As developers, when we have an idea for app, we can build it. But what if you’re not a developer, but you have the idea for the next great app? Dandy recently launched their beta where people can share their app ideas with the Dandy community and help build an amazing app together. Last week, I spoke with Karl Allen-Muncey and Taylor Jones during BlackBerry Live to talk apps, BlackBerry 10, and building the next great app.

We are pleased to announce the opening of our first BlackBerry® Innovation Center in Latin America. Based in Buenos Aires, it is intended to be the home of developers wanting to learn, develop and be successful with BlackBerry 10. Located in the heart of Palermo, one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, the doors are now open for developers. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert, a novice, an independent developer, an entrepreneur, a corporate developer or all of the above, you can come and jam with us.

We’re here to provide resources and support to make things happen. Of course the coffee and cookies help too. Developers can hang out, talk business, take classes and workshops, run community meetups  get support, use it as their own office and always for free.

There will be lot of different activities in the center. For example, the first meetup of the local community is happening on November 23rd (details here)

Also, there are already scheduled free training courses happening during November and December.

But besides the planned activities, we want to make sure that developers find this place as the place to be when wondering to develop for BlackBerry. This is your home, and we are here to assist you!

To register please visit
http://blackberryinnovationcenter.com/registro.html

We announced the solutions that were chosen for implementation at BlackBerry Jam Americas. The implementation for all three challenges were discussed and solutions posted to github during the Unconference Day at BlackBerry Jam Americas.

Pumano Dmitriy
Horizontal 3D carousel gallery without arrows #StumpTheBlackBerryDevs
http://t.co/84XjiQJu

rcmaniac25 Vinnie Simonetti
@BlackBerryDev How do I make this in Cascades #StumpTheBlackBerryDevs
http://t.co/IC5wnbJi

pbillings512 Patrick Billings
@BlackBerryDev I want a hide/unhide area that can reveal extra info like today’s date, etc. #StumpTheBlackBerryDevs
http://t.co/XdyKJB9z

See a solution that you wish we’d implemented? Follow the lead of one of our public developers, implement a stumper, and submit your solution to our github repo!

Is it all about the choice of development languages and runtimes? New tools that help you develop apps more quickly and easily? Clever integration with HTML5 systems? Or is it something else entirely? Your reason can be anything you want it to be.

What’s my reason? It’s the 55,000+ followers of @BlackBerryDev who inspire me.

Share your reason with like-minded developers all over the world and be part of something great.

Following the huge success of the BlackBerry® 10 Jam event in Cape Town, South Africa in July, Research In Motion® (RIM®) held a BlackBerry 10 ‘Mini’ Jam roadshow in Lagos, Nigeria at the CcHub and in Nairobi, Kenya at at the Ole Sereni Hotel in late August.

BlackBerry continues to grow from strength to strength in Africa, and both BlackBerry® 7 OS and BlackBerry 10 represent a massive opportunity for African mobile developers. BlackBerry is the number 1 smartphone vendor in Africa (Canalys Smartphone Data, Q2 2012) and is the top-selling smartphone in South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. As well as a huge local community, African developers have the opportunity to reach a global audience of over 78 million BlackBerry customers. Africa is in the midst of a smartphone revolution, and BlackBerry is leading the charge, creating huge opportunities for the African mobile development community and students aspiring to new opportunities.

The events, which gave mobile developers a chance to learn more about the unique capabilities of BlackBerry 10, underlined the importance of the African developer community to RIM. Collectively, around 130 developers participated, learning about the BlackBerry 10 experience, architecture and the tools and resources available to create locally relevant apps for the BlackBerry platform. Some attendees were new to mobile development, so the sessions also provided a great opportunity to learn about skills and job opportunities in the African mobile industry.

Waldi Wepener, Regional Director for East, West and Central Africa at Research In Motion, said: “The enthusiasm and excitement at our BlackBerry 10 events in Africa was palpable, especially during the app competitions where we rewarded the winners with some very innovative app ideas. The technology hubs in Kenya and Lagos are a hotbed of talent and we are pleased to support the growing mobile development communities here. Africa is part of a growing list of regions around the world creating apps for our new platform.”

There is already a very established BlackBerry developer community in Africa. In Kenya, Avallain Africa just launched a mobile health app for BlackBerry smartphone users, which allows users to quickly and easily find trusted health information and resources from any location in Kenya. In Nigeria, local developers have designed a number of apps for current BlackBerry models, including the Nigerian Constitution App by Pledge51 for access to important constitutional information; SeeAm, to find the location of all ATMs throughout Nigeria; and the EssentialApp, a free-to-download BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) integrated app that provides a useful guide for entertainment and day-to-day life in Nigeria. (Hear more from Nigerian developers about why they develop for BlackBerry!)

Nigerian developers queue for BlackBerry 10

Some 70 Nigerian developers attended the BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam in Lagos and the excitement about the new BlackBerry 10 platform was plain to see. They were queuing up to share ideas and mingle with other BlackBerry developers.

Delegates choose “Make We Bet” as the most innovative application in a competition, with the creator winning a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha prototype device for mobile development, and a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. William Ukoh (@williamukoh), the creator of “Make We Bet” said: “For years, BlackBerry has been an appealing platform for my colleagues and I. The experience of meeting with my peers and learning more about the BlackBerry platform has been worthwhile.”

Femi Longe, a Co-Founder of the CcHub added: “We were impressed after seeing what BlackBerry 10 has to offer, and we are excited by an even closer look at the platform and its capabilities at the BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam sessions in Lagos. At CcHub, we have strong ties with the developer community and encouraging development is our goal. We’re eager to start using the updated user interface features offered by Cascades™ in BlackBerry 10, and we look forward to enriching the user experience to ensure our BlackBerry-based solutions and applications remain attractive and cutting-edge.”

High interest in Kenya

The BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam developer event in Nairobi drew more than 50 developers. The keen attendance, interest and eager interaction by the developers showed that the Kenyan developer community is excited about and ready for BlackBerry 10.

Developers at the event praised BlackBerry 10 and the Mini Jam event. George Murage, Business Developer and Blogger for Juuchini, said: “The one-on-one expert guidance on creating BlackBerry 10 apps from the RIM team will enable local developers to build better mobile apps in various languages, and more importantly, help build an ecosystem to support Kenyan consumers when BlackBerry 10 launches.”

“I am thrilled the BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam has offered me the opportunity to interact and know more about BlackBerry 10 experience. It has been one of the most inspiring experience and learnings for me,” added Eric Omondi, from the Africa Solidarity Volunteer Foundation.

Grace Kihumba, Business Developer at Strathmore University iLab, said: “The experience has been an eye-opener for me. A few years ago, when I was developing apps for BlackBerry they didn’t have many applications and it’s quite fascinating to see how far they have come with the new platforms. I have been deeply motivated to develop more apps for BlackBerry.”

One of the most exciting recent developments for the Kenyan developer community, the iAfya app, created a lot of buzz at BB10 Mini Jam Kenya. Dr Allan Makenzi, MD of Avallain Africa, attended to talk about the iAfya app and the importance and opportunity for developers in the mobile health sector. He praised BlackBerry for providing a platform that is bringing services such as healthcare information closer to African consumers.

Here’s Dr. Makenzi addressing developers at the Nairobi event:

We can’t wait to see what comes from our Kenyan and Nigerian developer communities in the coming months. To see more of the BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam event in Nigeria, click here and for Kenya, click here.

It’s my pleasure to announce the 2012 BlackBerry Developer Community Awards!

It’s your turn to reward a fellow BlackBerry® developer who writes an awesome blog, always replies on Twitter®, or who has the answer on the BlackBerry Developer Support Forums. The BlackBerry Developer Community Awards is a community-based recognition program that relies on you, the BlackBerry development community.

There are six award categories and we need you to nominate and vote for the developers, evangelists and contributors that exemplify our community’s creativity and collaborative spirit.

Here’s how it works: from now until Sunday September 16th, you can make one nomination per category, either via our online form or Twitter. On Tuesday September 18th, we will announce the finalists in each category.

When the nominees are finalized on the 18th, we will open the platform for voting. Voting will close on Wednesday September 26th. We’ll tally the votes, and will announce the winners live! The ceremony will take place at the BlackBerry® Jam Americas TweetUp, located in the BlackBerry Social Lounge from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

Here are the categories:

• Must-Follow BlackBerry Developer on Twitter
• Must-Read BlackBerry Developer Blog
• Must-See BlackBerry Developer Evangelist
• Most Helpful BlackBerry Team Member on Twitter
• Most Helpful Contributor to the BlackBerry Developer Forums
• Best Open Source Contribution

Here’s how to nominate:

• Through our online form, or
• via Twitter. (Just send a tweet that mentions @BlackBerryDev, the #BBDevAwards hashtag, and the category.)

And here’s the timeline:

• Now – September 16th: Open nominations
• September 18th – September 25th: Open voting
• September 26th: Winners announced at BlackBerry Jam Americas TweetUp

So get to it! Now is the time to recognize your fellow BlackBerry developers for their contributions. Head over to the BlackBerry Developer Community Awards page and nominate your favorites. We’ll see you at BlackBerry Jam Americas in San Jose, where we’ll announce the winners!

What do you think? Will some awards be more tightly contested than others? Is there a clear winner in any category? Sound off in the comments below.

BlackBerry Jam Americas – Sept 25-27, San Jose CA

BlackBerry® Jam Americas 2012 is a showcase for the bold, new direction BlackBerry is heading with the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. The event attracts developers and industry leaders who understand the power of BlackBerry and want to build their success with the platform. Whether you’re a Native, Web, or Android™ developer, don’t miss this opportunity to explore the powerful, game-changing BlackBerry 10 platform.

Join us, September 25-27 in San Jose, California. Register Now and use promo code DJAA45 to register for only $299.00

BlackBerry® Jam Americas is less than three weeks away! As you may know, Day 3 is Unconference Day and we need your help creating the agenda. Here’s how it works:

We are now accepting submissions for session topics in two categories: sessions to be led by our Research In Motion® (RIM®) experts, and sessions to be led by you, members of the BlackBerry developer community. We have room on the schedule for eight sessions, of which four will be led by RIM experts, and four will be led by BlackBerry developers.

How do you participate? It’s simple. From now through Friday September 14th, you can propose a session topic via Twitter®, Facebook®, or in the comments below. If you want to send us a tweet, be sure to mention @BlackBerryDev, and remember to include the #BBUnconference hashtag.

Once we collect your suggestions, we’ll put it to a vote. The winning entries will become part of Unconference Day at BlackBerry Jam Americas – and four lucky community members will be invited to host their own sessions!

(If you miss the online voting, don’t worry. You can still propose sessions on-site in San Jose using the Unconference Schedule whiteboard.)

We’re committed to you, the BlackBerry developer community. Let’s work together to build an unforgettable Unconference Day that covers the topics you want to hear about the most.

So, what do you think? What sessions do you want to see on September 27th? Let us know on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments. We’ll be listening.

BlackBerry Jam Americas – Sept 25-27, San Jose CA

BlackBerry® Jam Americas 2012 is a showcase for the bold, new direction BlackBerry is heading with the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. The event attracts developers and industry leaders who understand the power of BlackBerry and want to build their success with the platform. Whether you’re a Native, Web, or Android™ developer, don’t miss this opportunity to explore the powerful, game-changing BlackBerry 10 platform.

Join us, September 25-27 in San Jose, California. Register Now and use promo code DJAA45 to register for only $299.00

Every day, BlackBerry® developers use the BlackBerry Developer Support Forum to get help when they get stuck. Every once in a while, a thread appears that epitomizes the peer to peer interaction we envisioned when we launched these forums. I want to share with you an example of how to optimize your initial post to a thread to ensure your problem gets the best possible attention.

On Wednesday August 22nd, jgobert started a thread called “App crashing when accessing email attachment…” His organization was upgrading to the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone running BlackBerry® Device Software 7.1.While testing out one of their custom, mission-critical applications, he discovered that the application was failing and throwing a ControlledAccessException. The very first post in this thread shows jgobert did his homework before posting. He supplied a ton of information about the problem including:

• basic details about what the application does
• what it was doing when it threw the exception
• a stack trace showing the exception being thrown
• application permissions
• BlackBerry Device Software versions where the application worked and where it didn’t.

That covers just about everything that could be supplied about a problem, except for some source code itself. Simon Hain was the first to reply, asking for the source code that was triggering the exception. After the source code was posted, Peter Strange replied with a theory of the cause, which was bang on. Over the next few pages Simon, Peter and I worked with jgobert to help modify the application to prevent the exception, which was caused by more stringent security in the newer software. Posts by all involved in the thread provided great detail, allowing for a solution within 24 hours of the first post. Jgobert could then move on with the deployment of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to include all those details in a first post. Our BlackBerry Developer Forum community is an experienced group who love a challenge. Feeding them lots of details will catch their interest and get them thinking about your problem. If jgobert had posted a basic message simply stating that their application throws a ControlledAccessException after upgrading to 7.1, or posted some source code and simply said it stopped working, the post would have received much less attention.

The moral of the story here is that you can really help yourself get help. Do a bit of research into your problem and post all the relevant information you can gather about your problem. The quality of information you provide to the community will directly affect the quality of response you receive. When posting, you can refer to the “Information to include when posting to the XYZ forum” postings at the top of most forums. They’ll help to instruct you on the most important information to include in your post. Help us create more successful threads like this in the BlackBerry Developer Support Forum.

One of our biggest goals over the past year has been improving our community’s developer experience. There are a lot of moving parts to that. We’ve improved code signing stability, revamped the website, seeded BlackBerry® 10 Dev Alpha testing devices, launched a rewards program and more. But we’re not slowing down; we’re continuing to look for new ways to help our community.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be launching the first phase of this project. When we launch, we’ll publish another blog post and notifications on what you need to do then. Today I wanted to let you know about the next improvement, focused on how you login to our systems. Though the BlackBerry® JamZone login has served us well over the last few years, the current design has limited our ability to build some really cool things to enhance the community’s experience. We’ve made the decision to transition the BlackBerry JamZone to use BlackBerry® ID. Our friends over at the BlackBerry® Beta Zone are moving to BlackBerry® ID also.

The first phase of this project will require transitioning your current JamZone login to a BlackBerry ID login. More specific information on that is below. Don’t panic — existing accounts tied to your JamZone account login, such as bug tracker and Lithium as well as badges, will automatically be upgraded as well. Ultimately, our goal is one login.

Again, this won’t be launching for a few weeks, and there will be another blog post and notifications when it goes live. If you already have a BlackBerry ID, you’re ahead of the game. How do you know? If you have a BlackBerry® smartphone or a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, you already have a BlackBerry ID. It’s what you use to purchase apps or set up your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Eventually, that will become your single login for all BlackBerry properties.

After the rollout, when you log in to your JamZone account, you will be asked which login you want to use: JamZone (old system) or BlackBerry ID (new system).

If you choose to log in with your JamZone account, you will be asked to either create a BlackBerry ID account if you don’t already have one, or link your BlackBerry ID account if you do have one. Then you will complete a quick account validation, and after that you’re logged in with BlackBerry ID. You will continue to log in with BlackBerry ID in the future. (You will no longer be able to log in with your JamZone account credentials.)

If you choose to log in with BlackBerry ID, you will complete a quick account validation, and after that you’ll be logged in with BlackBerry ID and will continue to log in that way in the future.

You will be able to log in to JamZone, the Developer Support Forums, Issue Tracker, and Rewards using your BlackBerry ID. Joining webcasts will be easier as well, and you will also be able to change your account’s email address. This is only the first phase of a bigger project to improve your online experience.

Again, this is not happening today but in a few weeks, and we will let you know when it goes live. We’re pretty excited about rolling out this new system, and we can’t wait to see what you use those brain cells for, once you no longer have so many logins to remember. The next great app idea, perhaps?

jQuery Mobile is a touch-optimized Web framework for smartphones and tablets, and is one of the most watched and forked projects on Github. We are pleased to announce that one of our own, Jason Scott, has been made an official committer to the jQuery Mobile project.

Jason has been with Research In Motion® (RIM®) for over three years, and has worked on a wide variety of projects such as BlackBerry® Theme Studio, BlackBerry® WebWorks™, and Ripple. Currently he is member of the Web Platform team where his primary focus is on supporting jQuery Mobile.

RIM is committed to providing an excellent experience to their developers and their users. As we see more and more developers transitioning to web-based platforms like BlackBerry WebWorks or Apache Cordova, the need for solid mobile web frameworks becomes apparent. RIM has recognized jQuery Mobile as an important and influential project in the mobile web community, and Jason’s priority is to ensure the jQuery Mobile experience is the best possible experience it can be on the BlackBerry Platform. Currently, Jason is providing general and BlackBerry specific fixes to the jQuery Mobile Project as well as providing related support to enterprise clients and developer guidance in the forums.

We have heard from the community that they want to create a mobile web app that looks like a native BlackBerry app. That is why, as we move closer to releasing BlackBerry® 10, Jason and his team will be releasing a jQuery Mobile theme with the BlackBerry 10 look and feel. Follow the Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog to find out first when you can start using the BlackBerry 10 jQuery Mobile Theme.

Follow Jason® on Twitter (@JsonScott) for updates on jQuery Mobile or whatever else he is thinking about.