Re: Ruby in Australia...

[Daniel N]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Hal Fulton <rubyh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, all...

I have talked with two or three Rubyists in Australia --
principally Melbourne I think -- and I am wondering
how active things are over there?

Is there an Australia-wide Ruby conference perhaps?
Or might there be later?


Hal Fulton

Hey Hal,

Ruby is alive and well over here :)  We have a very vibrant collection of folks in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth too.  

We usually meet up in our respective cities and afaik there's not been plans for a ruby conf here.  

Not that the thought hasn't crossed my mind, but it's quite a long way for visitors from other countries to attend.  I'd personally love to see an australian ruby conf go down.  There's a _lot_ of talent over here, and a lot of passionate people involved in the community.

I've included the ROR oceania group on this reply so more people will see this email.

Cheers

Daniel

[Colin Campbell-McPherson]

It's true. Dynamic types and snags on the barbie go together like cheese and crackers.

[Ben Schwarz]

I think railscamp is how we do conferences ruby conferences here.
It has all the elements except for structured, pre booked talks.


On Oct 29, 4:35 pm, Colin Campbell-McPherson

<cora.nightsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's true. Dynamic types and snags on the barbie go together like  
> cheese and crackers.
>
> On 29/10/2009, at 11:35 AM, Daniel N wrote:
>
>
>
>
>

> > On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Hal Fulton <rubyhac...@gmail.com>  

[Pat Allan]

In discussions in the #roro IRC channel yesterday, that's what I was
wondering too - do we need a conference when we have rails camps
already? There's value in both - and if a conference was done really
well (see futureruby/rubyfringe as an example), then it could well be
worth looking into.

It's also worth noting that not everyone wants to come to rails camp -
on one level, that's fine, we can't please everyone, but it's also
worth listening to these differing opinions, see how perhaps we can
improve rails camps.

Cheers

--
Pat

[Ben Schwarz]

Less booze (I bet some people would never have thought I'd say that)
would certainly make for a better event. I'd be interested in running
such
a thing, like, next year :)

[Dr Nic Williams]

Let's spend some time working on the slogan though. "RailsConf.au - RailsCamp minus the booze" doesn't hit the spot I think :)

--
Dr Nic Williams
Mocra - Premier iPhone and Ruby on Rails Consultants
w - http://mocra.com
twitter - @drnic
skype - nicwilliams
e - dr...@mocra.com
p - +61 412 002 126 or +61 7 3102 3237

[Daniel N]

I'll put my hand up to help Ben get something off the ground.  Rails camp would be a good time to go over it yes?

[Ben Schwarz]

Lets NOT call it "rails" anything. :-)

> w -http://mocra.com

[Pat Allan]

Yup, Rails Camp would be an ideal time to discuss this.

-- Pat

[Gareth Townsend]

RubyConfAU. Method Missing Mate.

[Dylan Egan]

Although if Ben is naming it I suspect it'll be something like 'Methd
Misisng mate'


2009/10/30 Gareth Townsend <gareth....@me.com>:

[Ben Schwarz]

get fkecud Dayln

On Oct 30, 9:21 pm, Dylan Egan <dylane...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Although if Ben is naming it I suspect it'll be something like 'Methd
> Misisng mate'
>

> 2009/10/30 Gareth Townsend <gareth.towns...@me.com>:
>
>
>
>
>
> > RubyConfAU. Method Missing Mate.

[Clifford Heath]

Actually I had a little chuckle at the typo on the first slide of
Chris's
presentation on TextMate auto-completion for cucumber specs ;-)

Clifford Heath.

[Daryl Manning]

I honestly think a conference is a good idea mostly for the reason that, as you say, not everyone wants to go to RailsCamp... also, it's much easier to get heavy hitter speakers in for a big conference than individual railscmaps (if DHH shows up at Melb Railscamp though, I will have egg on my face).

Also, diversity of audience. Part of promoting Rails involves getting new people, project managers, business analysts, designers and non-hardcore programmers in to sort of complete the ecosystem that you need to deliver projects particularly if they're curious but aren't willing to go to a hack event (as I envision railscamp to be).

Besides, I need an excuse to see more of Australia now that I'm here... =]

ciao !
Daryl.

[Daryl Manning]

RailsConf.au - it's not *just* about the booze ?... =]

have a fine halloween weekend everyone.
Daz

[Daryl Manning]

As a model, I have to say I was pretty damn impressed with Rails Underground this past year in London. Some really interesting talks though it was more ruby, less Rails as a teensy critique. I'd get in touch with the guy who did that. I think he actually did some blog posts or video logs about running an event yourself... actually it might have been a lightning talk, bit I'd lok for slides anyhow... Nice guy. I'm sure he'd be cool with sharing whatever hard won lessons he learned.

ciao !
Daryl.

[Dr Nic Williams]

One thing we could have at a railsconf that we don't have at a railscamp is recorded talks. Any Australian conference recording services available, like confreaks?

Nic

--
Dr Nic Williams
Mocra - Premier iPhone and Ruby on Rails Consultants

w - http://mocra.com

[Pat Allan]

Just a few notes on heavy-hitter speakers...

* At conferences, speakers get in for free.
* Keynoters will likely have a hotel paid for as well, maybe flights
too.
* This means that it becomes much more viable for speakers to travel
longer distances to an event.
* Rails Camps, on the other hand, have a much more even playing field.
Anyone can speak. No one gets in for free.
* We've got some amazingly smart and creative people here in the
Australian Ruby community - do we need international 'heavy-hitters'? ;)

Not saying one approach is better than the other, but I just wanted to
highlight the differences in the types of events. I think if we could
position an Australian Ruby conference as something unique, especially
compared to Rails Camps and Rails Confs, then that could really be an
awesome event, and would be a great way to show off the aforementioned
local heavy-hitters!

Also: I'm pretty sure DHH hasn't registered for the upcoming Rails
Camp - but Geoffrey Grosenbach of Peepcode has :)

--
Pat

On 30/10/2009, at 4:24 PM, Daryl Manning wrote:

> I honestly think a conference is a good idea mostly for the reason
> that, as you say, not everyone wants to go to RailsCamp... also,
> it's much easier to get heavy hitter speakers in for a big
> conference than individual railscmaps (if DHH shows up at Melb
> Railscamp though, I will have egg on my face).
>
> Also, diversity of audience. Part of promoting Rails involves
> getting new people, project managers, business analysts, designers
> and non-hardcore programmers in to sort of complete the ecosystem
> that you need to deliver projects particularly if they're curious
> but aren't willing to go to a hack event (as I envision railscamp to
> be).
>
> Besides, I need an excuse to see more of Australia now that I'm
> here... =]
>
> ciao !
> Daryl.
>
>

> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Pat Allan <pat@freelancing-

[Jason Crane]

I packed my recording eq two camps ago, but didn't pull it out. If we
want to record stuff, we have the technology :)

We might also want to think about 'does recording talks at railscamp,
make it less railscamp' ?

J

[Pat Allan]

Some of the Sydney crew have got a bit of a workflow for recording and
uploading talks at their meets...

At the most recent Melbourne one, James Healy brought along a camera
and wireless mic, and has been processing the talks with some custom
code. I have high hopes the workflow will become streamlined over
future Melbourne meets, and maybe we can roadtest it at Rails Camp too.

There's also a small company in Melbourne that may be interested in
helping (they're working on processing the videos from the latest
Trampoline) - this would be a paid service, much like confreaks:
http://www.visionarycanary.com.au

--
Pat

On 03/11/2009, at 4:48 PM, Dr Nic Williams wrote:

[Dr Nic Williams]

perhaps we can record talks and find out if it affects "railscamp" in the post-mortem?

[Pat Allan]

Yeah, that's my one concern for recording Rails Camps talks - I don't
feel the event is formal enough... a good talk for being recorded
would perhaps lose the spontaneity and dynamic vibe that can make
Rails Camp talks so interesting and unique.

I think it's possibly worth a shot, though.

--
Pat

[James Healy]

Jason Crane wrote:
> I packed my recording eq two camps ago, but didn't pull it out. If we
> want to record stuff, we have the technology :)
>
> We might also want to think about 'does recording talks at railscamp,
> make it less railscamp' ?

It's a good question. If people *are* interested in recording
presentations at railscamp, I'm happy to work on it. I recorded the last
Melbourne ruby meeting (videos coming real soon now) and have been
working on a small toolchain to make the post production as painless as
possible.

-- James Healy <ji...@deefa.com> Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:03:09 +1100

[Jason Crane]

I think I'm with Nic. Let's bring our respective eq, have a workshop
on how to get it working, maybe even have it as a railscamp project,
and discuss afterwards if it sucked?

J

[Bodaniel Jeanes]

I'd definitely be interested in some of those talks being recorded. I don't think it'll detract from the spontaneity or spirit of the event either. schedules and expectations are what changes that. As always, RC is what we make of it, and I personally would love to be able to walk away with a record of some of the brilliant talks I hear people give each year.

Bo

[b...@bensand.com]

As someone on the waiting list, I'd love for the talks to be recorded.

I'd be happy to help with anything required if I could get a ticket. :-)

I've had some experience working with boom mikes as well as doing sound and video recording and editing.

2009/11/3 Bodaniel Jeanes <m...@bjeanes.com>

[Lincoln Stoll]

Yes, the major one that would do this is probably staging connections
- usually they are directly associated with the venue, and would be
part of the deal.