Ruby BarCamp

[Sander van der Vliet]

Hi guys,

This is Sander from Kings of Code. I would like to know if there is
interest in a Ruby / RoR BarCamp at the 29th of June as a Kings of
Code side event.

I'm able to arrange nice venue. It can take place in the afternoon
during the other side events and can be free for all if I find a
sponsor. I'm sure some of our speakers and friends are willing to
participate.

I would like to invite ams.rb to organize and host it. Let me know how
you think about it and if you can be of any help.

Thanks,
Sander

Organizer Kings of Code
http://kingsofcode.org/

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Hi there guys,

If we're able to gather M.Bagai (in the case he accepts to come to Amsterdam for that day) and some interesting Ruby-related stuff to present, we would have a very interesting special event that would contribute to Kings of Code conference instead of our monthly meetup at the bar. What do you think about it?

Sander, tell me... what do you require from a possible sponsor?

Best regards,
Javier.-

http://rock-n-code.com
Tw. @monsieur_rock
Li. http://www.linkedin.com/in/javiercicchelli

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi Sander,

This sounds like a great plan. The 29th would be our regular Amsterdam.rb meeting night, so folding that in with a Kings of Code side event sounds good to me. It'll be a great opportunity to meet new people from both the Netherlands and from abroad.

For the organizing part: what kind of help did you have in mind? I'm willing to help out if I can.

Cheers,

Wes

-- 
Wes Oldenbeuving
Twitter: @narnach
Github: http://github.com/Narnach

Mobile: +31 648 779 786

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 2:38 PM, Sander van der Vliet <san...@kingsofcode.nl> wrote:

[Sander van der Vliet]

I'm not sure if we're able to arrange a full program. I know Jan Lehnardt is willing to do a talk about CouchDB or give an introduction to functional programming (Erlang).

I think an unconference would be nice where anyone can propose talks and discussions. But I do believe we need a good host to make it work, anybody who is able to do that?

The location I have in mind is Escape at Rembrandplein where we can host up to 100 people, also near the other side events. Escape is available in the afternoon.

I have some sponsors in mind to pay for the venue, and maybe even for drinks... I think I can arrange that.

M.Bagai from Heroku? Blake from Heroku has a ticket for Kings of Code.

What I can do is arrange the venue, announce it at our website and invite the Kings of Code attendees. But I can't provide much help on the day itself.

-

Sander

http://twitter.com/sandervdv

[Gawin Dapper]

Hi Sander,

Great idea!

Can you elaborate a bit more on the details?
Do you expect a 'speakers' side-event, or just a let's hack together
and make cool stuff party?

How much space is available, time slots etc?
How many people do you think expect to be interested in a Ams.rb side-
event?

Would great if you could find a sponsor and provide free access for
the side-event :-)

Kind regards,

Gawin

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Hi there Sander,

M.Bagai has contacted us in order to chat with us or do a presentation so we're looking to organize some special event if possible.

In the case his schedule allows him, we can arrange something with him and some other presenters for your proposal so we can hit two birds with a shoot and everybody should profit from that. If he's not available, well... we can still contribute somehow :)

Best regards,
Javier.-

http://rock-n-code.com
Tw. @monsieur_rock
Li. http://www.linkedin.com/in/javiercicchelli

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Julio,

Didn't M.Bagai go here in early August? Kings of Code is in late June,
that's over a month apart...

I just realize the side-event in the afternoon instead of in the
evening, so we can actually have the Kings of Code side-event during
the day and then move on to Amsterdam.rb in the evening to drink beer
and ice tea.

Sponsors for a venue such as Escape would be awesome. Sponsored drinks
will be appreciated, but might be too expensive to sponsor. I know I'm
willing to pay for my own drinks.

Let's see if we can get some presenters rounded up within our own
community. We don't necessarily need to do long talks. We can do short
lightning talks and 'cool code' demos. Shorter talks force people to
stick to the point and you don't fall asleep if a talk is not very
interesting. Another upside is that you don't need to have a topic
that fills an entire 30+ minute slot for a lightning talk.

Topics that I think would be interesting (feel free to disagree or add):
* CouchDB - It looks really nice from the blogs and slides I've seen so far.
* Erlang - More and more things are using bits and pieces of Erlang,
so this is great to know more about.
* DRb - Show something cool you can do with this
* OpenStreetMap integration in Ruby/Rails projects

If we go ahead, the extra publicity from the Kings of Code website
will probably result in one or two additional speakers.

What kind of time slot size are you thinking about, Sander? A couple
of hours, the entire afternoon or is that up to us?

Cheers,

Wes

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Damn, you're right, Wes! I'm terribly sorry for the misunderstanding! :(

I agree with Wes concerning hosting the two events at the same day
(for the people who wouldn't be able to make it to the side-event) and
the format of the talks/presentations for the Kings of Code's side-
event.

From the topics Wes proposed before, I'm very interested in CouchDB,
DRb and Erlang/Haskell. I'd like to add forks of the Ruby interpreter
(such as JRuby, MacRuby, IronRuby, etc), Sinatra and BDD with RSpec/
Cucumber.

Best regards,
Javier.-

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

I just sent out a tweet with a request for presentations. Approaching
people through multiple channels might convince more people :)

If we can't get speakers, there's no point in organizing a side-event.
So let's hope speakers will present themselves.

Cheers,

Wes

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 8:06 PM, Julio Javier

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Come on, people!!! We know you've been doing very interesting stuff! So don't be shy...

Best regards,
Javier.-

[Sander van der Vliet]

Glad to see you guys are picking this up. Unfortunately I haven't found a sponsor yet.

The venue is € 750,- for the afternoon from 13:00 to 18:00, including bar personnel, chairs & beamer.

[Sander van der Vliet]

To be clear, I'm not asking you guys to pay this. But if you know someone who is interested in sponsoring, let me know!

[Justin Halsall]

Menno and I are willing to repeat the RoR tutorial we are doing at the other side event.

http://kingsofcode.nl/pages/speakers/side-events#rails

(maybe slightly condensed ;))

- Justin

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi Justin,

That would be awesome :) Location-based search is a very interesting
topic. We'll probably have to coordinate for time slots, but I'm sure
that will work out just fine.

Cheers,

Wes

[Justin Halsall]

Just to be clear, the tutorial we will give on the side event is going
to be focussed more on the Rails part and with some Location-based
search engine *magic* and at Amsterdam.rb we are going to talk more
about the Location-based search engine part of the presentation and
leave the newbie part.

Cheers,
Justin

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

I think it's a perfect idea, Justin.

Best regards,
Javier.-

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Think I'll have to think up a way to clone myself (with Ruby, off
course) so I can hear both the talk about magic and the Rails part ;-)

Wes.clone

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Julio Javier

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi all,

About to the organizing part. So far we have found five people willing
to do a presentation of some sort. I might do one as well if I can
come up with an interesting topic ;-)

About the format. An unconference actually sounds pretty cool.
My interpretation of an unconference is that there is no fixed agenda
and that there are no set time slots. When one person is done showing
code, presenting or singing a song, the next person gets a chance to
do their thing.
There is no pressure to be an expert on a topic and speak for two
hours. If you just wrote a cool script (in Ruby or in another
language) to convert tweets to lolspeak and want to show it off in
five minutes, that would be excellent as well. It is probably more fun
than a two-hour presentation on the history of XML namespaces ;-)

I think it would be good if we can encourage interaction between all
attendees. If a topic is suitable for group discussion, why not
discuss the topic for a while before someone else goes on stage? The
goal will be to have a good time and to get people involved. Everyone
knows something that not everyone else knows, so sharing knowledge is
good for everyone.

These are just thoughts that I had. As usual: comments? Do you like
the idea or hate it?

Cheers,

Wes

[Eloy Duran]

Hi,

Manfred and I would like to talk about “Short is sweet II”. Manfred already talked a bit about this topic at the first ams.rb at TTY. However, this time we'd cover the topic at a more detailed level and show more codes. Most probably Rails (plugin) code.

There's one but; even though Manfred is in Amsterdam, he would need to give the talk via video chat. (I would be there in person.) Is that a possibility?

Cheers,

Eloy Duran

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi Eloy,

Short and Sweet II sounds good. More code is even better :)
We have a beamer, so we can show Manfred on screen, but I'm not sure
about internet. I'll ask Sander about it.

Cheers,

Wes

[Julio Javier CICCHELLI]

Hi there,

Short and Sweet II? I'm terribly sorry for my ignorance and my
curiosity is killing me here... What's that suppose to cover?!?! Would
you mind explaining, Eloy? Thanks in advance for that! ;)

Best regards,
Javier.-

[Eloy Duran]

Hey Javier,

Sure :)

It's a talk on how lean code leads to better code in a number of
different ways.
You might say that “short and sweet” is a subset of the “less is more”
principle.

HTH,
Eloy

[Julio Javier CICCHELLI]

Thanks for the quick answer, Eloy! Now I'm not feeling like a Dummy
anymore. YAY!

Now seriously, that's a cool topic. I'm interested.

Best regards,
Javier.-

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi all,

This is the current state of things.

We have six more or less confirmed topics:

* CouchDB (or an introduction to Erlang)

* Communicative Programming with Ruby

* Code reviews

* Using Rails for Location based search

* Short and Sweet II

* MacRuby, RESTful web services and other cool things

We have a venue that we need to find a sponsor for.

Next week we can approach all speakers to confirm we have enough speakers to do the side-event. Having a sponsor would make it 100% confirmed from the organizing side. That would mean we can confirm the speakers as well and announce them. We'll provide details about where it will be, when it will be and how we are going to it. Next up is posting the announcement on the Kings of Code website and on Twitter.

I suggest to use the following presentation format. Introduce a speaker and let the speaker present their topic. When they are done, we try to get a group discussion going about the topic. Once the discussion fades or tries to run in circles, we move on to the next speaker. Once we run out of speakers, we move to the last part of the unconference: smaller group discussions. Encourage attendees to gang up and ask the speakers about things. This way people can get to know each other and learn from each other.

This format involves attendees more than if they were merely sitting and listening.

Since (un)conferences tend to have a theme, my suggestion would be "The Future of Web Development (using Ruby)" or the more general them "The Future". All talks fit the theme and the theme fits the main theme of Kings of Code, which looks to be "The Future of Web Development".

For anyone who wants to present something, but does not have a topic, here is a list of possible topics to inspire you:

* The future of system administration: The impact of cloud computing and services like Heroku on traditional system administration.

* The future of package management: RubyGems is what most of us use, but there are alternatives. Use Debian's package manager or use RIP. Use a combination.

* The future of web-based communication. Look at what we use to communicate. Look at what we no longer use. Think about what the future will bring. What will be the next Twitter?

I think that presenters should aim their talks to be 20 to 30 minutes. This way, we have a solid 2 to 3 hours of talks to get everything started. The remaining 2 to 3 hours will consist of group discussions following a talk, short breaks to get a drink and the smaller group discussions at the end. Of course, this being an unconference, if people decide to give a talk on the spot that is great as well.

I have more elaborate thoughts on the topic that I want to work out in more detail. I'll blog about it later today.

As usual, feedback of any kind is welcome and encouraged.

Cheers,

Wes

-- 

Wes Oldenbeuving

T @narnach | M +31 648 779 786 | B http://narnach.blogspot.com | G http://github.com/Narnach

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Good morning everybody!

Wes, I think that your proposition would perfectly suit the side-event. Knowing the speakers and the proposed topics, I don't think we'd have a problem in creating an inviting and stimulating atmosphere for the attendees to make contributions in any form. In fact, I believe we can produce an excellent event if we play our cards correctly.

In reference to the place (Escape), Sander has told us that the cost of the place with the bar services, the chairs and the beemer included is 750EUR but we still need the confirmation concerning Internet connection.

Now, we need to get sponsors for this event and we're one week away from the event. Does anybody knows if your company is interested or willing to contribute economically to this realization of this event? Please, let us know if your company would like to help us in this.

Don't hesitate to give us your views or opinions concerning any aspect of the organization of this event.

Best regards,
Javier.-

W. http://rock-n-code.com
T. @monsieur_rock
L. http://www.linkedin.com/in/javiercicchelli

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

By the way, I've found another duo that wants to present at the
side-event. We're now up to 7 speakers!

@ sponsorship or alternative locations, I don't have direct leads.
I'll think about it for a bit. Anyone who reads this and would like to
sponsor a location or with money, please do let us know.

Maybe use Twitter to find a sponsor as well? It worked more that well
for finding presenters :)

Cheers,

Wes

[Sjors Provoost]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 11:36, Wes Oldenbeuving <nar...@gmail.com> wrote:

By the way, I've found another duo that wants to present at the
side-event. We're now up to 7 speakers!

@ sponsorship or alternative locations, I don't have direct leads.
I'll think about it for a bit. Anyone who reads this and would like to
sponsor a location or with money, please do let us know.

Maybe use Twitter to find a sponsor as well? It worked more that well
for finding presenters :)

Or start a http://pledgie.com/ campaign to raise funds. Then if you find a sponsor, refund people. It's like a crowd sourced "garantiesubsidie".

Sjors

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi Sjors,

Pledgie would be a way to raise funds. This way you can even have
multiple smaller sponsors. The downside is that due to the transaction
fees (0,35 + 3.4% per transaction) we'd have to collect more than
750,-
Pledgie does not allow refunding of pledged money so that is something
we'd have to do ourselves: not fun.

I'll see if I can contact the people who have sponsored other events,
such as RubyEnRails. What can we offer them for their sponsorship
money? Mention them as sponsors on the event itself? Mention them as
sponsors on kingsofcode.org? Can they put up their banners, if they
have them? Allow them to put up an info stand?

Note that sponsors do not necessarily have to contribute the entire
750,-. A part of ti, such as 100 or 200 euro, would be really nice as
well. There will be dozens of Ruby/Rails developers who can be
interesting as future employees or customers. Hosting companies,
consulting agencies and 'old school' (web) software development
companies can all benefit from the increased exposure.

Cheers,

Wes

[Sjors Provoost]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 13:59, Wes Oldenbeuving <nar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Sjors,

Pledgie would be a way to raise funds. This way you can even have
multiple smaller sponsors. The downside is that due to the transaction
fees (0,35 + 3.4% per transaction) we'd have to collect more than
750,-
Pledgie does not allow refunding of pledged money so that is something
we'd have to do ourselves: not fun.

Refunding about 50 donations of about €15 is a pain, but doable. Transaction fees are pain too, but not the end of the world.

I would be nice if we can build something like Pledgie on top of iDeal (and ask if they can waive their fees for this sort of thing).

But in the short run, finding a sponsor is probably easier :-)

Sjors

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

Hi Guys,

We finally worked out all the details for the Amsterdam.rb BarCamp!
The event will be held on monday 29 June 2009 at Escape Studio. The address:

Escape Studio
Rembrandtplein 11
1017 CT Amsterdam

The doors will open at 12.30. The unconference starts at 13.00 and
lasts till about 17.00. The Bar part of BarCamp will last until 18.00.

Julio Javier Cichelli and me are organizing the event and we are
sponsors for the venue (with help of Filip Slagter). Drinks are
sponsored by 80beans. Julio is doing a presentation. I'll be hosting
the event.

We have confirmed six speakers, but a nice feature of unconferences is
that there is no fixed agenda, so new speakers can (and I hope they
will) just step forward. So if you think of something great on sunday
evening, don't forget to bring your laptop!

We ask each speaker to target their presentation length between 20 to
30 minutes. Shorter is perfectly fine: it means there is more time for
other talks. Longer is ok if needed, but it is not expected of you to
talk for an hour. These are not rules, just guidelines.

After each presentation, then the public can ask questions and we'll
try to get a group discussion going with the speaker and the attendees
actively participating. Not all topics are equally suitable for
discussion, so the length of the discussions will vary. After the
discussion we move on to the next speaker.

After about two hours we'll have a break of 15 minutes to get a drink,
have a smoke or just catch some sunrays. Then we have another two
hours of presentations and discussions.

I hope that at about 17.00 we can move from presentations to drinking
beer, random socializing and smaller group discussions.

Sponsors:
* 80 beans: http://80beans.nl/
* Julio: http://rock-n-code.com/ & http://twitter.com/monsieur_rock
* Wes: http://twitter.com/Narnach
* Filip: http://twitter.com/FiXato

Kings of Code page: http://kingsofcode.org/pages/side-events#rubybarcamp

See you on monday!

Cheers,

Wes

[Justin Halsall]

Wow guys, that is reeeeally cool of you to sponsor the event! Thanks
so much!
And thanks 80beans for sponsoring the drinks!

See you guys on monday!

[Eloy Duran]

That's very cool indeed!!

Is it confirmed that there is a usable internet connection?

Eloy

[Sjors Provoost]

> The event will be held on monday 29 June 2009 at Escape Studio. The address:

> The doors will open at 12.30. The unconference starts at 13.00 and

> lasts till about 17.00. The Bar part of BarCamp will last until 18.00.

Looking forward to it. Is there a link where we can RSVP and send our
friends to?

Sjors

[Wes Oldenbeuving]

If you have a Kings of Code ticket, you should have received an e-mail
that allowed you to RSVP for the BarCamp. There's 50 seats RSVP-able
that way. If you don't have a Kings of Code ticket (why not? it'll be
awesome! you know you want to...) or when the KoC RSVP is full, you
can use this to register:

http://amsterdamrbbarcamp.eventbrite.com/

Cheers,

Wes

[Julio Javier Cicchelli]

Good morning everybody! How is it going?

After a week of hard work and defining things while racing against the clock, we've managed to organize such an exciting event for us and for those who will attend the Kings of Code conference next week.

The venue Sander has recommended, Escape Studio, is located at Rembrandtplein and it seems to be a cool place for our experimental unconference. Its capacity is for 100 people fitting very comfortably and we're providing free Internet access and free drinks to all the visitors.

The selected topics are very interesting and the speakers who are volunteering to talk belong to the finest Ruby experts in Amsterdam and, most probably, in The Netherlands. I hope this line-up would motivate and unhibite the visitors to speak their minds on the discussions and present other cool topics as well.

We really have to thank Wes, who has dedicated a lot of time and effort in the organization (even tough he has a whole lotta work to do!) as well as contributing economically to the realization of this event, Filip for his moral and economic support, Roy Tomeij and Thijs Cadier of 80Beans (http://www.80beans.com/) for providing the bar-sponsoring. Also, you can thank me as well :P

I believe this event is going to be a great one but we count on you to make it happen! So get your RSVP now for free at the following link: http://amsterdamrbbarcamp.eventbrite.com/

I really thank all of you for your time and, please, don't hesitate to write your comment, thoughts, critics, etc.

See you all next Monday!

Javier.-

W. http://rock-n-code.com
T. @monsieur_rock
L. http://www.linkedin.com/in/javiercicchelli

[Chris Obdam]

Hi everybody!

On October 30th and 31th there will be another RubyEnRails conference
in Amsterdam. We have already signed some great speakers like Jeremy
Kemper and Yehuda Katz! We are still looking for some great topics and
speakers.
I was hoping for a advanced testing talk and a great Ruby open source
project talk?

About 300 Ruby enthusiast will be attending and on saturday there will
be a geek day with tutorial talks and a hack fest competition. On
saturday you can also present your own Ruby/Rails project

Anybody interested?

Cheers,

Chris Obdam
http://2009.rubyenrails.nl