WebCamp 三: Coworking Space + CouchDB + Commerializing Mobile = $$$

WebCamp KL

It’s one month after one of the greatest WebCamp turnout, it does feel like it’s hard to top that record. But as happy WebCampers, it’s great to know that WebCamp is going strong one year after it first started.

To wrap up the first quarter of the year, we decided to explore the recent trending topics of the year: the concept of co-working (and remote working, for that matter), NoSQL data stores as well as commercializing mobile application. How fun!

And here it is, the line up of the month:

1. On his experience starting up White Space – Jason Chow, CEO of White Space Int’l
2. Tearing the Sofa Apart: CouchDB & CouchApps from a Beginner’s Perspective – Leong Seh Hui, Application developer, 40Square
3. Commercialise your mobile product and service – Aaron Lee, TeAM supporting partner
4. Pitching session: Careers at Mindvalley – Vishen Lakhiani, founder and CEO, Mindvalley
5. Pitching session: Careers at Antics Media – Khalid Hilaby, lead web developer, Antics Media

Summary

Everyone loves to have an office, especially one that comes with an address of a very prime and hip location in Kuala Lumpur (say, KLCC). But what if you are a one-man freelancer and an office would only drag you down in terms of rent and mobility? Jason Chow is a successful entrepreneur who managed to create a successful business with not only one co-working space, but two (and with plans of creating a third one in Bangsar)!

In his talk, he talks about the journey off setting it up and expanding it, as well as the future he envisioned about the business. Now, that’s a very exciting plan to hear about and wouldn’t it be awesome when Whitespace manages to have co-working spaces all over Malaysia?

Next up is yours truly giving a premier on CouchDB – a distributed document store that is so easy to use and understand that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure. In this talk, I guide you through the key concepts and features of CouchDB so to get you started as soon as possible.

As a bonus (or maybe distraction?), I presented the WebCamp KL Facebook group page stats and break down juicy bits from the best time to post so you get the most eyeballs to the most active members in the group. Come on! If you are a WebCamper, you’d be curious about it, won’t you?

The last talk of the day was from Aaron Lee, who talks about how to commercialize your mobile application… or scrap that, mobile is more broader than just applications! Aaron presents you the various means which you could build your business in mobile: it could be new alerts, applications or even cute cat videos! He also touch on the various strategies you could monetize your mobile idea as well as the current state and affairs in the mobile business.

The whole talk ended up with a very passionate debate touching on the unfairness in revenue shares due to predatory mobile operators and the state of monetizing mobile music. So to gain insider information of what’s really happening in the space and what it could possibly be like in partnering with mobile operators, you shouldn’t miss this!

To wrap things up, all WebCampers are showered by career opportunities by two great companies: Mindvalley and Antics Media. Mindvalley has been a great host for WebCamp in the past year and beyond by allowing us to use their meeting space as well as chipping in some snacks to munch on. And Antics Media showed very polished and exciting projects to work on in the future. So if you are looking for a job and you want to work with exciting people and projects, they are still hiring .

Enjoy the podcast!