We’ve managed to finalize the details for the first meeting, to happen on Saturday August 21st at 2:00pm. The location is Dimension 7 Studios at 150 Folsom Street in San Francisco. Everyone remember to find Mike O’Rourke and let him know how much he rocks for hooking us up with space for the meeting. The presentation will be given by Bill Day on “J2ME at Five: Where We’ve Been, and Where We’ll Be at Ten” (abstract below). Everyone remember to snag Russ and thank him for both getting this thing going and contacting Bill for us. I’m looking forward to seeing all of you there!!

Java technology took the wireless world by storm when the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) was first introduced for mobile devices, starting with the KVM at the JavaOne conference in June 1999.

Much has happened in the last five years. More than 120 million MIDP 1.0 devices are in consumers hands and MIDP 2.0 devices are now shipping in volume. Many interesting wireless Java applications are in daily use. J2ME technology-based wireless games continue to draw eyeballs and twitching thumbs the world over.

This session examines the history and technical merits of J2ME technologies that have allowed it to succeed over the past five years. We should have plenty of time after the presentation for discussion and extended Q&A where we’ll examine what needs to happen (technology, business, and otherwise) for the J2ME platform to be even more successful in its next five
years.

Russ had mentioned a group in Ottawa that was promoting development of the regional wireless industry.

Checked it out–the group’s website is down (http://www.ottawawirelesscluster.com/) but came across a report that Deloitte and Touche did on their behalf:
http://www.ottawaregion.com/pdfs/cluster_dir/Wireless%20Survey.pdf

Another group doing something similar is WinBC–promoting the wireless industry up in British Columbia. http://www.winbc.org/index1.jsp

Both groups have some history, are relatively formalized, and appear to mix both public and private-sector support. But interesting stuff to look at!

Thanks much!

We’re trying to gather some feedback with regard to when we’ll have the first BAMF meeting. The two current contenders are 2:00pm on Saturday August 21st and 6:00pm on Tuesday August 24th. Please leave a comment here with your preference. If you can’t make it either date please let us know also. If you’re having trouble posting comments here but want to give some feedback, please mail miker@bitsplitter.net and I’ll make sure your input gets represented.

Small but good meet-up at the Triple Rock on Saturday. After introductions and some general industry talk, we moved to discussion of how the Bay Area Mobility Forum could be effective and some first steps. We decided that this isn’t about organizing a conference, or un-conference, at least not yet. All of us valued the informal information exchange we were already having, wanted to continue that, but wanted more structure as well.

The current thinking is for some monthly meet-ups. Russ volunteered his company facility (thanks Russ!), and will be lining up the first speaker, probably a contact of his at Nokia. The format, at least for the first meeting, will be a pre-announced speaker and topic for the first half, and informal discussion time afterward. Another possible format for some meetings is to have 3-4 people each put together a 10-15 minute talk on a relavent area of personal expertise and passion. This could lead to a natural breakup into informal discussion clusters as the second part of the meet-up too.

We were pretty jazzed on Saturday, and all felt the benefit of exchanging different perspectives for just that short time. I think this is going to be great! The first meeting date will be announced once the speaker is confirmed (go Russ, go).

Can all of you that are planning on meeting up at Triple Rock on Saturday make it for lunch at noon? This would be a better time for me (and we could have some food to absorb the beer…). Please confirm as a comment that you will attend, and can be at the pub at noon.