Lone Star Ruby Conf Speaker Interview: Nephi Johnson

Okay, time for a second interview with a Lone Star Ruby Conference speaker.  This time, Nephi Johnson (@d0c_s4vage) talks a bit about his presentation — "Less-Dumb Fuzzing and Ruby Metaprogramming".

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Fuzzing isn't always well understood.  Can you describe fuzzing, and tell us what situations it's a good fit for?

Nephi Fuzzing is a term used to describe the process of feeding an application unexpected inputs in order to find flaws in the code.  During development, it's pretty much impossible to write code that will handle all possible inputs correctly.  Fuzzing helps to uncover some of the more subtle and unforeseeable flaws that haven't been found through code reviews and normal testing.  Fuzzing is typically very automated and usually involves feeding a program thousands or millions of sets of malformed input.  The program being fuzzed is then monitored for crashes, exceptions, and/or performance.

The last person to really talk about fuzzing in the Ruby Space was Zed Shaw.  That's kind of a tough act to follow.  Why is this an important topic for Rubyists, and why are you the right person to talk about it?

Nephi I think fuzzing is an important topic for every developer (or anyone who wants to find bugs in an application).  If you have the time to fuzz a product, you will almost certainly uncover flaws in it.  One bug fixed during development is one less bug that customers have to experience with a release product.  Not finding flaws in the code after extensive fuzzing is also a big confidence booster.  I think this is especially applicable to Rubyists because of the flexibility (and fun) that comes with using Ruby.  I think anyone could make their own fuzzer/data-generator with Ruby in a short amount of time.  Also, if someone wanted to use the library I've written, it just so happens that I've written it in Ruby [*sarcasm*].

Why am I the right person to talk about fuzzing?  Fuzzing is something that I spend most of my free time doing or working on.  I put a lot of thought into coming up with ways to more efficiently fuzz programs.  As a security researcher, I have different goals in fuzzing than developers.  I want to find the really interesting bugs, bugs that might allow one to run their own code or do something entirely unexpected with the program.  I think my perspective on fuzzing might provide different insights for those who use fuzzing outside of the security field.

What prompted you to speak at LSRC this year?

Nephi Someone had mentioned to me that it might be interesting to hear from somebody in the security field and suggested I submit a talk.  I liked the idea, chose to talk about a project I've been working on using Ruby, and here I am.

Other than your own talk, what are you most looking forward to?

Nephi I'm looking most forward to the talks "Vim for the modern Rubyist", "What every Ruby programmer should know about threads", and "Getting Started With C++ Extensions."  Why these talks?  I love using vim - it was the first text editor I used when I started using Linux and now it's all I use, threads give me trouble sometimes (ruby threads, that is), and I've been wanting to write my own ruby extensions for a while now.

LSRC Speaker Interview with David Copeland

With the Lone Star Ruby Conference just over a month away, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to some of the presenters.  David Copeland (@davetron5000) is giving a talk about a topic that resonated with me, so I sent off an email to find out more about what he thought would make his presentation and the conference worthwhile.

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I've never been a big 'web app' kind of guy, so I was excited to see "Why And How You Should Make Awesome Command Line Apps with Ruby" as a presentation.  Why do you think Ruby works well in this space?

Dave Having used PERL and bash in the past, Ruby is just a FAR more pleasant environment; it's just really easy to make a well-designed system, the code is clearer and easier to write, and there's a lot of great libraries that are easy to install and set up.   My talk doesn't go TOO heavily into this, but I think everything that makes Ruby great for web apps makes it great for command line apps.

As a Sys Admin, CLI stuff is my bread and butter.  Do you see Ruby as a good language for Sys Admins?  Why or why not?

Dave Nothing's going to be "as close to the system" as shell scripts, but Ruby has some great libraries that let you write cross-platform scripts, and that's a good thing.  Ruby also has a culture of terse-but-readable syntax, code-as-configuration and overall UNIXness that I think a sysadmin would find familiar and comforting.  Ruby really embodies the "motivated laziness" that is the hallmark of a good sysadmin (by which I mean automating painful tasks away into something simpler).  Further, there's some great management tools built with Ruby, like chef and capistrano.

What prompted you to present at the Lone Star Ruby Conference this year?

Dave I've spoken at a few conferences and user groups and really liked it, and I liked the idea of a Ruby-focused conference; Java-based conferences always feel a bit behind the bleeding edge to me, and the Ruby world is always pushing the boundaries.  I also thought my talk would be interesting to share, specifically for the reasons you note above; Ruby and Rails go hand in hand, but Ruby is an awesome language all on its own.  Plus, the last time I was in Austin, I was there for one night on a cross-country drive, so I didn't get to see much :)

Besides your own talk, what are you most looking forward to while you're there?

Dave There's a ton of really interesting looking talks scheduled; The ActiveModel/Active Relation talk looks good, as well as the NoSQL stuff and deployment talks.  And, I'm sure Tom Preston-Warner from github will give a good talk!

Ruby|Web Interview

Mike Moore, one of the big movers behind MountainWest RubyConf and the UtahValley.rb is getting the ball moving for another Ruby-centric conference —Ruby|Web. He was kind enough to sit down with me and share his thoughts about Regional Ruby Conferences and how Ruby|Web fits into that space.

SLC already has MWRC, why another Ruby (ok, Ruby+) conference?

Mike Moore  There are so many great regional Ruby conferences that are happening in the west this fall. GoGaRuCo, SunnyConf, mountain.rb are all very close both in distance and time. And then there is Lone Star, Ruby Hoedown, WindyCityRails, Ruby DCamp, and eRubyCon/JRubyConf all this fall as well. All of these are great events and deserve to be attended. So if you are near one of them you owe it to yourself to attend! I guess a broader question might be with so many regional conferences, why another? This is something I've struggling with, because I didn't want to take away from any of the other awesome conferences. But the thing I've realized after doing MountainWest RubyConf/MWRC for the last four years is that the Ruby community is much larger than we think, and there are many, many local folks who just won't ever make it to another conference. And many in the local community has been asking for both a second local conference and more Rails/web content for years now. So I guess a short answer is that there is demand for it. That said, I've really been humbled by some of the interest we've gotten from Rubyists outside of our local area. I really think this is going to be an awesome event and will inspire everyone who attends to become better at what they do.

MWRC has a reputation for being tech heavy, geek friendly, and a great value; but you're changing the location, the timeframe, and the general 'theme' for Ruby|Web. Why play with a good thing? What makes you think you're going to make people happy with a different conference? 

Mike  Every year we've experimented with small tweaks to the format of MWRC, but it has largely remained the same. I love MWRC and I think it does many things really well. I love that it is downtown SLC and you get to walk around and explore the city. We hold it in the SLC Library's auditorium and its a beautiful venue with comfy seats and a nice big screen. And Engine Yard's annual Hackfest has been a great time to learn and hack with some of the brightest Rubyists around. The only real complaints we get each year is the short breaks and lack of space to lounge around and talk to each other. There are lots of couches and tables, but you have to go upstairs to get to them, so its proven to be inconvenient. And I have a hard time saying no to the many wonderful proposals we get each year, so we tend to pack the schedule pretty tight with little break time. I personally prefer to have so much great content that my brain feels tired after the conference, but some want more time and space for interacting with the other attendees. So for Ruby|Web I figured we had an opportunity to try something new and see if we can improve the experience with some more radical changes. The first thing is the venue; Snowbird provides a location where we don't have to walk four blocks to find some food or a comfy couch to hack on. The entire resort is awesome and we get to keep the exploring aspect while acquiring some conveniences like having a lot of room for lounging. Secondly we're planning a relaxed schedule that will allow attendees more time to talk with each other or pair on some code or even ride the tram up the mountain. Basically we want to make it easier to be with each other and learn and hack, since that is kinda the point, right?

What is the biggest impetus behind Ruby|Web? Why should people plan on coming? 

Mike I, like a lot of Rubyists, do web programming for a living. I was a web guy long before I found Ruby or Rails. I think the Ruby community has done a really good job of showing that Ruby is so much more than Rails, and I am fully on board with that. But with this event I wanted to give us permission to focus on the web stack as much as we wanted. So I guess you could think of this as a regional RailsConf, without the risk of getting a cease and desist letter from O'Reilly's lawyers for naming it that. :) But this will be more than just Rails; there is Rack and Sinatra and Sammy and Scripty2 and HTML5 and CSS3 and OAuth2 and so much more. I want to be a better web developer, and I want this Ruby|Web to help me do that.

Ruby Hoedown 2009 mini-Interview with Jeremy McAnally

Jeremy McAnally (@jm) is a good friend, and we've worked together on regional Ruby conferences and other projects. With the Ruby Hoedown looming, I thought it was about time to sit down with him for a mini-interview about his free conference.

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How have the community and your sponsors responded to making the Ruby Hoedown free?

Jeremy Everyone has largely been in two camps: "Wow that's awesome!" and "What? Are you crazy? How are you going to do that?" I find myself somewhere between the two.

You've even announced a plan to help encourage registration, where did this idea come from?

Jeremy I was thinking about how to get more sponsors involved and how to get them involved with everyone more effectively. Book giveaways and things like that are great, but then only 5-6 people are getting to benefit and the sponsor is really only "touching" those people. Around that same time I was trying to think of another way to differentiate the Hoedown and add value to the conference, and the ideas sort of gelled together around the time one of my co-workers was talking about the MacHeist bundles he'd gotten this year.

You're getting really close, but this is the hairiest time as you get all the last minute stuff moving. How are you feeling about this year's Hoedown?

Jeremy I feel great. There's actually a lot less hassle this year than last year, so it's been going pretty smoothly thus far. I may not feel the same way in a month or so, but for now, I'm feeling good!

There are just hours left for people to get proposals in. Is there anything specific you're looking for?

Jeremy Anything even vaguely Ruby-related. I love a good technical talk, but I'd also like to hear why pomodoro timers are the best things since sliced bread or why eating celery can help improve not only your test coverage, but also your overall quality of life.

People Behind GoGaRuCo, Josh Susser

I didn't get a Questions Five Ways discussion done this week, hopefully I'll get that back on track next week. I did finish up another project I've been working on for far too long though, an interview with Josh Susser (@hasmanyjosh), one of the GoGaRuCo organizers. Josh is a longtime member of the Ruby community, and a very smart guy. I'm grateful that he took a the time to talk with me, I hope you enjoy this interview too.

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What motivated you to organize a regional Ruby conference?

Josh I started joking last month that if you don't think you're getting enough email, you should organize a conference.

Actually, I got the idea for doing a Ruby conf in SF about two years ago. We've had some other Ruby events in the area, but with all the stuff we have going on here in SF it seemed there was a huge community that was being under-served. It was almost embarrassing that all these other cities had awesome local confs, but we didn't. I also wanted to do something to help energize the local Rubyists. I think I felt like I wasn't getting enough out of the local community, and I feel that the best way to change that is to put more into it yourself.

Who else is/has been involved in organizing GoGaRuCo?

Josh Leah Silber has done most of the heavy lifting for organizing the conference, dealing with sponsors and logistics. I've been focusing on the technical program and wrangling speakers. We're a pretty good team. We've also had a lot of support from our employers, Pivotal Labs and Engine Yard - while they aren't technically producing the conference, they are doing a lot more than sponsors usually do for a conference. And we had a great team of volunteers too - without them we would have had the lamest conference ever.

Now that you've recovered from the first go-round, are you ready to get back on the horse and hold GoGaRuCo 2010?

Josh Sure, both Leah and I are up for that. We're really happy with how our first year went, but already have ideas for how to make next year even better. We'll probably expand from 200 to about 250 people because you can do more that way, but we want to stay intimate and single-track.

Who's the target audience for GoGaRuCo? How are you reaching out to them?

Josh We are definitely focused on people who write Ruby code for their living, or at least for a lot of their hobby time. Some shows have a lot of content for managers, VCs, and business people, but that's not us. If you're not a programmer, you might find this conference boring. But if you are a programmer who loves writing Ruby code, this is the conference you don't want to miss. We also assume that by now we don't have to have a lot of introductory content. There's a place for that kind of material, but we felt for what people were paying they deserved to see advanced material, and stuff that hasn't been seen anywhere else.

Reaching out has been pretty easy. We marketed the conference with blogs, Twitter, announcements at local meet-ups, and posting to email lists. Basically word of mouth and social networking tools.

A lot of regional Ruby conference organizers tout something unique about their conference. What makes the GoGaRuCo special?

Josh I think San Francisco is pretty special! And we tried hard to put together a program that represents that SF character. It's not just about improving your technical skills, but also what you use those skills in service of. So we had a couple of talks that weren't as much about the technology as they were about what you can use all this amazingly powerful technology to accomplish, and what kind of impact that can have on people's lives.

We also tried a few experiments with how we ran the conference. Things we'd always thought we'd like to see, improvements we wanted to try out. One of them was how we put together the program. We didn't do the typical CFP then have a couple people select from the proposals. I knew from the start there were certain people I wanted to present, so I just invited them to speak. That filled up half the program. The other half was selected from proposals through voting by registered attendees. I think that got us some speakers that otherwise might not have submitted proposals or had them chosen by a small committee. People really liked that idea and the program seems to have benefitted from it. We did get some surprises in the voted talks, which can be good or bad depending on what you were expecting. So far, the feedback has been mainly positive. We rushed the whole voting thing, but with a little preparation I'm sure we can make it work much better next year.

I loved the GoGaRuCo Wrap ... Where did the idea come from? Has it had the payoff/impact that you were hoping for?

Josh Thanks. The idea for the Golden Gate Ruby Wrap came when we were thinking about doing color printed programs, which everyone seems to do but costs a lot and has low value for both attendees and advertisers. You don't really need a program for a single-track conference anyway. But you do need some place to put the sponsors' ads! So we thought we should do a PDF zine to save paper and also create something of lasting value. It's good for everyone, including the advertisers. Instead of 200 people looking at a program for 30 seconds then throwing it on the floor, many more people get to spend a while reading the zine and will keep it around for reference, maybe for a long time. We got some very good write-ups for the talks, have some great photos taken by Andy Delcambre, and kept the focus on the community by including interviews with a number of attendees. So far we've had over a thousand downloads, so I think the impact is already pretty good. We didn't really get to include everything we wanted to, but next year we'll know how to do it better. I'm also hoping the idea catches on and we see more conferences produce what amounts to proceedings-in-brief. We don't mind folks copying here us at all.

It seems like the regional Ruby conference field is getting congested. What, if anything, should we be doing about it?

Josh That seems like asking what we should do about there being so many reality TV shows. I don't think there is a "we", and there isn't anything to do either. The field of regional conferences is an ecosystem, and those things tend to take care of themselves. Rubyists will go to the conferences they like, sponsors will help fund the conferences that are worth their support to them, and those conferences will continue to be produced. The others won't. We've seen that happen already. I think it's a positive thing, evolution selects the ones people want to see continue.

What other language(s) would you like to see have a presence at regional Ruby conferences? (Or should we be soley focused on Ruby?)

Josh I think keeping the main focus on Ruby is what people want in a Ruby conference, but there are certainly complementary languages and other technologies that can add to the value people get from Ruby. Nathan Sobo's talk on Unison and June was a great example of how Ruby and JavaScript frameworks can work together to overcome a difficult problem. Ruby doesn't exist in a vacuum, so it makes sense to show things that can help you use Ruby better.

If someone wants to get a regional conference started, what advice would you give them?

Josh The thing nobody ever tells you about running a conference is how hard it is on your body. I've said that to other organizers and they all smile painfully and nod. It's also demanding on your personal life, and can be really hard to work out with your job too. So I'd say you really have to want to do it, and you have to be ready to make a few sacrifices and deal with a lot of stress to make it happen. But it's also really worth it, so I'm not complaining.

The most important advice is that, like anything worth doing, you can not do it alone. It's crucial to have a good core team of two or three people who can keep things moving, and a larger team of people who can help get things done.

And lastly, make sure you have fun or you're not doing it right. Leah and I took this on to create the conference we ourselves always wanted to go to. If you're going to do something this big, it has to be an expression of yourself and what you're passionate about. Don't just try to be like everyone else, but use your own perspective and creativity to make something that is your own. Otherwise, you might as well go to someone else's conference.

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RubyNation Mini-Interview: Aaron Bedra

RubyNation (June 11-13 in Reston, VA) is coming up pretty quickly. I'm running a series of mini-interviews with speakers and organizers there to help people get a feel for what RubyNation is going to be like. So far, I've interviewed Hal Fulton, Russ Olsen, and Gray Herter.

This time, I'm talking with Aaron Bedra (@abedra). Aaron's talking about rcov and Ruby 1.9. I think it's going to be an awfully interesting talk.

If you're interested in getting more that this little taste, I'd recommend that you go register soon. I don't think the seats are going to last long.

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What makes regional Ruby conferences special?

Aaron A smaller, more intimate setting always creates a unique atmosphere and encourages everyone to get involved. This usually leads to a higher level of interaction and some really fun hacking sessions. This, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing a smaller conference can offer.

Other than your own talk, what are you most interested in seeing at RubyNation this year?

Aaron I am very interested in attending David Black's Ruby 1.9 talk as well as finding out what's coming in Rails 3 from Yehuda.

Rcov is an awesome tool for Ruby, how did you get involved with it?

Aaron I got involved with Rcov last summer when Chad Humphries (@spicycode) pulled the project into Github to work on some fixes related to the recently released Rails 2.1. After getting involved with the project, it just seemed natural to keep helping and pushing the project towards compatibility with Ruby 1.9.

What other tools should people be looking at for improving their Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 code?

Aaron The most important practice anyone can use is peer review. If you don't have a person to sit with you, make sure you put your code up on Github and let others give you feedback. As far as actual development tools are concerned I like to include Flog in my applications, as well as Safe-ERB and Tarantula in my Rails applications.

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RubyNation Mini-Interview: Gray Herter

For my third RubyNation interview, I talked with Gray Herter, one of the organizers. (I've also interviewed Hal Fulton and Russ Olsen about this upcoming regional Ruby conference.)

Don't forget RubyNation will be held in Reston, VA on June 11-13, so you don't have to much time left to register.

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Why did you decide to put RubyNation together?

Gray It started with a conversation that I had with Xandy Johnson, the former leader of the Northern Virginia Ruby Users Group. We discussed it as a way to help him raise money for our meeting pizza and sodas fund. He was having trouble getting sponsors every month for that. With the wealth of local Rubyist we have in the DC area, I thought if we could get five or so fairly well known local speakers to present something for a one day event at our normal location, we could charge a small fee and raise enough money to fund the group for the year easily. Russ Olsen and David Bock were up for it almost immediately. Russ, as it turned out, had also been talking to Xandy about it. After getting commitments from a few more well-known speakers, especially Rich Kilmer, and a good core of quality organizers, we decided we should make it a two-day event, using the regional conference model. It seemed like with the level of speakers we had interested in the idea, we needed to do that.

What makes regional Ruby conferences special?

Gray There are a lot of things I love about them. They get local ruby communities together. People get to know each other well since they are generally fairly small. The attendees and organizers feel a real connection to their community. You find out things that you never knew were happening right nearby. Last year, for instance, we had Mike Furr speaking, one of the creators of DiamondBack Ruby, which is a great project at the University of Maryland. You just had an article about it on your blog. He is a Rubyist in our area that is doing some really interesting work, at the Ruby language level, not just a new framework. I had no idea about it until he got involved in our conference. And when you get everyone together in a conference setting it is much easier to attract well-known speakers. Much easier than it is to get them for our user group, for instance. People appreciate that the conference can bring people like Yehuda Katz and David A. Black to our area.

What makes RubyNation stand out as a regional Ruby conference?

Gray I am not sure that we intend to stand out from the other regional conferences. Our goals are the same as the other regionals, I'm sure. That is, to put on a great event for the community. We do plan to run a very professional, high-value regional conference, and I believe RubyNation will be one of the better ones. I think the program committee has done a great job this year in putting together an interesting and relevant program. We have the two talks of David A. Black speaking on Ruby 1.9, and Yehuda Katz speaking on Rails 3.0. And Chad Fowler presenting some of the ideas from his Passionate Programmer book. The quality of speakers is very high. Even the local presenters are high quality. There is a lot going on in the DC area. The breadth of topics is very broad this year. We have several Rails topics, some database ones, user interface topics, and some non-Ruby ones, and so on.

What's your favorite memory from last year's RubyNation?

Gray Honestly, as the chief organizer, I had a grin from ear to ear when it was over and we had pulled it off successfully. It was a ton of work, and it was just a great feeling to have it work out so well. Otherwise, some of the lightning talks were surprisingly fun or me. Byran Liles did two rather long lightning talks, one each day, that I loved, especially the first one. It was a very quick version of his test all the f-ing time talk that he has since done at a few other conferences. He was our backup speaker last year, and that was a way of getting his talk in. In 15 minutes, he was the star of the conference. Not as PC as it should have been, especially in light of the recent controversies about whether or not we should be keeping the conference talks PG rated, but it was very funny.

What are you most looking forward to for this year's RubyNation?

Gray For specific topics I am interested in the Reia talk. It isn't Ruby, but in my opinion, the talks don't all have to be about Ruby specifically, just of interest to the Ruby and Rails community. I would like to hear what Bruce Tate thinks about it. He was the author of Beyond Java, a book written to explore the notion of what comes after Java. I am also glad to see several talks on user interfaces, like the ActiveScaffold talk, or the one on improving an application's perceived performance, or Bruce's talk on facet-based navigation. The database talks will be interesting, too. There are a bunch of talks that are interesting to me. Come to think of it, the Herding Tigers talk should be really good, too. Daniel sounds like a fun guy. I love the idea of a guy having an alias. He was in a punk band, and called himself Danny Blitz for a while. I need to met him.

[ed. you can learn more about Reia in my interview with Reia developer Tony Arcieri.]

Why should people come to RubyNation?

Gray It's fun. You can attend a really fun Ruby-centered event, right in our area. We are small enough that everyone can participate. You can ask questions, or talk to the presenters during breaks. They usually all attend the whole thing as participants, too. Or you can give a lightning talk. I would really like to encourage people to do that, especially if they are wondering what it would be like to actually give a regular presentation at an event like this. Maybe it will spark someone to submit a talk proposal next year, or speak at our user group. Growing the local community is what we are here for, after all.

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Lone Star Ruby Conf 2009: an Interview with Jim Freeze

With Jim Freeze' recent Lone Star Ruby Conf (@lsrc) Call For Speakers, I decided to run a quick interview with him. Jim's been a big part of the Ruby community for a long time, and LSRC seems to be one of those great regional conferences that's helping drive Ruby at the local level.

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What motivated you to organize a regional Ruby conference?

Jim We talked about it for years, and finally one day at a Ruby lunch, we decided we were just going to do it. The scariest part was taking the financial risk. At the time we didn't know if we could get 30 people to attend. We ended up getting over 200.

Who else is/has been involved in organizing LSRC?

Jim There are quite a few individuals who have contributed significantly to the success of LSRC. I hate to mention anyone for fear of forgetting key individuals. Formally, we organized Lone Star Ruby Foundation, a non profit 501(c)(3) corporation to handle the finances of the conference. I am the President, Gerald Bailey and Mark Mims are also board members. Gerald took the place of David Bluestein last year and was, in essence, a co-coordinator.

Others who have help significantly are Mars Hall, Wayne Walker, Taylor Carpenter, Sarah Brumfield, Ben Brumfield, Alan Whitaker (and other LMP members). I know there are others, but these come to mind for helping with key logistics.

We've also had some great keynote and invited speakers. And I recognize that they have also spent their time and energy to help support our conference.

Who's the target audience for Lone Star Ruby Conf? How are you reaching out to them?

Jim Our target audience is anyone interested in Ruby. To contact people we still use email mostly, my out of date website and twitter. Others, like Damon, have been good about getting us posted on various news boards and such.

It seems like the regional Ruby conference field is getting congested. What's your take on things?

Jim Yes it does. I'm am also surprised this year that, with the economy situation, that conferences have been selling out. That tells me that Ruby is growing!

A lot of regional Ruby conference organizers tout something unique about their conference. What makes the Lone Star Ruby Conf special?

Jim We're the best! And we're in Texas! :)

Just kidding. I don't really know that we have focused on just one thing. We try to make the whole conference as good as possible. This will be our third year at the same conference center, so we keep ironing out little problems and improving them. This year, our last two major bugs to iron out are chairs and wifi. We'll be bringing in more comfortable chairs and adding more wifi points.

And while I think we have good talks, we also realize that it's the people that make the conference. We try to have a relaxed atmosphere, where people are free to socialize or code, as they see fit. And we are pretty lax with our sponsors. We like for them to be a part of the show as much as they want to be. I think employment is a good thing and like to promote the interaction between hiring parties and those that want to be hired.

My basic philosophy is to treat LSRC like a cruise — over scheduled and over fed. You don't have to attend everything, but there is plenty to do and plenty to eat. And we have had many good compliments on the food. When you consider that the conference ticket includes all meals and snacks, it turns out to be a pretty good deal.

You've had a couple of great conferences the last two years. What are your favorite conference memories?

Jim My favorite conference memories are that it didn't bomb. I'm usually too tired and doing too many things during the conference. However, I did just watch the panel discussion from last year (thank you confreaks) and it brought back some good memories. It was a great panel, but it was at the end of the conference and I think alot of people were very tired. Only the truly devoted were remaining.

One good memory we had was last year before the conference. Matz came in early and we had a chance to show him around. Took him shopping at a Western store and took as Segway tour of Austin. It was a blast riding on the Segways and hanging out with Matz.

It's one little perk that we get as conference organizers.

If someone wants to get a regional conference started, what advice would you give them?

Jim Don't....but if you insist:

• Be prepared for a lot of work.
• Start with Chad Fowler's list of things to prepare for a conference.
• Join the Regional Ruby Conference Oraganizers Google group.
• Get some volunteers.
• Have a lot of fun.

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Now that RubyConf 2008 is over ...

Ok, RubyConf 2008 is over (and I missed all the fun). Besides reading (or writing) about all the awesome presentations and the incredible hallway session, what should we be doing? Let me pitch two simple ideas that will help spread the joy that RubyConf brings.

1. Come back to your local Ruby Brigade and share the wealth. Tell people what you learned and why it's important. Even better, start building on what you learned and share that knowledge too. Record your meetings and post the audio/video, or write about them at your blog. This is a great chance to share and build on the vision that you caught while you were in Orlando.
2. Put together a proposal for your local Regional Conference. There's too much intellectual value in the community to keep it all bottled up. Whether you're planning on going to GoRuCo, the Ruby Hoedown, Ruby Fringe, MWRC, or some other conference nearer and dearer to your hear, you can make it better by getting involved.

Neither of these is all that hard. Give one (or both) of them a try. You and your fellow rubyists will be glad that you did.

MWRC 2008

Peter Cooper just announced the availability of the videos from MWRC 2008. He included a quick write-up of several of the talks, and wrapped things up with this:

It seems MountainWest had a really high quality level of talks, so give it a thought when choosing which Ruby events to attend next year.

Pretty high praise indeed. It’s entirely in line with the things I heard from many of the attendees as well, so I think it’s safe to say we have a good thing going here.

Helping organize something like this takes a lot of effort (to be honest though, Mike Moore did the lion’s share of the work). As good as it was, I’m looking forward to not having to worry about it for 6 months or so. That doesn’t mean it’s time to stop thinking about regional Ruby conferences though. There are some great events coming up:

• The LoneStar RubyConf has posted their call for papers
• GoRuCo:http://2008.goruco.com/ (the Gotham Ruby Conference) is schedule to run on the 26th of Aprl
• The good folks of the Tulsa.rb are puitting on a Tulsa Ruby Workshop on April 28th

You might even want to pencil in plans to attend MountainWest RubyConf sometime in March next year. I know I want to be there.