LiveCode's first ever Global Jam kicks off at 10am BST Today, Friday, on Google Hangout. Sign up now!

Many open source projects have “global jam” events to rally their community around specific initiatives, and in the LiveCode world we have a big task ahead of us: testing LiveCode 7.0.

This first LiveCode Global Jam will take place over May 23 and 24, with the goal of bringing as many interested LiveCode fans together as possible to make a difference with one of the most ambitious LiveCode versions ever.

Version 7.0 includes a wide range of new features, not only Unicode, but also folding in the Mac OS X Cocoa support and more. With so much going into it, it can become a solid reference version for all of our work with LiveCode going forward – provided we take the time to test it thoroughly before release!

The theme of this first LiveCode Global Jam is “7th Heaven”, sharing a vision with the community for a new version that’s the most capable and stable version ever. To make this happen we’ll need as many people testing it as we can get – and that’s where you come in.

If you can set aside even just an hour during the Global Jam to help test with your projects, it’ll help us all a lot.

Prior to the Global Jam we’ll be providing testing guidelines so you can test copies of your stack files safely, and if you find any errors we’ll include tips for delivering the type of report the dev team can act on quickly. Additionally, we’re putting together a team of volunteers to provide live support for testers, so if you have trouble pinning down a reproducible recipe for your bug report you’ll have people you can contact to help. While we’re submitting bug reports, the team at RunRev is committed to focusing on fixing any issues you find as they come in, in as close to real-time as possible.

But it wouldn’t be much fun if it was all work, so we also have two live Q&A video chats scheduled as well: LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller from Edinburgh and yours truly as LiveCode Community Manager from Los Angeles. The video chats will be held via Google Hangouts so you can submit questions there, and they’ll be recorded so you can watch any you miss later on YouTube.

For access to the event schedule, testing support contacts, and more, you needn’t look any further than your installed copy of LiveCode: the LiveCode Global Jam is being managed via RevNet, accessed through the GoRevNet plugin included in the Development->Plugins menu.

We have a preliminary version of the Global Jam edition of RevNet in place now, and as we get close to the event you’ll find RevNet updated to include the latest info.

If you’d like to volunteer to help provide support for testers, host a video chat of your own, or have any suggestions for other activities for the LiveCode Global Jam, please send me an email and let’s make it happen. Many thanks to all of you who’ve been testing LiveCode 7, and for those of you who can spare some time to test during the Global Jam.

Together we can make this new version of LiveCode one we can be especially proud to share with the world.

Purpose: To get the community working together for 48 hours to help test 6.6.2 / 6.7 and 7.0.

Description: For 48 hours starting at 10am on Friday the 22nd May there is an opportunity to get involved in the first LiveCode Global Jam aimed at refining the current LiveCode releases currently in testing. For the first day, 9 members of the LiveCode team will be in hand to help replicate and even fix bugs live. On the second day, the LiveCode community Manager Richard Gaskin along with a number of volunteers from the community will be working live with all participants to reproduce and report issues. This will be followed by a drive from the LiveCode engineers the following week to fix and release new builds of all three releases: 6.6.2, 6.7 and 7.0. There will be a chance to pick the brains of LiveCode team members at 3 points during the jam via live google hangouts.

Event details
Fri 23 May 10am BST - Sun 10am BST (British Summer Time)

Fri 23 May 10am BST
Google Hangout - Global Jam Welcome
- HOST: Ben Beaumont (LiveCode Product Manager)
- 10 minute intro to the Global Jam
- Q&A
- Link: Join Ben Here

Fri 23 May 10:30 - 17:00 BST
- Live Support + Fixes
—— Ben Beaumont (Testing support)
—— Hanson Schmidt-Cornelius (Testing support)
—— Neil Roger (Testing support)
—— Ian Macphail (Bug fixing)
—— Michael Mccreary (Bug fixing)
—— Elanor Buchanan (Bug fixing)
—— Ali Lloyd (Bug fixing)
—— Fraser Gordon (Bug fixing)
—— Panos Merakos (Bug fixing)

Fri 23 May 6pm BST
Google Hangout - Ask me anything
- HOST: Kevin Miller (LiveCode CEO)
- 10 minute intro to session
- Q&A
- Link: Join Kevin Here

Sat 24 May 10am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)
Google Hangout - LiveCode Community Contribution
- Host: Richard Gaskin (LiveCode Community Manager)
- Link: Join Richard Here

Sat 24 May 10:00 - 18:00 PCT
- Live Support
—— Richard Gaskin (Testing support)