Google Developers Down Under: Hackathons, Workshops, & More!

As the support engineer for the Google Maps API, part of my role is to participate in developer events - either by speaking, organising or just listening. After three months in Sydney, I've had the opportunity to become fully immersed in the developer culture in Australia, and it's been so much fun that I'm tempted to stay in this beautiful city forever.

Here's a roundup of some of the recent events:

• BarCamp Sydney: BarCamps are "unconferences", which means there's no set agenda - attendees scribble what they want to present on paper on the wall, and go to whatever looks most interesting (or just have debates in the halls). BarCamp Sydney was the epitome of an unconference, with sessions ranging from learning Drupal to being hypnotised (I failed - too giggly). I gave talks about HTML 5 and Google App Engine.
  

• OSDC: The Open Source Developers Conference is a week-long conference with hundreds of developers from all over Australia (and some from the US, too). Google ran a hackathon the day before the conference, covering OpenSocial/Orkut, Open Mapping APIs, and Google App Engine. My favourite app to come out of it was "Bean There", an Orkut app that mapped all your favorite coffee stops.
  

• iGoogle Hackathon: On a sunny Saturday, 12 developers sacrificed precious beach time and came to the Google Sydney office to hack in the iGoogle OpenSocial developer sandbox. The attendees ranged from freelance contractors to employees of Australian startups like Atlassian, Momentville and Wotif. Most attendees had heard of iGoogle and OpenSocial but hadn't used either platform. We started off with a presentation on using the OpenSocial APIs and socialising existing apps. Then, after five hours of hacking, the developers presented their creations over ice-cream and beer. The applications covered a variety of concepts, like displaying Flickr albums, intersections of friends and upcoming concerts in the area.
  

• StartupCamp Sydney: At this event, developers, marketers and designers came together for a weekend of coding and pitching a startup - from scratch! The weekend produced six websites, and 36 completely exhausted but satisfied individuals (including myself). A number of the startups used Google developer tools: Activity Horizon and MyPetNeedsLove used the Google Maps API to plot events and love-hungry pets, respectively, whereas ThreeFeeds used the Google AJAX Search & Feeds API both on the client and server sides.
  

And there's more to come in the next few months:

• Google Developer Workshops: Over six weeks, we'll have four talks/codelabs at the Google Sydney office, each covering a different Google developer product. The series kicked off this week with a session on the Google Maps API for Flash, and continues next week with a session on Gears (the technology powering GMail offline!). For more information and registration, visit this website.
  

• JAOO Sydney/Brisbane: At this dual-city developer conference, there'll be two talks from Googlers: "API Design" by Joshua Bloch, and "Google App Engine: Building an App the Googley Way" by Pamela Fox. Pending enough interest, there may also be a half-day workshop on using the Google Maps APIs. (So if you're attending, make sure to sign up!)
  

Thanks to all the Sydney developers for welcoming me and teaching me the Aussie way (tweetups, wedges and, of course, beer). For more information about what's going on in this side of the world, subscribe to the APAC Developer Blog.

BarCamp Sydney

Brain storming at Startup Camp

Posted by Pamela Fox, Developer Programs Engineer

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More eye candy for iGoogle

In case you're looking for some more personality to add to your iGoogle page, we've just unveiled a fresh collection of iGoogle artist themes in Australia -- an ongoing project we launched in April for which we invited world-class artists to design dynamic themes for your iGoogle homepage.

The new collection features designs from 28 leading artists from the worlds of fashion and music, such as top fashion designers Anna Sui, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Burberry, Gucci, Havaianas, Jimmy Choo, kate spade, Paul Frank, Vera Wang and many more -- and from musicians like Keith Urban, Radiohead, and Bob Dylan. So depending on what you're interested in, there's lots of great art to choose from to suit your personality, taste or mood.









We hope this new collection of themes gives you more choices so your iGoogle page reflects your personal style. Changing it is easy and requires only a few clicks. If you have a hard time selecting just one, add the sampler theme, which displays a different artist every day.

Stay tuned as we continue to collaborate with more artists from Australia and from around the world.

Posted by Julian Sonego, Consumer Marketing Manager

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Fill 'er up

With rising fuel prices increasingly factoring into our driving decisions, Australians are feeling our fair share of pain at the petrol pump.

To help Australians get the best value for their fuel dollars, Google Australia has partnered with Motormouth to help provide everyone with easily accessible information about petrol prices. We've developed an iGoogle gadget (here) that allows you to find out the price of various fuel types across parts of major metro areas in Australia.

You can quickly see the prices for your area in a list or on Google Maps. Prices are updated twice daily during the week and once on Sundays by Motormouth's scouts who report the prices from service station price boards.

Currently, over 50% of metropolitan service stations are covered, which hopefully include a few near you.

With the daily work of these petrol price scouts now accessible from your personalised iGoogle homepage, we hope this handy tool will go some way to keeping you informed and ensuring that you're not over-paying at the pump (note that prices can change at any time, except in Perth where they're locked for 24 hours).

Of course, the best way to reduce your fuel bill would be to walk, cycle or catch public transport to wherever you're going. Google Maps and, in Perth, Google Transit, can help you with that.

Now go and get the keys to the Cortina so you can move the Camira so Dad can get the Torana out of the driveway and fill up the Commodore. This gadget will pay for itself.



Posted by Julian Sonego, Consumer Marketing Manager

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From the cave to the web

Posted by Julian Sonego, Consumer Marketing Manager

In early times, cavemen used to etch out rock carvings to either tell stories or simply because they thought their pictures looked cool and they had a bare wall to fill.

More contemporary media are a little different - film, canvas, paper, fabric - but the intention is (usually) the same, which begs the question, what about the web? Well, wonder no more.

Today, Google is very proud to announce the launch of a global collaboration with almost 70 artists who have created unique, dynamic iGoogle themes for our users. Some of the world's best known painters, musicians, actors, designers, photographers and more participated in this initiative, including Australian names such as Anne Geddes, Akira Isogawa, John Butler, Missy Higgins, Reg Mombassa, Michael Leunig, Rolf Harris, Ken Done and even The Wiggles.

You'll be able to find their art along with global "up and comers" such as Jackie Chan, the Beastie Boys, Dolce and Gabbana, Jeff Koons, Coldplay Oscar de la Renta and Philippe Starck.

As you may know, iGoogle has always provided you with great tools to access and arrange the content you want on your homepage. Just like a person's book or music collection is an extension of their personality, a user's iGoogle page is also a reflection of their loves and interests, both in terms of content, and now, visually. Please, spend some time and stroll through our gallery of world class art, all from the comfort of your seat and help us celebrate the web as the newest form of artistic medium.

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Rugby World Cup on iGoogle

Posted by James Toepfer, Industry Marketing Manager - Technology

As you've read below, we have a large contingent of Wallabies fans at Google Australia.

For rugby fans, we have great news. With the World Cup underway (and a crushing victory over Japan in the books), you can follow all the action by visiting www.google.com.au/rugby2007.

Gadgets containing live scores, team information, rugby news, stadium locations, local information, rugby fan videos, results and rankings are all available by clicking on the link to add the “Rugby 2007” tab to your personalised homepage. The Rugby 2007 tab then becomes a part of your personalised iGoogle page, which will appear whenever you visit Google.


There's also a gadget called “Make some noise”. It lets you encourage your team (and makes your allegiances clear to your co-workers) by clicking on its flag. The winning team is the one that scores the greatest number of clicks.

So make some noise for the Wallabies and keep up with the latest on the Rugby World Cup with Google!

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Express yourself with iGoogle

Posted by Christine Knight, Maximiser Associate

You may have noticed that we like to keep designs simple. That doesn't mean you have to, though. With Google Personalised Homepage, you can add links, news, videos – whatever you like – to your own Google homepage. (I've set my page up to include Google News Australia, the Chaser, World Clocks, Quotes of the Day, Sticky Note and more).

And Google has just got a lot more personal in Australia with some exciting news today.

First, we've renamed Personalised Homepage "iGoogle", reflecting your own personalisation and ownership of your homepage.

But more importantly, now Australians can further personalise iGoogle with six different themes. Go to www.google.com.au/ig to check them out. Each theme is fun and dynamic, changing to match the weather or time of day. So when it's raining outside (hopefully over the Murray-Darling and our dams), you might see characters don their wet weather gear (or just stand there getting wet). When the sun is setting outside your office window, you might notice a sunset over the beach to make that Whitsundays holiday seem just a bit closer.

But we're not content to rest on our laurels. We want to make an Aussie-specific theme available to iGoogle users here and everywhere. So we want your suggestions. A game of beach cricket? A famous Aussie painting? An outback scene? If you have a unique idea for an Aussie iGoogle theme, email us. (Brief thoughts are ideal; no artwork necessary!). We'll post the best ideas here and work to make an Aussie theme available.

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