my not-so-barbaric yawlp

Jim Weirich is joining the cast of erubycon. Jim is responsible for some of the killer Ruby tools including Rake and Ruby Gems, which he co-created in a hotel lobby using a thumb drive as a CVS repository (you have to ask him about it). Jim is one of the best known Ruby developers who is also spends a lot of his time in old legacy code bases. Jim’s insights into what Ruby has to offer will definitely help us get the point across. erubycon is honored to have him join us.

You can read more about Jim’s passion for open source, software development and Ruby at onestepback.org.

Looks as if the CRB has just gone above the 200 mark on the mailing list. We’ve been growing very strong. We toped 40 people at our meetings this summer. Columbus Ohio is becoming quite the hot bed for Ruby activity.

I’m very proud of this mark. I co-founded the group well over a year and a half ago just hoping to get a few people together to talk about my new found passion. Since then the interest in the group has exploded. We have had some excellent speakers come and join us such as my good friends Jim Weirich and Scott Barron. Recently Josh Schairbaum and Dan Manges, two of our own members were on the Ruby on Rails podcast talking about the success they have had with Ruby on Rails at JPMorgan Chase. We have covered a lot of ground and are looking forward to the year ahead.

In Feburary the CRB will be kicking off the year by co-hosting erubycon, the first conference to focus on Ruby and Ruby on Rails in the Enterprise.

I’m very excited about this. Dave Hoover, a close friend and fantastic developer is going to be speaking at erubycon. Dave has become quite well known in the testing community and is one of the main reason we are able to have Selenium testing in Rails. Dave Hoover has recently moved to Obtiva where he has been giving a very successful Ruby on Rails bootcamp.

Also, note that we now have RSS syndication added to erubycon, so you can keep up to date with the latest developments

EdgeCase is proud to announce erubycon, the first conference specifically for demonstrating Ruby’s place in the Enterprise world. Many of you out there have stood back and watched as Ruby and Ruby on Rails have gained popularity. Many of you have had the same questions:

• Can I use it for real applications?
• Can I integrate it with my current systems?
• Will it scale?

We have gathered an exceptional group of speakers to come and share their experiences with Ruby in Enterprise organizations. These speakers will answer these questions and more. The speakers have had extensive experience and success in many environments such as Java and .NET. They have also found tremendous success and enjoyment with Ruby.

• Bruce Tate, international speaker and best selling author of nine titles including Better, Faster, Lighter Java, and Bitter Java has recently written the popular From Java to Ruby: Things Every Manager should Know will give us an overview of how he has helped organizations accelerate their development and increase effectiveness thanks to the Ruby language.
• Justin Gehtland, co-author of the recent Pragmatic Ajax and Rails for Java Developers will share his experiences and successes he has had recently as founding partner of Relevance, an organization that has successfully leveraged Ruby inside the Enterprise.
• Stuart Halloway, founding partner of Relevance, co-author of Rails for Java Developers, international speaker, and trainer who has trained some of the top consulting organizations in the country on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Stuart will bring his exceptional teaching style and extensive experience to the conference and demonstrate what this language can do for you.
• Neal Ford, Application Architect for ThoughtWorks, author of The Art of Java Web Development, and international speaker who frequently speaks about Enterprise development for the popular No Fluff Just Stuff series will come and speak about the success ThoughtWorks has had with Ruby and Ruby on Rails in large organizations.

We will have announcements soon about many of the other exciting speakers you will get to hear from at the conference. We will provide a balanced view of the state of Ruby and what it can do for your organization.

erubycon takes place Feburary 9, 10, and 11 in Columbus Ohio. Registration opens November 15, and pricing will be announced soon. Tickets will be limited in order to offer a more intimate setting and chance for everyone to hear the speakers. A lounge area will be setup for speaker Q&A sessions, coding help, or just to hang out.

Stay tuned to erubycon.com for more details as the days progress.

One of the amazing things about working at ThoughtWorks is the ability to get yourself involved in so many different things. I was asked this week to fill in for a friend of mine at Forrester’s IT Forum. I’m going to be sitting on for a panel discussion on DSL’s and how they are helping change software development. This is an incredible opportunity.

Here is my month:

• This week = Forrester’s IT Forum in Vegas
• Next week = Canada on Rails in Vancouver
• Following week = SDForum’s Silicon Valley’s Ruby Conference in San Francisco

Man it’s a rough life :-)