Launched at the CES "Consumer Electronics Show" at the start of this year, the newly established Application Developers Alliance (ADA) has been mustering itself and trying to form something of a discernible voice. The group has been established under a remit to provide cross-platform language-agnostic collaboration, education, cloud hosting, and application testing services.
Although initial developer interest saw 600 programmers sign up during the CES show itself, subsequent additional attention may now depend on the group's initial promise to establish device labs in select cities across the US so that applications can be tested in real time on real devices. According to the ADA website, "We're partnering with manufacturers to make a wide array of devices available, from the newest phones and tablets to Smart TVs and more."
ADA founding member Jake Ward has grand hopes for ADA in that it might become the "connective tissue" between existing communities of developers. Ward has also said that ADA was set up because a need existed in Washington DC to crystallize a group capable of lobbying politicians on the needs of the software application development community in light of the increasingly "technically-related legislation" that is now being considered by Congress.
Initial direction for ADA encompasses the Apple iOS, Android, and BlackBerry operating systems — and so is undeniably mobile focused. ADA says it is also "wide open" to developers who hold desktop and cloud-based applications dearest to their hearts. The group has selected Rackspace hosting as one of its key cloud platforms of choice.
With the constantly shifting emphasis to develop for Android 4.0 Ice-Cream Sandwich, Apple's OS X platform group, other strains of open source, and the Windows (soon to become Windows 8) platforms, ADA has arguably come together at a time when additional cohesion is needed at every level.
Membership in the ADA is also open to individual developers, independent software vendors, and corporations, the latter of which are supplying most of the initial funding for the group.
