A team of software engineers and developers from Costa Rica took second place at SenchaCon 2013, a specialized information technology (IT) conference that recently took place in Orlando. SenchaCon is organized by Sencha, a visionary company that develops frameworks, services and tools that are shaping the future of the World Wide Web.
SenchaCon 2013 was essentially a combination IT conference and hackathon, which means that attendees are encouraged to collaborate on developing a software solution. There is usually a monetary incentive involved, and in this case the Alivebox team return to Costa Rica with $1,000 in their pockets; but, the real benefit of taking second place at the hackathon is the recognition they gain among developer circles.
Alivebox was the only Costa Rican firm participating in this event, which is centered on developing platforms using HTML5 and JavaScript. HTML5 is the new paradigm and standard of the World Wide Web; it is a markup language like its predecessors HTML and XML, and it is focused on cross-platform functionality, responsiveness and adaptive design. The Costa Rica Star website, for example, runs on a WordPress publishing platform that includes HTML5 elements.
One of the tenets of the HTML5 philosophy is that sites should not strive to look the same on a desktop PC or an iPhone. Developers should strive for functionality; to this end, a website that allows you to recharge your prepaid mobile phone service should get the job done on a Nokia 2730 Classic running Opera Mini or on a desktop Mac running a Firefox browser.
Alivebox strongly caters to business enterprises that come to Costa Rica in search of nearshoring solutions, which are often more sensible than traditional business process offshoring (BPO) for cultural and strategic reasons. Alivebox develops rich Internet application, mobile user and server technologies for companies that arrive in Costa Rica looking to roll out nearshore BPO activities. The company has been around for 12 years and has also worked on projects in the United States and Europe.
