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Roadmap

Bobby Richter edited this page May 2, 2014 · 17 revisions

Goals

  • Provide the quintessential mobile webmaking platform, fully integrated as a Webmaker tool.
  • Grow awareness for using rapid-feedback mobile technology to replace/augment tasks that affect livelihood.
  • Create a global community running workshops and contributing apps, components, or design feedback.
  • By mid-2015...
  • 100,000 first apps published
  • 100,000 dollars raised
  • 1000 events
  • 100 contributions

Mobile Webmaking Platform

Mobile making is scarce, and mobile web-making is virtually non-existent. Appmaker can pave the way as a platform for building web content on mobile devices, for mobile devices.

Rapid Feedback and Apps for Livelihood

In the foreseeable future, it's unlikely that a tool like Appmaker will be able to build the next fully bespoke game of Angry Birds caliber. A more reasonable and more useful goal is for Appmaker to be a tool for rapid development and sharing of ideas realized on mobile devices. People should be able to quickly construct an app for a specific circumstance, geography, time, or social group, without appealing to the people who have technology expertise.

Global Community

Being a useful tool for a web-scale community means that people need to help us design and engineer the platform we want to be a part of.

Long-Term Goals

  • Appmaker works in areas where low-connectivity is a concern
  • Appmaker can be deployed as a part of "Webmaker in a box"
  • Appmaker apps are a part of a distributed, federated marketplace

2014 Roadmap

Get Appmaker working. Provide templates, user stories in a consistent, cross-platform, bug-free environment. Harvest feedback.

Run Maker Party events and workshops; build collaborative features. Grow community leadership. Prototype mobile-first experience.

Q4 2014: Celebrate

Bring the "best-of" to MozFest.

Q2 2014 Build and Prepare

Themes and Scheduling

May

Data management, new demos/templates, publishing, whimsical components

June

Feedback system, teaching kit, webmaker integration

What we've done:

What needs doing:

  • (P0) A github issues cleanhouse
  • (P1) Nested components
  • (P1) Data component suite (first pass)
  • (P1) PayPal prototype integration (server-side & component)
  • (P2) Data management infrastructure
  • (P2) Whimsy components
  • (P2) Game template (w/ whimsy components)
  • (P2) Teaching kit (spec: https://github.com/mozilla-appmaker/appmaker/wiki/Intro-Teaching-Kit-draft)
  • (P2) Branding
  • (P2) Design for more channels
  • (P2) MakeAPI integration
  • (P2) Feedback system
  • (P3) webmaker.org presence
  • (P3) Template app refresh (demo apps)

What's not fitting yet...

  • Move the Web Literacy narrative forward for making on mobile. Need a track record and statements from rest of ecosystem about why it will work, and steps to take.
  • Locale-specific technology focus program plans that have dependencies on gathering important data-gathering pilot projects
  • Full TogetherJS integration as a communication tool for users making the same app

Features and Focus

Product

  • Publishing apps with Appmaker is quick, simple, and reliable
  • Published apps work flawlessly on Chrome and Firefox on Android and FFOS
  • Publishing and user management rely on Webmaker ecosystem: MakeAPI and Webmaker Login
  • Users are able to give feedback inside Appmaker (bugs/components/apps)
  • Published app urls are [app-name].[username].apps.webmaker.org
  • Designer is hosted from webmaker domain (apps.webmaker.org)
  • Website is refreshed, with focus on driving first-published-apps through compelling user stories
  • Metrics dashboard measures user and contributor activity
  • Contributors can write/edit/fork components from designer using Brackets

Narrative

  • There are 5 user stories accompanied by template apps to guide curious users
  • Fundraising and advocacy models are documented
  • Examples and documentation are written to show that throw-away apps are good for learning through rapid feedback, and useful in hyper-local contexts

Community

  • Reps from India, Japan, Brazil, EU run pilot contribution workshops to generate feedback, build sense of ownership in community, and draw out key contributors
  • Contributed components directory exists
  • Two Appmaker teaching kits exist: introductory (paper prototyping) & advanced (data components)
  • UNESCO YouthMobile orgs (e.g. FOSS Asia, Apps for Good, Technovation) are engaged and run Maker Party events

Partnerships & Funding

  • Run pilot projects and collect demographic feedback in Brazil LAN houses with help from the Ford Foundation
  • Work with payment providers to develop a simple payment infrastructure for apps and their components
  • Run fundraising and advocacy workshops with UNICEF

Responsibilities

Core

  • Ensure that designing, publishing, and giving feedback are smooth and consistent experiences
  • Produce 5 template apps (w/ necessary components) to support user stories and demos
  • Implement simple TogetherJS integration

MoFo Team

  • Help with implementation and deployment of Webmaker integration
  • Integrate Appmaker into Maker Party by making partners aware of Appmaker , and creating a small "pilot pack" of content
  • Cross-fade partner relationships and tasks from Engagement team to Appmaker team where possible
  • Create and publish new branding

Contributor Community

  • Iterate on the Community Contribution Workshop
  • Run pilot data-gathering workshops to test our hypotheses and develop informed mind-share within the wider Mozilla community
  • Integrate Brackets for component editing

Q3 2014 Focus on Community

Features and Focus

  • Components can be published to the MakeAPI
  • A working group is started to support payments in the form of components from payment providers
  • Workshops are run in LAN houses in Brazil with Appmaker content and tutorials.
  • Blogs are written by notable Mozilla community members outlining importance of information education, and learning by doing on mobile.
  • Notable individuals/groups from community are invited to take part in MozFest
  • A collaborative environment is available for using and editing apps with Together.js
  • Re-evaluate cross-platform requirements (iOS, FFOS, Android, etc.)