From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-07-28T22:26:04+09:00
Subject: Re: About last night ...

Hi --

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> a. The upcoming Ruby Conference in Colorado had 73 proposals for papers 
> submitted, of which only 16 could fit into the schedule,
> b. There are only 240 slots for *attendees* to the conference, while there 
> are most likely thousands with the means and desire to attend, and
> c. Given b, people are actually running scripts to poll the conference web 
> site and grab the registration form, in the hopes that they'll be one of the 
> lucky 240.
>
> I'm not sure what this all means yet, and I'm not sure it's mostly a good 
> thing. For example, some people who have made *major* contributions to the 
> language and the community will most likely be shut out of the opportunity to 
> attend. And interest in Ruby, as Amy noted, seems to be far outpacing the 
> supply of volunteers to help the Nuby, even if they aren't what Amy called 
> "help vampires".
>
> Certainly the regional conferences will help ... I think between Seattle and 
> Portland we have enough talent to put one on

Ya think? :-)

> -- how about Centralia? :) But 
> the wider issue is, "Is there more demand for Ruby resources than there is 
> supply?" That's especially a concern when there seems to be an *endless* 
> supply of Java and Perl and PHP resources, and maybe even Python and 
> Javascript.

But in a case like this, demand *is* supply -- meaning: it all comes
down to people who want stuff to happen making it happen.  If people
want to put on a bigger, perhaps more business-oriented conference,
then they should.  I'd certainly come.

> Anyhow, what do other people here think?

Regional conferences are, I think, very important -- and very "real",
if you know what I mean.  I was also thrilled to see the Japanese Ruby
Conference take place, as well as EuRuKo (is that happening this
year?) and other events, including those that Ruby Central has
partnered in (Silicon Valley Ruby Conference, RailsConf Europe [in
September!], RailsConf 2007).

We need a distributed, Ruby Centrifugal model.  Even if we turned
RubyConf into a six-track, 1000-person extravaganza, the meet-up needs
of the Ruby community on a broad scale would not have been fully
addressed.  They *can't* be addressed by one conference.

So we've started looking outward, and trying to find a useful role for
Ruby Central in that process.  http://www.rubycentral.org/rcg2006.pdf
-- bring it on! :-)


David

-- 
http://www.rubypowerandlight.com => Ruby/Rails training & consultancy
http://www.manning.com/black     => RUBY FOR RAILS (reviewed on
                                     Slashdot, 7/12/2006!)
http://dablog.rubypal.com        => D[avid ]A[. ]B[lack's][ Web]log
dblack@wobblini.net              => me