The Tuesday, September 8th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group
(RMIUG) will discuss "Smartphones: The Invisible Desktop"

Donald Norman, one of the foremost authorities on human computer interaction
(HCI), was onto something when we wrote "The Invisible Computer" in 1998. In
that book Norman, a former head of advanced technology for Apple Computer and
Hewlett Packard and founder of severalHCI groups including the Neilson Norman
Group, postulated the following, "I don't want to use a computer. I want to
accomplish something. I want to do something meaningful to me." In other words,
he doesn't want to use "applications" or "utilities," he wants the computer and
its software to fade into the background, become "invisible" — replaced with
simple, task-centered devices.

He used the an analogy of the motor to demonstrate this idea. When motors were
first available, they were large, heavy, and expensive. To accomplish different
tasks, you'd purchase accessories — a sewing machine, fan, mixer, or whatever —
and hook them up to your motor. Today, motors are in everything and you rarely
even think about them: they are in your hair dryers, DVD players, toothbrushes.
They are all around you but you don't consider them. You think of the device
itself.

Computers, too, have also started to become invisible. They are in devices such
as cell phones, pagers, DVD players, toys. Each provide a specific utility that
can only be accomplished with a computer. But with each device you don't think
about the computer that drives them: it's just there, working in the background
helping you to accomplish something that is meaningful. They are all part of
the invisible computer.

If we are at the dawn of Norman's vision of the invisible computer, today's
smartphones, might be considered the invisible desktop. Answering email,
checking your bank balances, surfing the Internet, were traditionally only
possible on your desktop or laptop computer. But these days,smartphones can do
all of the things but with a significant additional utility: you have it with
you all the time. Want to send a picture of your kid to your parents? Snap it
on your phone and send it to them now. Need to find a restaurant while you're
on vacation, find it now and even get directions to it. Need to know whether
you're blowing your budget, bring it up now. Today'ssmartphone is starting to
displace the things you traditionally do on a computer.

While all of this seems futuristic and perhaps faddish, there are some
statistics to back up the premise that this trend is only increasing:
* Opera Software, makers of one of the most popular mobile device browsers, said
recently that in June 2009, 26.5 million users viewed more than 10.4 billion
pages that represents a 143% increase in users and a 224% increase in pages
viewed over 2008.
* In only nine months after opening it's application store, iPhone users
downloaded 1 billion applications.
* Pandora, the nine-year old personalized radio station, is on the road to
profitability because of its popular iPhone app with the ability for users to
purchase songs directly fromiTunes.

During the next RMIUG, we will explore this idea further.

Our Speaker:
Joe Pezzillo (metafly@...) has been a leader in the Boulder technology scene
since the early 90s. He spent three years as a creative director for the Apple
Electronic Media Lab here, he founded a pioneering internet broadcasting startup
during the "web 1.0" era, he's worked for a variety of web software companies,
and he's organized countless community technology events including most recently
the local BarCamps and iPhoneDevCamps. Building on his years of Mac OS
development experience, he's spent the last year as a full-time iPhone developer
for a Fortune 100 financial services company, and has recently co-founded a new
startup, Push.IO, that's building "Smart Infrastructure for Smart Phone
Developers."

Links:
Push.io: http://push.io/
Donald Norman's Website: http://www.jnd.org/

The meeting is Tuesday, September 8th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30 pm
start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in
Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93),
take Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for approximately 2.5 miles
into the foothills. NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go toMapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on Driving
Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the
NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to meeting, which
is held in the main auditorium, right off the lobby. The meeting is free and
open to the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how many people
will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a first-come, first
serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than seats, we won't be able to
admit additional people into the auditorium after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
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MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical talent for
Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software Development
projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides marketing project management,
marketing communications consulting, and web content development is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/

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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR has
security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use the facility.
If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple regulations, I would
ask that he or she not attend and instead read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when dealing
with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact me
directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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