WinMoDevCamp – Community Gatherings for Microsoft Windows Mobile Enthusiasts

This short news item will cover the details of WinMoDevCamp, a pro-active initiative from Microsoft to reach out and really inspire the Windows Mobile developer community.

Back at Mobile World Congress Windows Mobile 6.5, together with two services -Microsoft My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile- were announced. We know that Windows Mobile 6.5 probably will hit the market upcoming fall, and Microsoft is investiging significant time and efforts in setting up the Windows Marketplace for mobile, covered intesively here in a sequence of articles:

1. Windows Marketplace for Mobile coming to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0
2. Windows Marketplace for Mobile – Payments and Operators
3. Microsoft Surface table to win in developer contest: The Race to Market Challenge 

While different technical aspects like the payment mechanism, or the business center are covered in these articles. However we also raised some concerns about the entry point for starting developers and developers looking to move to this platform, which was also concluded by Paul Willen in the article: “Windows Mobile 6.5 Development – What about Developers?”

However yesterday mobilityminded.com received some great news from Brain Blank from FutureWorks PR, that in addition to the Race to Market Challenge, Microsoft is commited to directly address and support the Windows Mobile developer community: WinMoDevCamp

Arne Hess from the::unwired.net has written an article yesterday “Microsoft sets the stage for Mobile Developers with WinMoDevCamp for Windows Mobile“:

“Instead of just opening an app store and releasing a SDK, Microsoft is really looking to support and foster the incredible mobile developer community through educational events, contests and support. It’s a great opportunity for developers to break through on the early stage of something pretty unique and this is why Microsoft is making the developers the stars, helping to ignite some innovation – plus developers are able to get in on the ground floor of a unique opportunity with the backing and support of Microsoft.”

I think Arne Hess has described the goals and intentions of WinMoDevCamp pretty well and I think for young starting developers this is a pretty unique chance to build great applications for a rich platform. In the contrary to “Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest” this WinMoDevCamp is not a single contest but a free series of Barcamp-type events around the world.

“The first one is set for Seattle on 19th August 2009 and more to be announced soon in Austin, London, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore. These camps will help bring the news to the developers and give them a first-hand look and valuable information to get an early leg up on the upcoming Marketplace.”

Are you an ambitios developer looking for a new challenge, than the WinMoDevCamp might be a great opportunity. Go directly to www.winmodevcamp.org or find additional event details at “upcoming things to do“