, I’m willing to do that of course. CocoaHeads Belgium isn’t supposed to be my ‘personal project’, but a ‘Community Project’, I just happened to be the guy who put it in motion

Ideas for Presentations :

Some of you gave some ideas for presentations on the next meeting (sorry, forgot to write down your names), so I’m going to add a list of those as well :

• Session about Desing Patterns, or Patterns in general and how they are used in the Cocoa / CocoaTouch world.
• Session about your experiences at the Big Nerd Ranch.
• Session about OpenGL / iPhone

Well, I hope I didn’t miss anything. If I did, or if you have other good ideas, feel free to post them on the Website as a comment to this Blog Post.

I did already set up a Google Group as well for CocoaHeads Belgium, so feel free to start using it (do we need moderators for that ?). You can find the Google Groups page at http://groups.google.com/group/cocoaheadsbe and make sure to register as well. We will probably be using this group a lot to send some information around.

Final Note

If anyone is thinks he can help us out with one of the ideas mentioned in this topic, please do contact us. If you still have more ideas … well contact us as well. There is a real need for a CocoaHeads Belgium, and I’m sure that we can make it happen if we all work on it together.

Regards,

Stefaan