• Read more about Mobomo Named As One Of DC's Fastest Growing Companies

We are thrilled to be named one of DC’s Fastest Growing Companies for 2016 by Trending 40!

Trending 40 is an editorial and event production of DCA Live Media LLC that recognizes and honors companies that have distinguished themselves as key contributors to DC’s community in tech, hospitality, real estate, life sciences, healthcare and non-profits. Companies are nominated and voted for by their peers from the DC corporate community.

Congrats to the other companies that made their list -

• Read more about Our Journey to a New Brand

WHO WE ARE

Rebranding for any company is an evolution of itself. It can mean a new logo, name, symbol or design conformed into one new identity. Once known as two separate companies, Intridea and Mobomo officially became a single website & mobile application development company around 5 months ago. Instead of renaming the company we decided to keep the name Mobomo (we liked their name better)!

After the merger was finalized the next step was to develop a new identity for the our newly formed family, we had to figure out “who” we are as an agency. Luckily, we shared the same vision for “who” we wanted to be which made things fairly straightforward, but I know that this isn’t the case for all rebrands. WE are energetic, WE are agile, We ARE MOBOMO!

Any company whether they are rebranding or not should be eager for new changes and ideas that can further propel their brand which ultimately leads to success. A company that is stagnant or doesn't have the drive or push is destined to fail. A key to any rebranding process is taking all your learnings, both internally and externally, and applying them to your new identity. Along with applying your best practices learned through experiences it is important to listen, be open to all ideas and try new concepts, if not change will never occur thus a stagnant company is inevitable.  In this post I’d love to walk you through our REBRANDING process as well as our newest developments to our new brand that makes it what it is today.

OUR LOGO

A logo or icon represents a company's name, when someone sees that logo they immediately associate with a particular company or brand. As a newly formed identity, we decided a new logo was an immediate next step. After weeks of deliberation, our new company logo was decided on- the hummingbird. A hummingbird to us perfectly combines the energy we put into each project, with the gracefulness and agility that comes with a team who is able to rapidly shift to the needs of our clients.

The new Mobomo word mark, is a custom typeface that is strong and commands attention. Capable of standing out in an overly crowded space, and infinitely versatile, the Mobomo word mark stands as a strong foundation of who we are.

Finalizing THE BRAND

Selecting the right font can be detrimental to a new brand and as the first rule of thumb.. it should always compliment the new logo. For our primary font we chose FF Real for it’s simple and elegant, yet strong appearance that translates well across a variety of different mediums. Our secondary font choice is Source Sans Pro, which was selected because it compliments FF Real perfectly and is a great display font.

The color palette we decided on supports our core beliefs illuminating our agile and energetic spirit towards all of our work.

And no redesign is complete without iconography to help tell it’s story. We chose an icon library that works well both on and offline, it is one that’s simple in it’s level of detail but strong in it’s ability to be recognized.

Combine all of our efforts and you get our final product...!

By: Mike DelGuidice

• Read more about Takeaways from Microsoft IPC’s Bitcoin Breakfast

By: Malena Lopez - Project Manager

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at Microsoft's Innovation and Policy Center on Bitcoin and the potential for banking the unbanked with some awesome people - Brian Forde from MIT's Media Lab, Brian Hoffman from OpenBazaar, and Jerry Brito from coincenter. While I consider myself a Bitcoin novice, I have quickly noticed the equalizer this digital currency can be in the financial landscape. It's truly a breath of fresh air as long as we keep the conversation inclusive and diverse.

That said, Bitcoin and the Blockchain are changing the way we think about currency, digital assets, and identity. During the panel, all speakers touched on thought-provoking and telling points.

1. Bitcoin is freedom for currency.
In a place where regulation is second nature, freedom brings us home to the realization that we can take control of our currency with its decentralization and permission-less trade.

2. Bitcoin can bank the unbanked -- using mobile.
McKinsey estimates that worldwide “2.5 billion of the world’s adults don’t use formal banks.” Let’s compare that with mobile penetration worldwide. At the end of 2014, there were a “total of 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers.” That’s over 50% for mobile Bitcoin potential.

3. Bitcoin has a future.
Think about the Internet - It eliminated the middle man to access and put out information. You no longer had to be a doctor to learn about heart disease; you could do it yourself. Today, we depend on this decentralized model. Bitcoin finds its future in this same way.

• Read more about Going to Guatemala: One Project Manager Shares His Story

By: Patrick Harrington

This is my third time volunteering with From Houses to Homes in Guatemala. My previous two trips were back in the summers of 2011 and 2012. A lot of people ask me, "Why do you keep going back?" The answer to this question is difficult to put into words, but I'll give it my best shot.

From the second I step off the plane in Guatemala City, I know I have been transported into a different world. The cars are older, the traffic seems to have no rules, and the pollution seems to be a little bit stronger. As I try to find a taxi labeled "Antigua" and a driver that can understand my broken Spanish, anxiety begins to grow and I start to ask myself, "What am I doing here?"

That moment of doubt quickly fades as I begin to remember the reasons that bring me to Guatemala. At first it's the natural beauty of the country. The three volcanoes that surround Antigua are a constant reminder of the earth's strength and power. The cobblestone roads and multi-color houses that make up the city remind me of a time that seems lost in most places back in the U.S. The ruins that scatter the country fill me with amazment as I imagine the ancient civilization from which they came.

But what truly keeps bringing me back to Guatemala is the people.

Today, I met the family that we are helping: it is comprised of three boys (ages 17, 10, and 3) and their two parents. In typical Guatemalan fashion, they also introduced us to their entire extended family and group of friends. It didn't take long for the kids and family to warm up to us. The language barrier dissolved as we used our poor Spanish and hand gestures to play games with the kids (try to throw the rock in the bucket, toss the soccer ball off my head, etc.); we were quickly rewarded with laughter and smiles—a reminder that we are all connected.

While it is easy to look around and see everything they don't have, it is the happiness they share with us that keeps me coming back. It is in these moments that I realize life is truly not about what I have, but rather the people that make up my life.

• Read more about NASA Uses "Headless" Drupal To Reach New Website Heights

In April 2015, NASA unveiled a brand new look and user experience for NASA.gov. This release revealed a site modernized to 1) work across all devices and screen sizes (responsive web design), 2) eliminate visual clutter, and 3) highlight the continuous flow of news updates, images, and videos.

With its latest site version, NASA—already an established leader in the digital space—has reached even higher heights by being one of the first federal sites to use a “headless” Drupal approach. Though this model was used when the site was initially migrated to Drupal in 2013, this most recent deployment rounded out the endeavor by using the Services module to provide a REST interface, and ember.js for the client-side, front-end framework.

Implementing a “headless” Drupal approach prepares NASA for the future of content management systems (CMS) by:

1. Leveraging the strength and flexibility of Drupal’s back-end to easily architect content models and ingest content from other sources. As examples:

• Our team created the concept of an “ubernode”, a content type which homogenizes fields across historically varied content types (e.g., features, images, press releases, etc.). Implementing an “ubernode” enables easy integration of content in web services feeds, allowing developers to seamlessly pull multiple content types into a single, “latest news” feed. This approach also provides a foundation for the agency to truly embrace the “Create Once, Publish Everywhere” philosophy of content development and syndication to multiple channels, including mobile applications, GovDelivery, iTunes, and other third party applications.

• Additionally, the team harnessed Drupal’s power to integrate with other content stores and applications, successfully ingesting content from blogs.nasa.gov, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov, earthobservatory.nasa.gov, www.spc.noaa.gov, etc., and aggregating the sourced content for publication.

2. Optimizing the front-end by building with a client-side, front-end framework, as opposed to a theme. For this task, our team chose ember.js, distinguished by both its maturity as a framework and its emphasis of convention over configuration. Ember embraces model-view-controller (MVC), and also excels at performance by batching updates to the document object model (DOM) and bindings.

In another stride toward maximizing “Headless” Drupal’s massive potential, we configured the site so that JSON feed records are published to an Amazon S3 bucket as an origin for a content delivery network (CDN), ultimately allowing for a high-security, high-performance, and highly available site.

Below is an example of how the technology stack which we implemented works:

Using ember.js, the NASA.gov home page requests a list of nodes of the latest content to display. Drupal provides this list as a JSON feed of nodes:

Ember then retrieves specific content for each node. Again, Drupal provides this content as a JSON response stored on Amazon S3:

Finally, Ember distributes these results into the individual items for the home page:

The result? A NASA.gov architected for the future. It is worth noting that upgrading to Drupal 8 can be done without reconfiguring the ember front-end. Further, migrating to another front-end framework (such as Angular or Backbone) does not require modification of the Drupal CMS.

• Read more about Mobomo Announces Management Changes

We are excited to announce expansion and growth of Mobomo's executive team:

Ken Fang, formerly CEO, will now serve as President of the company. Since joining in 2010, Ken has led Mobomo from a small startup to a company with over $5M in annual revenue, a more than tripled staff, consecutively high rankings by Inc. 5000, over 120 product launches, and an increasingly glowing client roster. In Ken's new role, he will be focused on high-level company strategy, corporate partnerships, and sales.

Brian Lacey will be assuming Ken's responsibilities as CEO. Brian joined Mobomo in 2011 as a Project Manager, and because of his passion for UX design, was quickly promoted to Creative Director. Within a short period of time, Brian was soon appointed COO, and under his tenure, Mobomo successfully built out well-defined design, development, and quality assurance capabilities. He also spearheaded the founding of the Buenos Aires office and helped acquire Exceptual Technologies, among other operational expansions.

Jesse Vizcaino will be assuming Brian's responsibilities as COO. In 2012, Jesse launched his Mobomo career as a Project Manager and quickly rose to Director. In his various roles, he has been instrumental in guiding Mobomo’s strategic direction, streamlining operations, and signing flagship customers such as the District of Columbia Retirement Board and the National Library of Medicine.

Please join us in congratulating Ken, Brian, and Jesse: we’re excited to see the great things they’ll accomplish in their new roles, and wish them all the best.

• Read more about Federal Mobile Computing Summit 2014: Government in the Future

We were particularly proud to see one of our favorite clients, Peter Dewar, Chief Technology Officer at the District of Columbia Retirement Board (DCRB), participate in a thought-provoking panel on Wearables and the Internet of Things. The session's description as a “visionary panel” proved to be true, as all of the participants outlined the groundbreaking mobile capabilities they foresaw as feasible within the next five years.

Mr. Dewar described his vision for implementing Google Glass in the office, at conferences—even for pension fund participants, staff, and Board members. Taking the idea of “smart rooms” even further, he also described a futuristic conference room, which would be able to set up a meeting’s required media (think dial-ins, projectors, etc.) upon the meeting organizer’s entrance or (biometric) authentication.

We from Mobomo were on the edge of our seats thinking about the possibilities, and excited about building them—especially for our government clients. Congrats to Peter Dewar for a great panel session, and thanks to Tom Suder for hosting yet another fantastic summit. We’re looking forward to next year’s—and to the future of mobile (in the government!).

• Read more about In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...NASA Gets Their Webby!

Previously, we mentioned that NASA won a Webby, and we were delighted to accompany them to New York City to receive it. With a packed schedule of events, the Webbys pulled out all the stops with a star-studded, wildly entertaining night to remember. Award recipients and attendees were treated to a cocktail hour, followed by a fun, fast-paced ceremony at the famed Cipriani Wall Street.

During a delicious, four-course meal, guests were regaled with a stream of acceptance speeches by all of the winners. All speeches had to be 5 words or less, which left little room for rambling, but lots of room for wit. A crowd favorite? A speech that wisely stated: “As my favorite song says—”

NASA astronaut, Mike Massimino, wasn’t the only powerhouse in the room: guests rubbed elbows with Orange Is The New Black’s Taylor Schilling; Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player; the Jamaican Olympic Bobsled team; De La Soul; the co-founder of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee; and one of Mobomo’s all-time favorites, George Takei (who presented NASA’s award!). And for those who want to know exactly what the Fox says, we can tell you, but we’ll have to charge: he sat right next to us during the ceremony, and as you’d expect, had a lot to say.

After an exciting night, the Webbys closed with one more after-party, where guests celebrated their Internet wins. Congratulations, again NASA! We may be biased, but you were the most stellar winner in the room.

• Read more about Molten Magic: Mobomo Visits Mars, Inc.

We love all of our customers, but working with a world-renowned, chocolate company makes everything a little bit sweeter!

While building mobile solutions to help Mars’ global sales teams, we were invited to visit the company’s main North American candy campus. There we took a private, guided tour around, and saw exactly how all that Mars magic is made.

We’ve been on a lot of tours, but none as colorful and sweet! We got to see the magical center of an M+M, giant vats of gooey chocolate, and even some of our favorite candies being made. Willy Wonka himself would have been awed.

We couldn’t be more…satisfied to call Mars one of our clients—and we certainly couldn’t be more full! Thanks for the tour and treats, Mars! We’ll happily come back (and taste test!) any day.

• Read more about Mobomo Profiled by Leading DC Media Outlet

For Mobomo, the media coverage just keeps rolling in. This week, we are honored to be the feature of In The Capital’s latest tech profile!

The DC-based blog interviewed our very own founder, Barg Upender, to discuss our position at the forefront of the Mobile-Federal IT space, exactly what spawned Mobomo, and the various feats we’ve accomplished since our inception not long ago. Additionally, Barg gives some insight into our mobile development model, and what he predicts happening in Federal IT.

Head over to In The Capital for the full article!