Guest Post - My Life As a Pebble Developer and Rockstar

This is a guest post by Jonathan LaRocque, developer of MusicBoss, MusicTime, SimplyAlarm and Rockstar of the Pebble Developer Meetup Ottawa, PebbleOTT.

April 2012 seems like such a long time ago. My first born is three years older, and now has a younger sibling. It also means that it has been three years since I contributed to the original Kickstarter campaign for Pebble. I was in the first batch of backers and received my Black Pebble early February 2013. This was the beginning of something special for me.

After being introduced to my first computer when I was about 10 years old in elementary school, I’ve had an interest in computers and technology that has continued past my graduation from Computer Systems Engineering (Carleton University) in June 2007. A watch that connected to my phone that could do ...anything... was something I could only dream about. The funny thing is when I received my Pebble, I wasn't even developing; I hadn't touched a line of code between graduation and receiving my Pebble. Having the Pebble on my wrist changed something: the flow of ideas began, I greased my mental cogs, and started up the development machine.

In the beginning, Pebble Development was an independent thing (for me anyways), it was still pretty new, and wasn't as well documented as it is now. But the community of developers for this platform grew quickly and superstars like Katharine Berry were pumping out open source examples for noobs like me to refer to. My first app, Simply Alarm, was my first crack at Android and Pebble development. The first version didn't even have a Pebble watch app, it just sent notifications to the Pebble when alarms rang. My second app, Music Boss, was born the way many great ideas are: while having a beer. I wanted to adjust the music volume on my phone while it was plugged into the sound system. I looked at my wife and swore: "When I get home, I am making an app that lets me adjust music volume with this thing [pointing at my Pebble]." This original idea for the application expanded greatly once I started developing.

When I got my invitation to attend the first Pebble Developer Retreat in August 2013, I couldn't believe that I had been chosen. It was surreal: I was just an indie developer with a couple of apps from Ottawa, Ontario. I'll never forget the first time I met Eric; he joined us at a bar near our hotel the night before the opening day of the retreat. He showed me his Pebble with Music Boss running on it and asked me "Does it really have to say 'music volume' above the volume bar?" My conversation with Eric about how my app could be improved, in addition to his offer to get other Pebble Developers to help, was one of my most memorable Pebble development moments. Finally meeting all the developers and Pebble employees I had been chatting with for months before the retreat really made me feel like I was part of a community.

Jonathan (upper left) and his robot team at the 2014 Pebble Developer Retreat.

The year following the 2013 Retreat was a busy one full of Pebble Firmware updates during the Pebble 2.0 rollout and app updates from developers. The 2014 Developer Retreat was approaching and I was so excited to get the chance to attend. It was amazing to return to see Pebble friends I had made the previous year, make new ones, and catch up with community developers old and new. It was at this retreat that I met Kat, the Event Engineer on the Developer Experience team at Pebble. I approached her and expressed my desire to take a little bit of Pebble home with me to spread in Ottawa. I had a feeling of loss when leaving the developer retreat the previous year and wanted to prevent that when I left this time. Pebble Meetups were already taking place in London and a couple of other locations, and I wanted to do the same in Ottawa. It was following this Retreat that Kat put out the official Pebble Developer Meetup Playbook for satellite Pebble Developer Meetups. With this came the birth of the Pebble Rockstar.

Pebble has become something very dear to me. I'm not just talking about the smartwatch I love to wear and develop apps for, I mean the community of developers and Pebble employees that add the human and emotional element to it all. I had been quite fortunate so far to meet these people and wanted to give back to the community. So, I decided to start up Pebble Developer Meetup Ottawa, PebbleOTT.

PebbleOTT started off as just a few people having drinks and food in a pub listening to me talk about Pebble development, and has now grown into a bunch of people having drinks and food in a pub getting into some serious conversations about potential apps. Now, we’re even planning our first Pebble Ottawa Hackathon, headed by Matt Langlois from Ottawa University. These Meetups are like bringing a little part of the Developer Retreats back home, and help tide me over until the next one. The fact that I was able to get others interested enough to want to take part in Pebble Community Events makes this whole experience worth it. Having a little bit of Pebble at home helps keep me actively involved in the Pebble Developer community.

A few of PebbleOTT's April Meetup attendees sporting Music Boss beanies.

Pebble Developer Meetups are a way to really immerse yourself in the Pebble developer community. They’re a way to discuss interests, meet new people, and share ideas for apps. For me, it has been a way to share my experience so far as a Pebble Developer and get more people on board. We meet regularly, have a few drinks, share some food, and are always thinking of what we can do next to grow our community.

I wasn’t asked to organize Meetups, I volunteered to do it out of passion for what Pebble and Pebble development means to me. It’s more than compiling code and running it on a watch: it's a community of people who are passionate about improving people's lives by complementing the things they do throughout the day with small experiences. It's about friendship, sharing, a pat on the back when something works, and poking fun when the arm of your team’s Pebble controlled robot gets ripped off by another Pebble controlled robot. Being a Pebble Rockstar and organizing Meetups in my community is my way of staying in touch with the people and things that #MakeAwesomeHappen.

Jonathan, Pebble Developer and Rockstar #MusicBoss, #MusicTime, #SimplyAlarm rebootsramblings.ca