Development Blog: Viget Labs

Ben Scofield, Former Staffer, July 14, 2009

Hopefully, most of the people who read this blog are aware of the Developer Day phenomenon - the one-day, low-cost, technology-agnostic event series that we've been putting on with Relevance. I'm sure that most of you are also following @developer_day, and that you've kept a watch on the website... but just in case you aren't, you don't, and you haven't, I'd like to call your attention to the next event: Developer Day Boston!

On August 15th, we're partnering with thoughtbot to bring John Resig, Stu Halloway, and more great speakers together to talk about cutting-edge topics and trends. Registration will be opening soon, so keep hitting refresh on the Developer Day page to be sure to grab your seat, and we'll see you there!

(What's that? You don't live anywhere near Boston? Never fear! Plans for the next Developer Day are already in progress, and we're always looking for suggestions on where to come next. Demand your own Developer Day, today!)

Ben Scofield, Former Staffer, June 01, 2009

Developer Day DC took place this weekend, and by all accounts everyone had a great time. Bookended by Jay Virdy’s story about the rise of Summize (and its sale to Twitter) and Russ Olsen’s survey of emerging languages, we had great presentations on a wide variety of topics. Keeping to our technology-agnosticism, we had JavaScript (twice!), Ruby, and Python on the schedule, as well as a more general session on testing and a mind-expanding demonstration of the Monome and other fringe technologies. (If you couldn’t make it, Peter Harkins posted his notes here.)

After conquering Durham and DC, we’ve decided to widen our range a bit, so if you’re eager for a fun, local, cheap conference of your very own, keep watching the Developer Day site. Next up: Boston!

Brian Landau, Web Developer, May 12, 2009

Two weeks ago, I spent an amazingly full two days at JSConf 2009 getting my mind blown by some JavaScript developers who are pushing the boundaries of the language. Thanks to having so many great people there, we all had a great time discussing ideas and learning from each other. Having a smaller number of attendees really enhanced this aspect of the conference and allowed people to discuss the ideas more deeply.

Beside the discussions of newer Javascript Frameworks (like Cappuccino/Objective-J and SproutCore), the main theme that I think threaded its way through a lot of the conference was using javascript outside the browser. Also, everyone I met was fired up about Javascript and exploring what new things we can do with it.

Continue reading "JSConf 2009 Recap: Javascript at the Edge"

Ben Scofield, Former Staffer, May 11, 2009

I've been back from RailsConf for a few days now, and I've had a chance to reflect on the things I learned while in Las Vegas for what turned out to be my favorite RailsConf yet. Elsewhere, I wrote about my overall impressions, but for this post I want to focus on several of the sessions I attended and participated in.

Teaching Rails BoF

RailsConf for me really started Monday night, with the Teaching Rails Birds of a Feather session that I moderated. We had a great turnout (somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 people), and the attendees ranged across a number of different disciplines — some people were teaching in a university setting, some were writing books, and others were interested primarily in building the community through educating new developers. Regardless of their backgrounds, though, everyone had good ideas and experiences to share, and I learned about a number of exciting new efforts (including the various components of the RailsBridge effort and the upcoming Rails Tutorials project).

The Even-Darker Art of Rails Engines

Tuesday, I attended James Adam's session on Rails Engines. I heard great things about his presentation on plugins from the 2008 RailsConf, so I had high hopes about this one. As it turned out, the presentation itself was decent, but the content was a little too basic for me — we've looked fairly carefully at the engines support in Rails as the next step for our resourceful plugins, so most of what James talked about I'd already seen. I do have to say that the DHH-headed cherub slide was a real winner, though.

Continue reading "RailsConf 2009 Wrapup"

Ben Scofield, Former Staffer, April 15, 2009

That's right, folks, we're opening up registration for Developer Day in DC. If you're interested in new and exciting developments in technology, you should mark May 30th on your calendar — we've got talks planned on hot-off-the-code-press Ruby 1.9, Cucumber for acceptance testing, and Lily and the Monome, and we're adding more even as you read this.

The inaugural Developer Day in Durham was a hit, and we expect this one to be even better, with more diverse technologies represented and more people to connect with. So join us on May 30th in Falls Church for a day full of engaging talks and good food, all for the low, low price of $50!

Note: If DC is a bit too far for a day trip, don't despair! We're planning on continuing to expand Developer Day to other cities. Email me at ben.scofield@viget.com if you're interested in more details.