How much does it cost?

How much did it cost, really? Roughly here’s a breakdown:

• WWDC ticket NZD2,000.
• Flights (economy) NZD1,800.
• Accommodation (reasonably close) 7 nights ~ NZD1,100.
• Food & Drink ~ NZD500
• Coffee ~ NZD40
• AT&T SIM card ~NZD40
• Transportation (taxi, BART, MUNI)~ NZD100
• Other ~ NZD200.

Total is just under NZD6,000. So saving for WWDC would cost roughly NZD100 / week.

Luckily, Apple provides breakfast, lunch and snacks Monday to Friday so the food costs can drop considerably. Also, there are so many parties during the week one can easily do without “dinner”. There is also a beer bash on Thursday so there’s really no need to get dinner nor to buy drinks that day.

How much time do I need?

The conference starts on Monday and ends at around 4pm on Friday. Many companies organise events on Saturday and Sunday before the conference. Some are worth going to while other are just blatant sales / poaching events.

I flew on Saturday but in hindsight I’d fly on Friday. I’d use the extra day to do some more sightseeing and getting over jet lag. There are plenty of attendees who arrive early, especially those who come from Europe so being a day or two early is a great opportunity to make some new friends. Another reason to be as early as possible is that getting some rest before Monday morning makes queueing for the Keynote at 5 or 6am more bearable.

What did I get in return?

This is where it gets hard. How does one quantify the benefits of attending a conference? Here’s my attempt:

Knowledge

Some of the sessions are just amazing. They can be filled with “Duh!” moments, and, honestly, no matter how hard I keep telling myself that I will finish watching all the videos from the previous year’s WWDC, that never really happens. It’s so much easier to delude myself that a quick search on stackoverflow or the official forum holds the answer to my question. Do I think about the debt I had already introduced by that point in my project? I’m not going to answer this question now…

Booking one-on-one sessions with Apple engineers is simply… priceless. The UX and App Review discussions can be incredibly useful. Really!

In 2011 there were 5,200 attendees and 1,100 Apple engineers. What this means is that when I needed to talk to engineers from a certain team I got that opportunity in a matter of minutes. This is what the Labs are for. There are lots of labs too: App Frameworks, Core OS, Developer Tools, Graphics, Media and Games, Internet & Web.

Early access to new technologies and sample code. This can be very useful if the million-dollar-idea arises during one of the talks. I was not lucky enough to get such an idea but I still feel like having the extra time to learn about new stuff is pretty awesome.

Networking

I met some amazing Kiwi developers. I had an incredible time with them: we went out together, we helped each other with session tips, and swapped “notes” and comments on various talks.

Luckily I bumped into many developers that have built products I use and appreciate every day. It’s great to be able to say “Thanks!” in person.

Had I been looking for a job I could’ve found ten. Companies invite developers to apply for jobs and give away swag from before the conference starts until the last minute of the last session. I remember queueing for the Keynote and seeing vans from a number of companies offering coffee, snacks, T-shirts, magazines and more. It makes sense too: we were sitting ducks for advertisers. Where else would they find 5,000 iOS & Mac developers sitting in one place?!

Ego

I saw Steve Jobs live on stage. Yes, it sounds silly and it gets labeled in many ways but take my word for it: the man can deliver some amazing presentations!

I visited the “mothership”. Cupertino is the default location in my Simulator’s Maps app. It felt funny to be there when, while coding, I kind of hated that place for getting in my way.

I could go on but I just realised the things above are probably enough.

So, was it worth it?

For me it was. I spent a lot of time with UX people, I got plenty of technical questions answered by Apple engineers, I met amazing people and I had fun. Maybe more importantly I returned home knowing that I am in the right business. Motivation was never a problem but it sure feels great to get some confirmation…

The Auckland Transit iPhone and iPod Touch application has been in the app store for a few weeks now and it’s already providing me with some very interesting statistics.

Unlike Wellington, most of the iPhone users are NOT using a 3GS model but 3G rather. The number of jailbroken devices is 4 times the one in Wellington and, more interestingly, whilst in Wellington the peak is Mondays or Fridays in Auckland it seems to be Saturday instead.

Monitoring user behaviour between Wellington and Auckland will be an interesting exercise, especially since the Auckland user numbers are growing so rapidly.

I have been in touch with the Metlink people (who are just awesome) but sadly the information will not be available any time soon, and even when it will become available 3rd parties will probably have to wait even longer (unless they decide to start scraping HTML).

So after doing some thinking I have decided to try and implement it myself. Yup, I am indeed crazy. The craziest part is that I believe that this could work, especially if you get involved. At the moment 4000 of you are using WelliBUS and I would like to thank each and every one of you. Most of you are using iPhones, the rest are on iPod touches and Android devices. Although this is intended mostly for iPhone users there are scenarios when even an iPod touch can be used (WiFi on the bus, Free Wifi Hotspots, etc).

If out of 4000 people just 2000 decide to use this system I am sure we will get pretty good coverage, especially at peak times when we need it the most.

I have already starting implementing this which is why I am asking for everyone’s help. Please post comments below to tell me what you think, what I should and should not do, what you think is most important in the first release, what I missed out on, whatever you think might be useful. Once you’ve done this please spread the word. Don’t forget to download WelliBUS if you have an iPhone, iPod touch or Android device.

Here’s how I was thinking that it would work.

User waiting for the bus:

• Starts the app and selects the bus stop number they are at and also the service numbers that they want a notification for.  (e.g. Stop 5002 – St James Theatre, Services 1 – Island Bay, 46 – Broadmeadows, 54 – Churton Park)
• Either leaves the application running (at least in the 1st release) or closes the application and waits for a push notification (future release)

User traveling on the bus:

• After getting on the bus the user selects the service that they are on and taps “I’m on the Bus“. (e.g. select stop 5000 – Courtenay Place, Service 54 – Churton Park)
• User leaves the application running and can alternatively see on a Google Map view as the bus travels towards its destination
• User sees a Good Citizen points indicator. See how the points work below.

WelliBUS will:

• Notify the user in stop 5002 that a service 54 – Churton Park is on its way and reports the approximate distance between the stops
• Reward the user on the bus 1 Good Citizen point for having helped another traveller find out when the bus was coming. The more people use the information broadcast by the user on the bus the more Good Citizen points the users get. All users that broadcast their location on the bus will get “rewarded”
• Provide a Good Citizen ranking system (users can register and submit their points to our server)

Good Citizen points:

• A user that leaves the application running while on the bus (between start and stop) will accrue 0.5 points for each stop they pass by
• If at least another user is on the same bus and broadcasts the information then all users receive another 0,5 points
• For each user that is notified about the bus that the Good Citizen is on then another point is awarded.
• Sponsors can reward Good Citizens: e.g. maybe Snapper can give them extra credit, maybe Metlink could discount a monthly pass as long as a minimum number of points is accrued the previous month. Other sponsors can be as creative as they want. The rewards should be provided in exchange for Citizen Points. The claimed points will go towards a Sponsors Ranking. (e.g. If my favourite coffee shop in Wellington, Mojo Old Bank give a free coffee for every 200 Citizen Points then their points value will go up by 200 every time they offer a reward. This is a rough guide at the moment)

Cheating:

• If a person is in a car rather than on a bus then the application will detect the car speed, missing the stops, and other similar checks
• If somebody does manage to fool the “system” the other people will be able to veto them. e.g. if user A reports being on a bus that never reaches user B although it should then user B will be able to give thumbs down to user A. The more thumbs down the slower the user accrues Citizen points. Eventually a lying user can be removed from the system.
• Other “punishments” could be applied. Be creative!

You can:

• Donate. You can help the development of this feature by contributing with funds.
  
  
• Spread the word! Nothing is more helpful.
• Twit about this. Here’s an example Help Wellington get Real Time Public Transport information. http://bit.ly/9pq2v3 Please RT
• Post a link to this post on your Facebook wall. For example you could post Make Wellington the first city in the world with real time traffic info driven by us. Details here http://bit.ly/9pq2v3
• You could sponsor this project. There are many ways in which you can help. First email office [at] tmro [dot] net and we will take it from there.
• You could buy ads in WelliBUS. Your business logo and a 1 sentence message could be displayed on the Map View close to a relevant stop.
• You could help in ways I haven’t even thought about.

Cheers…