CenterVenture2008

First Screenshots of the TokTok Mobil Client

2008-10-22T03:57:00.011+02:00

During the last days, the TokTok Team worked both intensively on the Backend and the GUI. Mainly focusing on design issues as well as bug fixing, the GUI Team managed to release a first version of the TokTok Client GUI, which is published beneath. We will keep on working to include all announced features as well as a well-designed application. So, stay tuned and check for updates!

toktok keeps on going...

2008-10-18T23:06:00.002+02:00

the official CenterVenture-course week is over, but toktok keeps on going!! we had a follow-up meeting to determine further development steps and some areas to be debugged. the session has shown once again that there are many features and use cases to be build on top of the existing toktok application-frame. however, we first want to focus on streamlining a stable and smooth beta v.1.; therefore we have defined some high-priority tasks that have to be fixed in order to launch asap. still working hard at it. stay tuned, toktok beta v.1. will be ready for launch soon. We will need you to get your impression and feedback!!;-)

eight and a half hours after the official course-closing....

2008-10-11T02:30:00.003+02:00

eight and a half hours after the official course-closing: the unofficial course closing with a "kasten" beer. well, not for the two guys in the background - for some reason Bernhard and Thilo think TokTok source code is still more interesting than augustiner helles;-))

CDTM: The only university-institution where students don't want to leave after course-closings

2008-10-11T01:40:00.003+02:00

it's friday evening. no, actually saturday morning. almost 1am. the official course closing and wrap-up of the "Center Venture" was at 6pm. however, students don't want to go home. they keep on working, polishing, fine-tuning their products. While the techies are still busy coding and optimizing TokTok for actual mobile phone usage, our marketing taskforce is creating posters to promote TokTok and the Center Venture course-format for future design fairs... it's gonna be hard to grade this objectively;-)

TokTok Mobile Frontend - Beta Version running!!

2008-10-11T01:22:00.006+02:00

It's the last day (actually night;-) of the Center Venture and we have reached another big milestone: the Beta version of the TokTok - Mobile Client is running. It's still in Beta-Status and not yet completely polished, but it's running! The user interface and interaction is implemented as it was defined in the paper prototype. This version is much more than a usual click-dummy as it polls real facebook-data and let's you interact with it. You can display your facebook-friends and their current distances to you. This is being calculated by GPS or Cell-Id using the Aloqa-Framework. Additionally, you can write messages to your friends, poke them or show their detailed profile information. Also you can set notification jobs, i.e. tell your mobile phone to notify you when specific facebook-friends come close-by. By push-technology of course! ;-) Last but not least, you can update your personal facebook status message. And all these features have one name: TokTok!! ;-))
The product is running, goal achieved!! Next steps: drive user tests, debug code, iterative UI-Design. We will upload a tested version of the TokTok application soon on . Stay tuned and make sure to check out the application one's it's launched!

update toktok video ;)

2008-10-11T00:42:00.001+02:00

here comes the after venture augustina version....have fun and relax with some augustina!

TokTok goes online!

2008-10-11T00:15:00.004+02:00

TokTok is online!! Check out our website at http://www.toktok.me/ . Thanks to the Marketing Team for screenshots, descriptions, content, design and of course the amazing flash animation!:-)

Facebook-API

2008-10-10T22:23:00.002+02:00

We got it!!!

just a few hours to go...

2008-10-10T15:09:00.002+02:00

...but nobody gets tired. We call it Endspurt.

live from the marketing meeting

2008-10-10T14:50:00.002+02:00

Marketing: How could we convey the CDTM Spirit by using a timeline in our Poster?

Chao: Yeah, that would be great, we use day and night. And we put the Techies on the nightline since they live in the dark.

- All views and opinions expressed are not representative for the marketing crew -

Still a lot to do

2008-10-10T12:57:00.005+02:00

Noch kein Ende in Sicht...
Here's the current to do list of the backend team...

This post was brought to you by the marketing taskforce - the techies are too busy to do it themselves...

fiiiiinaaaaly... we have tube working

2008-10-10T12:52:00.000+02:00

"Morning has broken, like the first mohohorning.."

2008-10-10T11:01:00.003+02:00

first of all, r.e.s.p.e.c.t. to all the x-treme programmers!!!!!!!
today we start a new calculation of times - the toktok time has begun.

here's our morning broadcast, 6 a.m. central tok-time, 1st toktober in year 0001.

Day 4: Spruch des Tages

2008-10-10T09:31:00.004+02:00

In the middle of the night, where you would expect normal people to be spleeping for hours already, Benni tried to rush Philipp on the Icons-Design for our User Interface.
=> Benni: "komm des passt schon Philipp, wir brauchen doch keine krassen mega-icons hier...". Philipp: "...ja aber mit Arschkram brauchen wir auch nicht ankommen" :-D

successful night session!

2008-10-10T08:27:00.002+02:00

we almost got it! take a look on your own!

Overnight Session - We have a Background & Icons!

2008-10-10T05:33:00.006+02:00

The last day of the CenterVenture has begun! Due to some GUI issues which have to be done until fr 18h, some Techies had to turn the night into day and keep on working. Now we have a Background, Icons and a Theme!

CenterVenture rock´s! :)

Programming is so much fun

2008-10-10T03:33:00.000+02:00

Big milestone reached: first working prototype version

2008-10-10T01:56:00.009+02:00

This is Thursday night, i.e. day 4 of the venture and we have just reached a big milestone: the very first working version of the mobile application has just evolved out of the emulator screen.
So far we have worked with three techy team's on three different modules. That was the (1) User Interface, (2) the Facebook-Controller and the (3) Aloqa-/Proximity-Controller. Only a couple of minutes ago we have reached the first step of glueing the individual modules toghether. This is basically comparable with the situation when an engine is put into a car body. We become ready to take off... wooooohoooow. a lot of debugging and streamlining still to be done, though.

Final countdown...

2008-10-10T01:54:00.003+02:00

The last day of the Center Venture has begun and in order to finish the TokTok client in time, the techies are still coding (more or less productive as you can see :P )

still waiting.......

2008-10-09T23:45:00.003+02:00

parfois j'aimerais mourir tellement n'y a plus d'espoir...

one out of three working places in the flash studio

fück the tube

2008-10-09T23:26:00.004+02:00

Why? ...
... because the youtube lets us not in!

Thank you Stylight!

2008-10-09T21:28:00.002+02:00

Eventually it was not Pizza. Instead the Stylight guys made a very delicious dinner for the whole CenterVenture team. Best dinner that we had so far!

These guys are working on a very innovative fashion search engine by the way.. (still in closed beta version testing but soon to come as well)

TokTok - the revolt

2008-10-09T19:39:00.003+02:00

The local unions interviewed our commander in chief about the unbearable working conditions at the CenterVenture. The people were starving. Thanks God our benevolent chef agreed to order pizzas to let his workforce survive. Evening saved

bom chikka wow wow!

2008-10-09T18:51:00.002+02:00

yey we made it!!!!!

flashmovie with soundsystem is ready, looking forward to get some oscars...
looking forward to get some flowers ;)

TokTok Flash pre-final to DJ

2008-10-09T18:12:00.001+02:00

Flash pre-final is released and passed on to DJ Herbie for final track matching...

Re-Design of the User Interface

2008-10-09T11:45:00.003+02:00

Our User-Interface-Design Taskforce has identified potential user interaction issues with the tabbed pane in the main menue. The Lightweight-User-Interface-Toolkit does not support a smooth combination of tabbed panes and lists. After a short evaluation we have decided to implement the main menu with icons arranged in a grid. The downside of this solution is that after the user has logged in, he has to do one more select-click before actually seeing his/her friends list. We're currently thinking of forwarding the user directly to the friends-/proximity list after login by default. Later he can "go back" to the main menu....

P.S. Duuuuude, that's why we need Media-Informatics guys in this team! :-)

Spruch des Tages

2008-10-09T11:37:00.003+02:00

Spruch des Tages gestern aus der Informatiker-Gruppe um 01:04am - "Bernhard, wann packst du's heut?" - "Wenn des fertig is'..." ;-)

TokTok - Fanparty

2008-10-09T11:36:00.004+02:00

Two days after the launch of the TokTok-fanpage and the beginning of TokTok marketing efforts the first TokTok-fanparty right after an exhausting CenterVentureDay took place.
See how tokzy TokTok-fans are.....

FREUNDESLISTE ENDLICH DA

2008-10-09T00:30:00.002+02:00

Juchu, nach 3 Tagen coden, mit facebook rumschlagen, GUI Threading implementieren und Aloqa einbinden gibt es endlich die erste Freundesliste mit Entfernungdaten:

An dieser Stelle leider ohne Bild, da einige Daten von facebook usern angezeigt werden, die nicht unbedingt öffentlich sein sollten.

bang-bang-tok-tok

2008-10-08T22:33:00.001+02:00

Hi, the marketing team / flash studio is busy with the bang-bang-tok-tok flash movie at the moment.
As you might have already seen in the previous blogs, the flash movie is about the stories of Tok-Boys and Tok-Girl living in the Tok-Zones.
To give you an impression what will be the end of the story, here is the screen shot - Tokies in the T-Box Party House....

The final version will be ready tomorrow.... OK. Good night.

Busy bees...

2008-10-08T21:49:00.001+02:00

After a long silent period of the backend guys, here a short prove that we are still alive...

As you can see on the pictures we (or at least most of us) have been quite busy recently.

We were working on the connection to facebook and developed the module to get all the required data out of it. Besides we worked on the location module, that already provides information which friends are close to you. One of the current main tasks is the integration of these two modules and the user interface.

Our aim for tonight is to get a first version running that uses the combination of the facebook and location module...

"Nice! Now get traction!"

2008-10-08T20:30:00.000+02:00

Update: Actually Johannes Martens from our partner Aloqa got the opportunity to pitch TOkTOk to Mark Zuckerberg in a private conversation.

He listened to what he said and also had a look at the hand-outs that we had prepared and then said "Nice, now get traction"

Could be worse, huh?

We will flash your minds!

2008-10-08T20:19:00.000+02:00

okay.....after hours of cutting, pasting, recording, drawing "strichmännchen" and adjusting sounds to moving pictures the world became 2D!
here are our first versions for the toktok-movie...

Meeting Mark Zuckerberg

2008-10-08T18:18:00.000+02:00

Today the TokTok team had an outing. Mark Zuckerberg came to visit the LMU - so the CenterVenture members (and whole lot of other CDTMers and affiliates, too) went there as groupies.
Here are some impressions in pictures.

Paper Prototyping

2008-10-07T19:53:00.001+02:00

Mark explains the current plans for the user interface:

A closer look at the paper prototype:

Küchenstudio

2008-10-07T19:26:00.000+02:00

Ein eher inoffizieller Eintrag auf Deutsch:

Benny und Philipp bei der liebevollen Zubereitung der Spaghetti Bolognese - mit rekordverdächtigem Knoblauchanteil!

Die beiden chefs de cuisine im Interview:

---------------

Später beim Essen:

Current issues in Marketing and Frontend implementation

2008-10-07T18:01:00.000+02:00

Here are some videos featuring interviews with the team.

Wolfi and Chao working on the teaser video:

Herbie and Denniz refining the logo once more and the offers in the spreadshirt shop:

Irina, Philip, Thilo and Benny struggling with Emulators and Google Maps:

Where are you doing?

2008-10-07T16:37:00.001+02:00

Yeehaw! We got a slogan! Cudos to Benny for the idea!

Discussions

2008-10-07T16:08:00.000+02:00

In the afternoon of the second day some difficult issues need to be resolved.

While Wolfi and Chao work on the first version of the teaser video, the Tech team with some Marketing support think about the features needed and the appropriate interface...

T-Shirt Shop

2008-10-07T12:54:00.001+02:00

Just opened:
TokTok Shirt Shop!!

http://toktok.spreadshirt.net

(weitere Motive folgen...)

;)

15 CenterVenturists - a close up on the TokTok development team

2008-10-07T12:28:00.000+02:00

These are the 15 minds behind TokTok:

I) TECH TEAM:

1)Backend

Bernie and Tobias – Chief Facebook Hackers and Chaos Coordinators– These guys are responsible to get the Facebook API talk to J2ME

Kevin – Code Monkey – Kevin's job is to track people (online and offline) and in addition designes internal incentive schemes (e.g. inventor of the famous “The co-worker of the hour” award)

2) Frontend - Facebook

T-lo and Benny- Facebook App Crackers – They are responsible for TokTok’s Facebook face and associated Fanpage

3) Frontend- mobile

Irina – Interface princess – Her job involves trying to fit tons of useful information on a tiny screen of a mobile handset

Philipp – TokTok Makeup Artist – Together with Irina, Philipp is responsible for the style and mobile user interface of TokTok.

II) NON-TECH TEAM:

1) Business Modelling

Alexander – Future Prospect Analyst – evaluates how TokTok can use mobile simcard technology and screens suitable business competitions for TokTok

Andi - Number Cruncher – responsible among other things for quantitative market analysis of global mobile handset market

3) Marketing & Design

Chao - art work, design and implementation - Chao came up with a logo together with Denniz and is our expert for Flash and Photoshop.

Denniz - TokTok T-shirt shop manager (check out http://toktok.spreadshirt.net/);

Wolfgang - Senior trick film animator of the TokTok Studios - loads of other tasks, too of course.

Herbert - DJ Herbster - Responsible for the TokTok Soundtrack

Rebecca Kolumna - Chief Documentation Officer. Among other things busily writing blog posts to keep everyone up-to-date.

And last but not least:

Mark Bilandzic aka The Master of Desaster - among other things running around and coordinating the whole CenterVenture.

Facebook hacked

2008-10-06T23:45:00.000+02:00

There comes a short late night message.

Facebook itself doesn't allow for logging into their system from an application itself. Instead every user is required to take the detour to a facebook login page and log in there.
As this procedure is not convenient at all in our mobile application, we decided to bypass the Facebook login procedure and emulate a browsers behavior inside our application.
After hours of investigating the HTTP communication between browser and Facebook server, we finally managed to obtain our first session key late the first day!
With this session key we are know able to communicate with the Facebook API as if a user would have logged in at their web page.
A big big hurray to the techy team! :-)

Wrap up Day 1

2008-10-06T21:15:00.000+02:00

At 21:00 we had a wrap-up (which does not mean this is the end of the day...)
Some impressions in pictures:

One picture of the whole team:

And of course, there are some to Dos for tomorrow:

TokTok in Montenegro!

2008-10-06T20:00:00.000+02:00

We managed to reserve our URL! no content there yet but soon to come.

Make sure to check out www.toktok.me on Friday at the latest!

Living on Junk Food

2008-10-06T19:18:00.001+02:00

This post is a look behind the scenes of the toktok development team.

Incredible but true: sometimes the team takes a break from coding and visits the TUM Mensa to ensure sufficient calory intake:

In the afternoon, a certain dosis potato chips are used to keep blood sugar on acceptable levels:

And finally, in the night we cooked 4,5 kgs of frozen Gyros! (Thanks Andi for the initiative!)

The chef:

The Gyros:

The hungry crew:

Center Venture Day 1: Techies

2008-10-06T19:15:00.000+02:00

The Techies had to overcome several obstacles during the first day.

The "User Interface"-guys had problems with running the emulator. After several hours they were finally able to solve the problem - a security issue of the Java Wireless Toolkit conserning the implementation of external libraries.
The Techy members were so proud of their techy, who was solving the problem, that they decited to initiate the "Techy of the hour" program. This program intends to promote those members who are performing for the benefit of all techies! So, lets see who comes next...!

CenterVenture aka After-wiesn Hospital

2008-10-06T18:50:00.000+02:00

Gosh! When we were thinking about all the bugs we would have to cope with during the Center Venture we were thinking TECHNOLOGY!
But no.. the Oktoberfest and the cold Munich weather have brought us some other obstacles:
Every second participant is suffering from a cold! Not the ideal condition to survive the CenterVenture!
But anyhow: business as usual - and luckily enough we have a large inventory of lemons, tea, aspirin and tissues piled up.

Center Venture Day 1: non-tech

2008-10-06T16:31:00.000+02:00

Today was the first developing day of the Center Venture.

After a brief wrap-up of the product idea and a first understanding of the desired user interface we split up in the tech and the non- tech group.

The non-tech group startet out with a brainstorming session for the name of our service. The final outcome: Toktok!
We had to made sure that this choice would not bring about any trademark infringements which was actually not so easy to find out. Among other steps it involved an interesting phone call with the patent office. The friendly person on the other hand could not really understand how we could be concerned about a toktok in the telco sector - if after all we were doing software. And when we indicated that we were BUILDING an application for mobile phones - he wanted to put us into the 'Hardware' Nizza class. phew....

Anyways we went along with the name and then moved on designing a nice logo!
So in the comment section, tell us what you think about it!!!

We also came up with some use cases for the service which we will present in a later post.

Here are some impressions of the first day in pictures:

2008-09-29T17:15:00.000+02:00

15 creative minds, 5 days, 1 product

...that the world has been waiting for!

What is this Project about?
In just 5 session, a team of 15 students with backgrounds in engineering, computer science and administration are going to develop a Mobile Application from scratch that informs you about the presence of facebook-friends in your 'hotzone' (distance of X-inf. meters) and lets you interact with them in a certain way. This application is based on cutting edge mobile technologies and we will launch it on the facebook-platform open to 100 million + active users.

What is the Background?

Today’s cellphones allow us to move through urban spaces while being connected to the web. This shift from static to mobile interfaces will enhance our real world experience by digital information received from virtual worlds, e.g. online communities like facebook). This new type of interaction in a so-called hybrid space leads to blurring boarders between the physical worlds where people live and act worlds and online communities!

First day 29.09. : Brainstorming Session and Kick-Off

What do we have? What do we want?
Our partner is Aloqa who provide an open-source API for mobile services especially geographical proximity.
We want to bring people together, or solve some problem they might have (maybe using the Facebook network)
...
let's think
...
After several hours of brainstorming, being creative and using methods we came up with very hyper-sophisticated specialised ideas for applications.. totally overengineered;)
we had to make a big big step back and rethink with less brainstorm!
..
KEEP IT EASY!
The old, well known formula!!

Okay, we do it easy: localised facebook: display facebook friends, set a hotzone radius and get notified when a friend enters your hotzone; and then, whatelse) Mark: we just ----- say hello, thats it!