RailsConf 2006

Finally getting caught up from RailsConf--which was a great exposure to many interesting and dedicated people laying the groundwork for my Web 2.0 framework of choice Ruby on Rails. I arrived for the pre-conference guidebook by Mike Clark and Dave Thomas. They are an incredible team for presenting clear and concise RoR seminars and they were well attended. I also had the pleasure meeting John Long who demo'd his Radiant CMS system soon to be powering Ruby-Lang.org. John is a talented designer, an accomplished rails architect and really, really likeable. I expect John to find much success in his project. Also before the conference, I had some one-on-one time with the man himself DHH. I found that I have some work to do reading up on Agile methods--I barely speak the lingo--but did find common ground in an appreciation of our European citizenship (I married into mine). The conference itself is a bit of a blur. 600 faces to match with names I've seen on TechCrunch, RubyOnRails.org, and the mailing lists. Great meets include Chad Fowler, Martin Fowler (no relationship), Jason Fried, Al Chang, Scott Raymond, among many, many others. Note that I stayed at the conference hotel--the Whyndam O'Hare. Pluses were no commute to the conference and a great camaraderie with other attendees. The downside? The Internet! It flat-out stopped under the full-brunt of all those brushed aluminum MacBook Pro's. Somehow I made it through the weekend on GPRS, and on Monday I caught up online during breaks of the Getting Real seminar by the 37 Signals team DHH + Jason Fried and their designer Ryan. There is a lot to take away from a concentrated session covering lightweight design philosophies. Some were reaffirming for what I do in my own practices, but others will take some time to digest before I can decide whether they are a good fit for the organizations and structure I create. All-in-all it is a great opportunity to hear first-hand experience from the guys at the epicenter of Web 2.0 and Ruby on Rails. I would recommend the seminar to anyone managing a team tackling a modern web application.