edw

June 26–27, 2021

For years we dreamed about creating a conference for open source app developers. There are conferences for the people already on the inside—the ones building platforms and big first-party apps, but we’re bringing in those on the outside to include them in the process. This conference is our way of reaching out to app developers, sharing the knowledge we’ve all collected over the years, and providing a space to ask questions and provide feedback.

Welcome to the first elementary Developer Weekend 🎉️

Watch

edw was hosted live by elementary and Jupiter Broadcasting June 26–27 from 9 AM to 12 PM PDT (16:00–19:00 UTC) on the elementary YouTube channel. Each talk was pre-recorded with a live question and answer session following.

Saturday, June 26

The whole day can be viewed as it streamed, or each talk can be viewed below with its Q&A.

2021 State of the Platform by Daniel Foré

Welcome to edw 2021. Join the opening keynote for a high level overview of the AppCenter platform and major advancements from the past year. We’ll cover developer tools, new APIs, and some stats about the growth of our audience. Plus, some commentary on the future followed by a live Q&A.

Akira: Building a UX App From Scratch by Alessandro Castellani

An overview of the initial struggles and motivations behind the launching of Akira—a user experience design app designed and built on elementary OS. Followed by a quick analysis of the technical stack used, a demo of the state of the app, and a peek into some future plans. Afterwards, join Alessandro for a live Q&A answering questions from the chat.

Making an Accessible App by Anna E. Cook

With digital products becoming increasingly integral to our lives, how can designers and developers make sure our work is inclusive to disabled people? In this session, Anna discusses how accessibility creates amazing products, applications, and experiences as well as the basic considerations of accessibility both in design and code. Learn the basics about accessibility laws, guidelines, and best practices so you can make your work even better! Join Anna for a live Q&A immediately following the talk.

Improving App Development in Vala by Princeton Ferro

A look into the ongoing work behind the scenes to further improve the Vala developer experience, from work on the Vala Language Server to integrating this work in IDEs and with build systems, to internal improvements in the Vala compiler. Join Princeton afterwards for a live Q&A.

Sunday, June 27

The whole day can be viewed as it streamed, or each talk can be viewed below with its Q&A.

How to Contribute to elementary OS by Igor Montagner – 9:10 AM PDT (16:10 UTC)

A look behind the scenes from the point of view of a new contributor to elementary OS. This talk covers both technical and personal experiences when contributing to elementary OS to show how you can get involved. Join Igor after for a live Q&A.

My Experience as a Visually Impaired Developer by Justin Campbell – 9:50 AM PDT (16:50 UTC)

Hear about a developer’s day-to-day usage of elementary OS as a visually impaired developer—including how it compares to his use of other platforms and how it can be further improved. Plus, stay for the Q&A for some discussion about contributing to and improving elementary OS for accessibility.

Creating Compelling App Icons by Micah Ilbery – 10:20 AM PDT (17:20 UTC)

Learn how to make good app icons and why a good app icon is important. Plus, a brief walk-through of the elementary Human Interface Guidelines surrounding icons, and a demonstration of how to use these guidelines to make an icon. Join Micah live afterwards for a Q&A.

GTK for Web Developers by Darshak Parikh – 10:50 AM PDT (17:50 UTC)

Bridge your web development know-how to the desktop world. This talk draws parallels between CSS Grid and Gtk.Grid, DOM tree and Gtk.Window hierarchy, web inspectors and GTK Inspector, web CSS and GtkCSS, and (loosely) reactive components and Gtk.Widget. Plus a live Q&A with Darshak following the talk.

Sponsors & Thanks

elementary Developer Weekend was made possible by these generous GitHub Sponsors:

…as well as over 500 recurring sponsors. We would like to specially thank Jupiter Broadcasting for providing infrastructure, expertise, support, and moderation for edw.