Tokyo’s Android Bazaar And Conference: Innovating for Japan

The Japan Android Group recently held its semi-annual event, the Android Bazaar and Conference 2011 Summer, at Waseda University in Tokyo.

The event was began with a keynote speech by Dr. Fujio Maruyama, the chairman of the group and visiting professor at Waseda University. He explained how much grassroots efforts have been contributing to the rapid recovery from the earthquake/tsunami devastation. He mentioned developing Android apps for Japan’s tsunami survivors, cloud-hosted information resources, and also collaborative work for collecting safety information of disaster victims.

Several web juggernauts presented their recent efforts on community development for the Japanese Android community, as well as their views on Android-related trends in this country.

Naoya Ito, the CTO of Japan’s largest social game platform GREE, introduced a story that the popular photo sharing iPhone app Instagram has engaged more than seven million users worldwide, despite being developed and maintained only by four people. This kind of success is indicative of a radical change that we have never experienced before.

Android for the Birds?

Noriyoshi Nambo, a bird enthusiast and system developer as well as the founder of bird snapshot aggregation site Buncho.in, exhibited an Android-based bird feeder and a remote-controllable fan that makes his java sparrow feel comfortable.

A developer duo called Zako no Karaage (meaning fried small fish) exhibited an augmented reality app that allows users to see a 360-degree image of sightseeing spots through an Android handset screen.