Google will hold Project Ara Developers’ Conference this April

Pic: technobuffalo.com

Feb 26, 2014: Project Ara, under the Advanced Technology and Projects group left behind by Motorola, will be detailed to developers by Google this April. On the project’s Google+ page, Paul Eremenko, head of Ara, said the first developers’ conference will take place between April 15 and 16, with the entirety of the event live streamed online. Some lucky participants will be able to attend, though those slots are likely reserved for media.

Some of the live stream portion will offer an interactive Q&A capability, Eremenko said, giving folks at home the opportunity to get involved. This will actually be the first conference of three, the first of which will largely focus on the alpha release of the Ara Module Developers’ Kit (MDK), which is expected to be available online in April as well. Once the conference gets underway, developers will get a detailed walk-through of planned features for Ara, and learn how to develop their own Ara module.

Eremenko describes MDK as “a free and open platform specification and reference implementation that contains everything you need to develop an Ara module.”

The concept of customizing individual parts of a phone is hugely exciting, and it certainly appears as though Google is intent on getting developers onboard. Modular smartphones may not become a reality this year, or even next, but getting the brightest minds to support the project is a nice start. Google said it wants developers big and small to get involved; we’ll see what kind of turnout there is when the conference gets underway.

source: technobuffalo.com