I was interviewed recently by Dan Keldsen for his IAM Talking podcast. Dan and I talked about agile development, scrum, and the future of both as it relates to software development. Listen to the interview, and then subscribe to Dan’s blog. It’s well worth the read.

FOWA Miami was an amazing experience. I am very happy that the conference lived up to it’s name. I truly feel that I have a solid understanding of where the web is going, and the role that ADS will play in that future. I want to relay to you the highlights of what I learned while in Miami the past few days, from BarCampMiami, FOWA, and my interactions with a vast number of people.

I’ll be linking names to Twitter accounts. I suggest you follow these folks.

Before digging in to the highlights, I want to relay the experience of being here. During my welcome talk at Acts as Conference 2009, I told the audience that they need to get out from behind their Macs and network with everyone possible. They need to take advantage of the opportunity of being surrounded by a vast amount of knowledge and ideas. At FOWA, people really seemed to take advantage, even more so than at purely developer-focused conferences. I must have met more than 200 people within the past four days. It’s easy. We’re all in some area of tech. Walk up to a random person, introduce yourself, and ask, “What do you do?” Once you do this a few times, you’ll be hooked. From using this method, I got three new awesome ideas that will help make the ADS AppSuite even better. You have got to get out and talk with people. Exchange ideas. Be open. The interactions that I had with everyone is what truly made the conference for me.

And now to the details.

The tech folks here in Miami are great. Alex de Carvalho and his volunteer team did a great job of coordinating BarCampMiami. I am proud of my Orlando tech brethren, who showed up in force, and were well represented on the talk board. We had presentations from myself, Gregg Pollack, Jim Hoskins, Nick Pettit, and many others. Working at the Miami co-working space, Brickolodge, was a lot of fun. I’m going to check out CoLab Orlando when I get back. And speaking of interactions, BarCampOrlando is just around the corner on April 18th. Get your presentations ready.

Congratulations and thanks go to Ryan Carson and the Carsonified team for putting on FOWA Miami. Coordinating a conference is no easy task. The team faced challenges and overcame. The quality and caliber of speakers was excellent.

Jason Fried of 37signals kicked off the day. He spoke about making money off the by-products of what you do. Ruby on Rails was a by-product of creating Basecamp. Screencasts on using development and design tools are by-products. Look at what else you are producing (besides code or designs), and find ways to monetize it. Sell what you learn. His second major point was to not focus on your failures. Work on the successful stuff, and continue forward. For his third point he told the audience to start charging for their apps. We’re taking this to heart with Scrum’d, which will have 30-day free trials on all paid plans. Jason believes that as free fails, people will flock to pay for quality.

I asked Jason about integration of the disparate apps residing on the Internet. There are thousands of one-function applications that don’t link to each other. Jason said true integration is a pipe dream. Each of these apps offers such a different user experience that true integration can’t happen. This validated what we are doing with the ADS AppSuite – creating a group of single-function applications that fully integrate with each other, and provide a consistent user experience across the entire suite.

Joe Stump of Digg talked about scaling a development team. He had 11 items to focus on:

• Lower barriers to entry (for your code)
• Teams are good, dedicated teams are best
• Communicate – use the tools
• Use standards and conventions
• Use a code repository
• Promote ownership
• Use design in your development
• Use frameworks
• Test – continuous integration is your best friend
• Document, beyond tests
• Perform code reviews

Aza Raskin of Mozilla Labs talked about chaordic projects, those that are ordered chaos, cause disruptive innovation. The key here is to push decisions to the nodes, and keep very little centralized. Get people excited. He (later) demoed Ubiquity, a Firefox plugin that gives you more control over how you interact with the web. One of his greatest points: treat people like people. Explain what is going on. Propagate trust.

Dave Morin of Facebook summed up the future of social in 6 compact ideas: put your data on the web; link the data; put yourself on the web; be open; connect; share. Dave said that we’ve forgotten about the person by the computer. Treating people like machines has got to end. Identity, friends, and feed are the keys. Give your users identity, give them the power to connect, and then give them the power to share.

Alex Hunter of Virgin gave one of the best presentations of the day. He was funny, informative, and inspiring. Alex told us that it’s no longer about the brand, it’s about you. People represent the brand. Steve Jobs represents Apple. Bill Gates represented Microsoft. Larry Ellison represents Oracle. These people stake their personal reputation on the quality of their products and services. As the leader of your organization, you must do the same. Consistency is not dogma, it’s a state of mind. By bridging the online and offline gap, you breed loyalty. Word of mouth has changed. Us and Them are very powerful. Learn. Listen. Experiment.

Francisco Tolmasky’s demo of Atlas, an in-browser code editor that can create web apps and iPhone apps alike in mere minutes, got roaring applause from a room full of people who had to pick their chins up off the floor. Atlas is going to change web development. Sign up for the beta and see what I mean. I caught up with Francisco at the FOWA after-party. Atlas is going to be highly expandable, and allow Atlas users to easily share what they create with others.

I had heard that Gary Vaynerchuk was an awesome speaker, and that I was in for an experience. I am thoroughly impressed by this man. He is a highly successful entrepreneur, having worked very hard for years to get to where he is today. I had to stop taking notes during his talk so that I could focus on what he had to say and enjoy the experience. Gary told us that in this economy the sucky people will go away. Content providers will get the share of marketing dollars. Why share? Why does Kanye West need Apple to distribute his content? He can do it himself and keep all the dollars. “If you don’t know where you want to end up, you’re broken.” Monetizing your niche is so open. Build apps or sites that you are passionate about.

I was lucky to catch Gary at the after-party and talk with him for 20 minutes. He is a very cool guy, and spoke to just about everyone there. Gary is truly passionate about what he does. He told me that Facebook has won, and that Facebook Connect is it, even for businesses. Facebook user demographics are not at all what you would think. The fastest growing segment of users isn’t teenagers, it’s middle-aged adults. I was shocked when I heard that. Time for us to become more involved.

FOWA Miami 2009 was pure awesome. I met a lot of super cool people, learned a hell of a lot, and look forward to next year. See you there.

Acts as Conference 2009 is over, and from feedback thus far, a great success. I had a great time this weekend, met a lot of awesome new people, heard some great speakers, and learned a lot. My list of people to thank is long, so here it goes.

I’d first like to thank my co-chair Jason Cartwright (Cogwise Software). Pulling off a conference is too much for one person, and Jason’s help was invaluable. On that same vein, I’d like to thank our volunteers, Abby Quinones and Adam Dalton. Their help allowed Jason and I to view this year’s sessions.

Next I’d like to thank all of our sponsors. In these tough economic times, these folks stepped up and helped us put on a great conference. Without them it just wouldn’t have happened. Our platinum sponsors were Engine Yard, New Relic, and AT&T Interactive.  I have to give super props to Engine Yard. They sponsor so many Ruby and Rails events, and are truly an integral part of our community. Our gold sponsors included Cloudspace and BrowserMedia. Our silver sponsors included RailsKits, Morph Labs, Apress, and Manning Publications. Our media sponsor was Mashable.

Without great speakers no one would come. Great thanks goes out to David Heinemeier Hansson, Nathaniel Talbott, Dan Benjamin, Gregg Pollack, Jason Seifer, Jim Weirich, Jon Larkowski, Guy Naor, Yehuda Katz, Steve Bristol, Patrick Peak, Paul Barry, Bryan Liles, Tim Rosenblatt, and Will Leinweber. Thanks guys for your great talks.

Big thanks to Confreaks for coming out, recording the conference, and providing Internet. Look for the videos to pop up online in the coming weeks. Thanks to the Ramada for being at our beck and call when required, and thanks to the AVI crew for helping with the a/v setup.

Last but not least I would like to thank all of our attendees for coming. It was great getting to meet new people. I hope at the very least that you all got one thing out of the conference. Remember the challenge I gave you all. I expect to see some cool hotness coming out within the next 6 months. Don’t worry about being perfect. Get something (working) out there and let your users drive it.

We’ll see you all next year. Until then, check out Twitter and Flickr for #AAC2009 goodness.

What We’re Hearing

I would like to thank you for organizing acts_as_conference. And for letting me speak at it. It was well organized and the content was great. I’m amazed of the quality and organization, especially comparing it to big conferences with all companies/teams behind them. Expect to see me next year again! – Guy Naor

#aac2009 really ups the bar for conferences; these two days have had informative, entertaining, inspiring and just generally AWESOME talks! – Corey Haines

I’m hoping #RailsConf2009 can hold up to the general praise #AAC2009 has received. – Bob Martens

TED is entitled manchildren, #aac2009 is where GOOD PEOPLE get together to talk about DOING GOOD WORK. – BonzoESC

I think we have our work cut out for us next year

If you were at my talk on Agile Development at RailsConf 2008 and want the slides then you are in luck! You can grab my slides along with those of other presenters on the RailsConf 2008 presentation files page. Enjoy!

Update: for some reason the slides aren’t appearing on the RailsConf site. So, click here to grab em.

Hey all,

We are gearing up for RailsConf 2008 which kicks off tomorrow with a day of tutorials. It gets super juicy with all day sessions Friday and Saturday, and finishes strong with a partial day on Sunday. While you are here in Portland come by the Atlantic Dominion Solutions booth (#611), and drop a business card to win a free Starbucks gift card. We’re giving away 20 $5 gift cards and announcing the winners via Twitter on Saturday afternoon. Also come learn about agile development with scrum on Saturday at 4:25 PM in room D135-136, and how you can implement it with your team.

The ADS CREW is here in force with almost our entire development team representing. We are looking forward to learning more Rails goodness and meeting you fine people. We are also looking for folks to partner with. If you are interested come and see me. Regardless, if you see me, please stop me and say hello. I’ll be wearing an orange t-shirt with the ADS logo.

See you all in the A.M.

As a silver sponsor of RailsConf 2008, ADS has a 45-minute speaking opportunity along with a booth. We need your help in determining what we should talk about during our vendor presentation. Of course, we are going to talk about ADS Mantis, and may have an announcement about it. We want to fill the remaining 30 minutes with information that you will find informative. So, what do you want to hear us talk about? Of course, our expertise is in Ruby on Rails, however we also have growing knowledge of agile development, and the business side of running a development shop. Give us your ideas, and you might just win a little something in the process.

Tickets for RailsConf 2008 go on sale today. If you are a member of the Orlando Ruby Users Group or another user group use discount code rc08usrg to get 15% off the price. RailsConf is being held in Portland, Oregon May 29th through June 1st. They expect 1800 people this year, so sign up fast as tickets sold out quickly last year. See you there!

Atlantic Dominion Solutions is proud to be a silver sponsor of RailsConf 2008. As a silver sponsor we will have a booth, and a 45 minute presentation in the Products and Services track. We look forward to seeing everyone there, and perhaps having an announcement or two.

Hey all,

The last call for RailsConf 2008 proposals has been called. Here is the official word from O’Reilly:

RailsConf
May 29-June 1, 2008
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, OR
http://www.railsconf.com

If You Want to be Heard at RailsConf 2008, You Have Just Four Days Left to Submit Your Proposal!

Just as life begins to get holiday-hectic, we want to remind you that proposals to lead sessions and tutorials at RailsConf 2008, May 29-June 1 in Portland, are due by midnight, Thursday, December 13.

For submission guidelines and to submit your proposal, go to: http://en.oreilly.com/rails2008/public/cfp/6.

If you’re a hacker, Rubyist, trainer, web developer, Rails system administrator, or entrepreneur with something to share, we encourage you to submit a proposal for a 45-minute session or panel discussion, or a three-hour tutorial.

What We’re Looking For…

Any Rails-related topic will be considered. We want to focus on teaching from experience to help conference participants take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities. This year, we’re specifically looking for a larger number of advanced-level proposals–more hardcore technical topics, particularly design or coding techniques, testing tools, and deployment techniques.

Here are a few ideas on topics we’d like to see presented:

• Time-saving developer productivity tips, tricks, and tools
• Patterns and best practices for developing maintainable Rails applications
• Complex domain modeling with Active Record
• Rails development case studies, including application rewrites and organizational bootstrapping
• Heterogeneous systems integration
• Real-world deployment and scaling
• Making the most of new Rails features
• Gem and Plugin highlights
• Extending Rails

Whatever your topic, be sure to highlight real examples and show code!

Save the dates – May 29-June 1, 2008!

Co-produced by O’Reilly Media and Ruby Central, RailsConf is a sell-out every year, and this year will be no different. Registration opens in early February. To be notified when it opens–and to get news and updates as the conference program develops–sign up for our conference newsletter
at: http://en.oreilly.com/rails2008/public/content/home.

We hope to see you in Portland next May!

Chad Fowler and the RailsConf 2008 Conference Team

P.S. Remember, proposals are due by midnight December 13, 2007: http://en.oreilly.com/rails2008/public/cfp/6

For exhibition and sponsorship opportunities contact Yvonne Romaine at yromaine at oreilly dot com

For media and promotional partner opportunities contact Avila Reese at mediapartners at oreilly dot com

Well, RailsConf Europe is over. I need a vacation! The remainder of the day was chock full of presentations. After Ola’s JRuby presentation I went to see another JRuby presentation on JRuby tools. They discussed building JRuby on Rails apps using the NetBeans IDE. While there are some cool features, I’m a lover of TextMate. When I was developing VB.NET apps back in the day I used Visual Studio. I used to miss IDE’s that do things like code completion and things of that nature, but now find that it just gets in my way. But, to each their own. If you are a Java developer (or convert) and are productive using NetBeans (or another Eclipse based IDE), go for it. That took us through to lunch.

After grabbing a few more shots of espresso and relaxing for a few, I headed back to catch up with the hobos.

“Exploring Very Rapid Web Development Techniques with Hobo” by Tom Locke was definitely cool. Hobo is “an Open Source extension to Ruby on Rails which helps you build full blown web applications incredibly quickly and easily.” Dr. Nic created the MyConfPlan site using Hobo. Filling the gap between an “auto admin” tool and hand coding an entire application, you can get an entire application up and running in a few minutes to a few hours, complete with AJAX, model level security, controller generation and the DRYML tag library. A few of the “smaller features” are automatic routing, a migration generator, authorization and sign-up, search, “kinda” theme support, and many more. Not yet at version 1.0, the Hobo team is working on documentation in the form of a comprehensive screencast series, API stability, and performance. Looking beyond 1.0, they want to add plugins, themes, and user created tag libraries.

Stuart Eccles sums up the next presentation, Extending Rails to Use the Presenter Pattern, on his Liverail blog. I was left with a “huh?” feeling from the talk.

The last presentation of the conference was “Obscure Data Formats, Workflow, and Remote Synchronization,” presented by Chad Thatcher. His presentation was excellent and had more content that I can explain at this hour (sorry folks) – check the RailsConf Europe site for the slides. One part I can comment on is the discussion of composed_of, which allows us to take control of a models’ composition by mapping our db fields to objects other than those that are mapped automatically by Rails. Check out the API docs for all the details.

And so ends the fun.

Tomorrow, Anthony and I will do some shopping for our families, and then back to the US on Friday. Senior project is Saturday, Chris arrives on Saturday, and then BarCampOrlando on Sunday. If you are there we will see you then.