You can already sign up on the Facebook event here.

So, the rules of the competition are;

You have 48 hours to build an application for one of the four platforms;

• Nokia – Qt, Symbian & Maemo
• Microsoft
• Android
• iPhone

The folks over at Nokia have “narrowed” their category down a little, in that the application must; use the Qt Module QNetwork, must have a social web integration and be based around the topic of “outside”.

For the other three categories, there are no specified limitations on what or how to build your entry.

The best iPhone app as judged by Marko Karppinen will win an iPad (once they come out)
The best Microsoft app as judged by Vesku will win a top end Samsung Windows Mobile phone.
The best Android app as Judged by the folks from Comeks will win an Android handset.
Again, Nokia are a little bit different, in that if you build the best Symbian App you will win an N97mini, the best Maemo app will win an N900, but if you build it as a cross platform app, you can win both. The judge(s) for the Nokia section of the competition will be in the Nokia Workshop room.

All the Judges will be easy to spot as we are going to give them nice bright name badges for the day.

The judges will be looking at (these have different weights and are in no specific order);-

• Newness of the idea (both in terms of your getting the idea and if it is similar to other existing applications)
• use of bleeding edge tech (the more blood and screaming the better!)
• time of day demo given (earlier on the day is better)
• implementation (flawless working demo/Proof of Concept)
• length of time spent coding on platform (less time is worth more points)
• general coding experience

NOTE: You do not need a physical handset to enter the competition (although if you do manage to deploy on one it will look better to the judges!)

In addition to the platform specific competitions there is an extra category that you can also be judged on, and that is for the “Business Potential” of the application. There is a separate prize for this.
This will be judged by Artturi Tarjanne of Nexit Ventures

On Saturday, either print out and bring a judging form with you, or collect one on the day.
Once your application is “ready”, find the appropriate judge and pitch them your app (should only take you one or two sentences and will be written on your sheet).
The Judge will then write a score for your application on the sheet and sign it.
Once that is done, bring the sheet to Mike in the main auditorium, you have until 17:00 on Saturday

So, those are the rules.
If you have any questions either post comment here or send us a message on Twitter @mobiledevcampfi

Oh, and in case you have forgotten, here are links for the posts that have links for getting started with the different platforms;
Qt and Maemo
Microsoft
Android
iPhone

First, the exact details will be announced next Thursday (25th February).

Second, we have manged to get top of the line phones for all but one of the competition categories, so go back and start checking out those getting started guides eh
The lone hold out category will have an iPad instead of a phone.

MobileDevCamp.fi is now taking place at Arcada. You can see the location on a map here

Although it is a little out from the down-town area, as this is popular student area, there are all the facilities required on a Saturday including an Alko.

As this is a new venue, here is a Route planner for how to get there. Oh and here it is as a link for the mobile version
The Arcada contact page also lists the various methods for getting there.
Arcada have also made their car park available for those who wish to drive to the event, so depending on the snow fall (which can eat a few places!) there will be up to 50 spaces available for cars on the day.

This will enable us to do more fun and interesting things on the day. Especially in the area of the competition.

• Should you concentrate on a single platform?
• How many platforms can I realistically support with a native application?
• Is it easier to provide cross platform via a web interface?
• What more could I do with native application Vs a browser based one?
• Is the future cloud based or fat native client?

With all of these in mind we are building this years event based around two themes:

Cross Platform Development

and

Native Applications Vs Web Client

Like last year, we are working on securing as interesting and broad a range of speakers as possible, to ensure that the keynotes on the main stage are worth attending in person. As we get final confirmation of attendance and title we will be announcing them here.
New for this year, we will also be running panels. The idea is to provide answers to the challenges raised by the day’s two themes.

In addition to the main stage, there will also be workshop and hacking areas.
The idea of the workshop areas is that you can get more hands-on with the tools and talk with other developers who actually use the tools in anger as part of their day-to-day lives, rather than the typical marketing folks you often see at events.
As the various orgnaisations confirm their attendance and plans for what will happen in the workshop spaces, we will also update it here.

As noted here, we have not forgotten that one of the more popular ideas from last year was the competition. We are working hard to improve on what happened last year, and think are getting close to something that will be both fun and challenging for everyone (note, that means your iFart app is unlikely to win ).
We are again thinking of a “sprint” type of competition, so there is still plenty of time to dust off those half forgotten projects, ready for the day.

So overall, a full day is planned.
Reserve space in your calendar for it now!

This allows us to have a kick-ass main stage (to go with the excellent speakers we are lining up) and at the same time provide hacking and demo spaces.

As part of this, this article on how the methods used for development on the iPhone currently is it’s own problem is interesting.
As ever, Tomi Ahonen’s insights into Application Stores here gives some concreate numbers to think over.

Most importantly, we will be starting a little later this time (no-one wants to get up early on a Saturday ).
We will also be running workshop rooms during the whole day, in parallel with the main stage activities. This is to allow you to get real hands on experience with the technology and talk with developers who are actually making their living doing this.

As one of the more exciting things that happened at the last event was the Hackathon (a competition to build a working application on the day), we will be once again running a competition, but this time with a couple of twists, which we think will make it more exciting for everyone involved.
Listen out for more updates on this during the next few weeks.

The BarCamp and Hackathon sessions in the afternoon took a little while to get going but once they did, the participants all got a lot out of them.
In particular, it was really impressive what the people taking part in the Hackathon managed to accomplish in just one afternoon/day.

Let us know what you like, what did not work so well (apparently there was some problem with the WiFi for the late comers?), either in comments on this post or drop us an email at helsinki-organizers@mobiledevcamp.eu

Ohh, and if you could tag things with either #mdcfi or mobiledevcamp so that other people can find it easily that would be appreciated.