We expect a large number of projects will use smartphone platforms. Trends also indicate it is likely to be done using web tools and protocols. As some developers know, the learning curve for mobile can be rough even if familiar tools are used. Thanks to Gail Rahn Frederick, there is an easy to digest manual called Beginning Smartphone Web Development. We recommend it to the community as a launching off point for members new to web development and smartphones. We are so excited about the quality of this introduction that have created pages for each type of resource offered in the book. The original can be purchased at Amazon.
Writing great software starts with knowledge, skills and tools. Starting with suggestions in the book, we’ve assembled some lists that will help rookies as well as the veterans. Best Practices links you to wise ways to go on various platforms. Find out handy browser plug-ins and more for development in Get Tooled Up. Lots of helpful reference material can be found in Ask the Experts.
One Economy, the parent of Applications for Good, is a recognized leader in providing valuable, localized resources for low-income populations. We offer access to this valuable content through P3, the Public Purpose Platform in the following ways.
Resource Locator
A zip code-based database of social services that allows users to search for services in their local area. Try it here now. Through our APIs, your application can provide location, hours and general information about:
Community Activities and Arts
Sports and Fitness
Education
Family Services
Financial Help
Food and Clothing
Health
Job Assistance
Legal Services
Public Safety
Shelters, Housing and Utilities
Transportation
Agriculture, Ranching and Fishing
The Beehive
One Economy’s go-to site for information and resources on Money, Health, Jobs, School and Housing contains thousands of pages of text, image and video content to help your users. The U.S. site is atwww.thebeehive.org.
Make It Easy Toolbox
MEIT is One Economy’s method of distributing content and tools among local partners. The configurable widget can be placed on your websites and mobile web apps to connect users with content that pertains to your applications.
Contact us to find out how you can use these P3 tools in your application.
There’s not really another site like this. Feel free to explore on your own or, if you’re one who reads the manual first, here’s the value proposition…
The Basics
Corporations and philanthropists are looking to fund public purpose applications that catalyze social and economic development. At One Economy, we know well the problems of poverty and how technology can help. Our Social Innovation Lab is working on some apps, but we need a bigger army.
So we’re looking to help problem solvers like you to create apps their kids will brag about. It’s about informing you about tough problems, sparking inspiration, gathering resources and promoting what you create.
We start with the Needs. The underserved in the U.S. face a lot of challenges. Here you will find a handful of tough ones we think can be addressed, in part, by applications — on the desktop, web, mobile and even game consoles.
Next comes Solutions in both idea and project form. If you see or have an application idea you want to take the lead on, it becomes a project.
Finally there is the App Catalog. Discover public purpose applications that are already addressing the Needs. When yours is ready, it will be featured here.
Those are the pieces. Here is how an inspiration becomes a successful public purpose app.
Inspiration to Public Purpose App
Let’s say you read about the Need to Connect Learners and wake up tomorrow morning with a great idea for a Facebook that makes kids love homework (hey, it could happen!). You submit your idea. You invite your colleagues to vote and comment and and incorporate their suggestions. We will be taking a coach’s interest in your progress, commenting and playing matchmaker with our development and funding contacts.
At some point you decide that you’ve got something. Or maybe a fascinated funder contacts you about supporting your vision. You or another member can take your idea to project status at any time by taking the lead on it.
During development, the project leader adds information about where your open source project lives (say in Github), its current status and schedule. The project moves forward and leader updates the posting here. Eventually it becomes the app you dreamed up. We will feature it in the applications catalog and help you promote it and make sure you get recognition for your Application for Good.
Why Join?
Applications for Good is more than an online community, members are first to be invited to our live meet-ups, hackathons, contests and other working groups. Once a member you can host your own group under the greater cause of public purpose applications.
Use P3, the Public Purpose Platform. API tools, embeddable widgets and ten years worth of public purpose content available only to Applications for Good members.
Android Debug Bridge
A bridge connecting an Android mobile device or emulator to the Android SDK. Used for debugging Mobile Web applications and native Android apps.
Apache Mobile Filter
Open-source Mobile Web Switcher using Apache Configuration
BlackBerry Browser Documentation
Documentation for several versions of the Blackberry Mobile Web Browser
Cloud Four’s Mobile Browser Concurrency Test
Mobile Browser Concurrency Test by Cloud Four in Portland, OR. Tests mobile browser request concurrency and client-side caching.
CVS
Concurrent Version System (CVS), an open-source source control system.
DeviceAnywhere
Remote access to mobile devices in geographies around the world. Commercial software. Greate in-geo testing tool for mobile applications and web sites.
DeviceAtlas Browsable Device Database
Browsable and searchable Web interface to the DeviceAtlas device database
DeviceAtlas Data Explorer
Compare Characteristics of Thousands of Mobile Devices using Data from DeviceAtlas’s Mobile Device Database
DeviceAtlas Device Database
Home Page for DeviceAtlas Device Database
DeviceAtlas License Info
Licensing information for DeviceAtlas mobile device database
DeviceAtlas Properties
List and description of properties available in the DeviceAtlas mobile device database
dotMobi
Company that controls the .mobi TLD.
ExamDiff
Free file comparison utility. Useful for mobile web development.
Frost Mobile Widget Library
Emerging cross-platform library for mobile widget development. Formerly a mobile AJAX library.
GAIA Image Transcoder
On-the-fly image transcoding server
Google Gears for Mobile Devices
Framework for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and Android phones
Google Mobile Sitemaps
Google’s extension to Sitemaps for identifying URLs to Mobile Web content.
How to Become a WURFL Contributor
Guidelines for Becoming a Contributor of Device Data to WURFL
HTML Tidy
HTML Tidy corrects common HTML errors and formats HTML for readability.
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
Description, Tutorials and Software for using JSON to serialize data on the Web.
JavaScript Support in Opera Mini 4
Documentation about scripting support in Opera Mini 4.
JSMin from Douglas Crockford
Popular minifier for JavaScript
Mobile Browser Compatibility with JavaScript, AJAX and DOM features
MobileTech AJAX Tests for Mobile Devices
mod_deflate Web response compression module for Apache Web Server
GZIP and deflate response compression for Apache Web Servers
Nginx
Nginx is a lightweight Web server suitable for serving static Web documents (i.e images and stylesheets).
Opera Mini Emulator
Web-Based Emulator for Opera Mini Mobile Browser
Perfecto Mobile – Mobile Device Remoting Service
Web-Based Mobile Device Remoting Service
Robot Exclusion Standard
Specification for the /robots.txt file that controls robot, spider and crawler access to a Web site.
Safari Web Content Guide for the iPhone
Web Content Guide for Safari Mobile, the iPhone’s Web Browser
Sitemap Specification
Specification for XML Sitemaps, used to provide the most relevant URLs on a Website to a Web crawler.
Subversion (SVN)
An excellent open-source source control system. Considered the successor to CVS.
Test Application for DeviceAtlas (TA-DA)
Device profiler for DeviceAtlas
Test Application for DeviceAtlas (TA-DA) Documentation
Detailed documentation for DeviceAtlas’s TA-DA mobile device profiler
The Great WebKit Comparison Table
Feature comparison between 19 desktop and mobile implementations of the WebKit browser rendering engine.
tinySrc
Image transcoder for the Mobile Web
Tortoise SVN
Windows GUI with shell integration for the Subversion source control system.
WebKit Port to Series 60 Symbian Platform
Official home of the WebKit port to Symbian for Nokia Series 60 mobile devices.
WinDiff
Microsoft’s free file comparison utility for Windows.
WinMerge
Free file comparison utility. Useful for mobile web development.
WMLProgramming Yahoo Group
Busy Yahoo Group and Mailing List discussing WURFL and Mobile Web Development
WMLScript Reference
Language reference for WMLScript, companion scripting language for WML
WURFL
Wireless Universal Resource File
WURFL Device Database Characteristics
List and description of characteristics in the WURFL device database.
WURFL Public Repository
Searchable Public Repository of the Wurfl DB
WURFL Software Downloads @ SourceForge
WURFL software download site at SourceForge.net
WURFL Test Suite for Mobile Devices
Test Suite for Web Standards Support on Mobile Devices
Yahoo! Exceptional Performance
Yahoo!’s research on exceptional Web performance
YUI JavaScript and CSS Compressor
Java tool from Yahoo! for minimizing CSS and JavaScript