I thought I'd wait until the honeymoon feeling died down a bit..
But my reaction is still strong: I came away really impressed with
everyone I encountered.
I have always felt a bit like an outsider in this community, but I
now realize that what I have been feeling is more along the lines
of "out classed". 
I have now witnessed the orders of magnitude difference in skills
that Brooks wrote about in Mythical Man Month. I think I'm about
in the middle. I've experienced the lower tier and now I've witnessed
the upper tier. Thanks for making me feel welcome even though
my packet loss is ~80%.
Little conference tweaks I would suggest for next time:
聽聽at least for the first day, have everyone /always/ introduce themselves
聽聽聽before speaking (whether lecturing or questioning), e.g., "Bil Kleb,
聽聽聽Aero Engineer, NASA" so everyone can associate names and faces
聽聽use a larger font on a two-sided name tag (front and back containing
聽聽聽the same data), and optionally room for the person's online handle
聽聽inject some more fresh fruit into the food chain
Are there other conferences like this? I.e., where all the world's best
programmers hang out, or is Ruby blessed?
路路路
--
Bil Kleb, Hampton, Virginia
* Bil Kleb <Bil.Kleb@NASA.Gov> [2004-10-09 05:16:05 +0900]:
Little conference tweaks I would suggest for next time:
at least for the first day, have everyone /always/ introduce themselves
before speaking (whether lecturing or questioning), e.g., "Bil Kleb,
Aero Engineer, NASA" so everyone can associate names and faces
use a larger font on a two-sided name tag (front and back containing
the same data), and optionally room for the person's online handle
inject some more fresh fruit into the food chain
Good suggestions. ++1
Are there other conferences like this? I.e., where all the world's best
programmers hang out, or is Ruby blessed?
I'd like to see a rails working conference where we did nothing but
code up webpages (all levels supported, beginner, intermediate and
advanced.)
路路路
--
Jim Freeze
Bil, thanks for the comments and suggestions! We're taking notes. I
like to think the conference gets better every year. Comments like
these definitely help.
We'd love to hear other suggestions from the attendees of this
conference or those of past years. FWIW, I think Ruby is either
blessed or Ruby has blessed us.
Thanks,
Chad
路路路
On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 05:16:05 +0900, Bil Kleb <bil.kleb@nasa.gov> wrote:
I thought I'd wait until the honeymoon feeling died down a bit..
But my reaction is still strong: I came away really impressed with
everyone I encountered.
I have always felt a bit like an outsider in this community, but I
now realize that what I have been feeling is more along the lines
of "out classed". 
I have now witnessed the orders of magnitude difference in skills
that Brooks wrote about in Mythical Man Month. I think I'm about
in the middle. I've experienced the lower tier and now I've witnessed
the upper tier. Thanks for making me feel welcome even though
my packet loss is ~80%.
Little conference tweaks I would suggest for next time:
at least for the first day, have everyone /always/ introduce themselves
before speaking (whether lecturing or questioning), e.g., "Bil Kleb,
Aero Engineer, NASA" so everyone can associate names and faces
use a larger font on a two-sided name tag (front and back containing
the same data), and optionally room for the person's online handle
inject some more fresh fruit into the food chain
Are there other conferences like this? I.e., where all the world's best
programmers hang out, or is Ruby blessed?
--
Bil Kleb, Hampton, Virginia
Sign me up! Also, I may be able to offer a few UML systems for people to play on.
-- Matt
It's not what I know that counts, it's what I can remember in time to use.
路路路
On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 jim@freeze.org wrote:
I'd like to see a rails working conference where we did nothing but
code up webpages (all levels supported, beginner, intermediate and
advanced.)
Chad Fowler wrote:
We'd love to hear other suggestions from the attendees of this
conference or those of past years.
Actually, that was one suggestion I forgot: The New Orleans XP/Agile
Universe Conference had a few PostIt note pads, a few tethered pens, and
a wall designated for posting comments. This was available during the last
1.5 days of the conference for all to see and use.
It almost worked like a Wiki where one person would seed an idea and others
would vote on it and in some cases, even work it into a full-fledged action
plan.
Regards,
路路路
--
Bil Kleb, Hampton, Virginia
I already wrote some of these in 3rd day blog entry ( http://fhwang.net/blog/37.html ) but I'll put 'em here for the sake of discussion:
+ Rob McKinnon had started a rubygarden page where people could post info about themselves, but I don't think it was well-publicized enough or used enough. Next year I'd also encourage people to post their own photos of themselves so you could recognize them by looking at their face instead of search for the name tag.
+ Also, if the name tags could have pins at the back instead of being hung from a strap, that might be better. I felt a little self-conscious looking at everybody's stomachs.
+ This is probably far-fetched, but if we can find somebody to serve as an informal translator for our Japanese guests, that would be just amazing. Maybe a deal where somebody who can speak Japanese and English, and agrees to serve as their wingman for most of the event (esp. for any talks), in exchange for getting some or all of their admission fee discounted? It would encourage western Rubyists to learn Japanese, at least.
+ Depending on how big things get next year, and if there's one track or two, it might be a good idea to have a little time set aside for last-minute talks. I could think of a few last-minute talks I would've demanded last weekend, if I'd had the option 
These are small points, though. The WiFi and power supply were major improvements over last year, and you can't beat the people. It's the most inspiring tech conference I go to, and I suspect it will stay that way for some while.
F.
路路路
On Oct 8, 2004, at 4:53 PM, Chad Fowler wrote:
We'd love to hear other suggestions from the attendees of this
conference or those of past years. FWIW, I think Ruby is either
blessed or Ruby has blessed us.
Bil, thanks for the comments and suggestions! We're taking notes. I
like to think the conference gets better every year. Comments like
these definitely help.
We'd love to hear other suggestions from the attendees of this
conference or those of past years. FWIW, I think Ruby is either
blessed or Ruby has blessed us.
Thanks,
Chad
I'd also like to thank the organizers again for the labor of love that went into the conference. The only annoying thing about it was that after leaving I felt the need to go and rewrite just about everything I had to take advantage of the new things I'd learned
My one comment about the conference are:
- Having discussion groups on some particular topics would be nice. There was a lot of potential discussion to be had on things like RubyGems, Code Generation, and so on. While there was time to have meetings, and I'm sure that they were held, I'm not socially confident enough to walk into a discussion and make myself a part of it. Having a more formal introduction to a discussion might be nice. (I apologize for asking people to help accomodate my social ineptness )
Gordon James Miller <gmiller@bittwiddlers.com> wrote in message news:<4168B192.4050901@bittwiddlers.com>...
<snip>
My one comment about the conference are:
- Having discussion groups on some particular topics would be nice.
There was a lot of potential discussion to be had on things like
RubyGems, Code Generation, and so on. While there was time to have
meetings, and I'm sure that they were held, I'm not socially confident
enough to walk into a discussion and make myself a part of it. Having a
more formal introduction to a discussion might be nice. (I apologize
for asking people to help accomodate my social ineptness )
This is why I think it might be best to have two tracks next year.
That way we could finish all of the talks before dinner, get some
food, and then have more time for discussion groups, lightning talks,
general socializing, etc, after dinner.
But, that largely depends on submissions for next year. And, of
course, how David and Chad feel about it.
Dan
I would rather see the conference extended by a day. Also, slightly better meal scheduling could help, some of the meal breaks were much longer than necessary.
-- Matt
It's not what I know that counts, it's what I can remember in time to use.
路路路
On Mon, 11 Oct 2004, Daniel Berger wrote:
This is why I think it might be best to have two tracks next year.
That way we could finish all of the talks before dinner, get some
food, and then have more time for discussion groups, lightning talks,
general socializing, etc, after dinner.