I’ve been to a lot of Ruby conferences this past year. Yet the more that I attend, the more that they seem the same. I see the same people giving the same presentations on the same topics. Sure, they add some content here, drop a slide there, or maybe add a different spin on the same subject as before. But, at the end of the conference, I find myself asking “What makes this conference different than any other conference?” There are more people? There are less people? It’s someplace different? That’s often all that I can say.
At RailsConf, Chad Fowler opened and offered one observation that I found particularly profound. He admitted that he doesn’t do particularly well in a classroom setting — and implied that conference talks are like a classroom environment.
That struck me to the core. That’s me.
At Ruby conferences, I see few people voting with their feet. However, I see many people who barely pay attention to the speaker. Instead, they are on IRC discussing how disappointed they are in the speaker, writing a Rails app or Ruby gem, or just surfing the net.
So why even go to the talks at conferences? Why have the talks? Obviously, most Ruby conference attendees would rather be doing something on their computer, social or otherwise.
Beteween games of Werewolf at Ruby East last year (my humble apologies to Charlie Nutter), Giles Bowkett and I were yakking away. Somewhat randomly, he says something like, “Man, you and I… we’re just scenesters.”
That’s exactly what I’d become. I didn’t realize it until that moment. That had never ever been me but it sure is now. And I bet that’s you too.
You go for the scenius.
That’s a Brian Eno-ism. It’s “the emergent genius of a colocated culture”. It’s that spark you get, that inspiration, that makes you feel smarter just because you’re working near and talking with the poeple that you are where you are.
I don’t see much exchange when there is a talking head, even a brilliant one, at the front of the room with an audience full of mostly silent people. Why is a group of such seemingly independently-minded people as the Ruby community willingly enslaving themselves to the words of one person after another for 45 minutes a pop? Just how educational does this really turn out to be?
“This town needs an enema” - The Joker, Batman (1990)
Why should Ruby conferences be traditional conferences? Just because everyone else does it that way? Odd. I don’t see this community (communities?) as followers.
Giles asserts that we’re a weird bunch of people. Hell, I thrive on it — just as much as I gag on the lack of weird when I return to my day job from a conference.
So why not just be weird instead of being like every other conference out there with their clearly delineated speakers, audiences, and Nascar-like corporate branding?
No I don’t mean Ruby Fringe (although I am going).
Let’s invert the process. More discussion. More hacking. Less talking heads.
Let’s make some awesome Stone Soup.
I’ve discussed this with some people around the community. The often conservative and stodgy DC Metropolitan Area may hold the first Ruby BarCamp. Does someone want to beat us to the punch? I triple-dog dare you.
Update 6/29/08: Bryan Liles pointed me at an article by Dave Winer about the “early days” of unconferences. His timing is serendipitous. Come on, people! Let’s make something happen!
11 comments ↓
Agreed. Less talky, more hacky.
A Ruby BarCamp would be awesome. Count me in.
Well put. I’m a big fan of N-to-N interactions instead of 1-to-N interactions. That has the potential to generate N2 of value instead of just N. Let’s keep the conversation going and see how we can make this happen.
A good example of this is our Erlang study group. It’s a group of peers, and there is so much expertise coming from different angles, viewpoints, and experience. In the aggregate, the group enjoys way more expertise than we would ever get from any one of us alone.
Hey I’d be down for a Ruby Barcamp. Is the DC one already planned? Couldn’t find anything via google…
@John: There’s nothing official yet. I’ve been discussing something like this with folks since RailsConf. I believe that we’re initial stages of making something happen. My hope is that we can hold one late Summar/early Fall. We’ll see how it plays out.
I’m planning a Ruby-oriented (but not exclusive) Open Space type event in Mobile AL or Pensacola FL sometime in January.
Pick a date. Invite some folks. Find a space. Focus the group. Allow things to happen.
Remember:
whoever comes is the right people
whenever it starts is the right time
whatever happens is the only thing that could have
when it’s over, it’s over
Respect the Law of Two Feet.
I’ll try to come up to DC, if I can convince Emily and Ellie that a 6 month old really needs to see the Nation’s capital.
I feel sorry for the presenters at Ruby and RailsConfs I’ve attended - because they’re just talking to a bunch of zombies. Yah, look around, 90% of people are on IRC, working on their own crap, reading email, their RSS feeds, or just randomly wasting time.
Why do you need your laptop? Seriously.. so you can do all this stuff? Or are you really taking notes on it?
I was at a meeting recently with some Rails people, and we had one of these guys.. laptop open, reading email, web, nonsense. He was happy to pipe open his mouth every now and then, but then go right back to looking at some friend’s flickr account.
Is this a Rails/Ruby thing? Mac user thing? Where’s the respect?
@Stephen: Honestly, I believe that what you’re describing is the tendency of an active mind and not a disrespectful one.
Speaking for myself, sitting still listening for someone drone on for 45 minutes to an hour at a time is just the other side of Hell (well, if I believed it in it in the first place). I need more input.
If I enjoy a speaker’s presentation, then I’m often taking notes, investigating details of the speakers remarks on the net, looking at related code, and maybe tinkering with some code related to the presentation.
However, more often than not, I’m not fully engaged in the speaker. So, what, as an audience member am I to do? If I am somewhat engaged, I half-pay attention but optimize my time by possibly, yes, working on my own code, looking for more information on the speaker’s topic, arbitrarily surfing the net, or perhaps, yes, bitching on an IRC back-channel about the presentation.
As audience members, we ostensibly pay for conferences (and, for RailsConf, mucho dinero — big money) to hear people speak. But that time belongs far more to the audience than to the speaker. I whole-heartedly believe that the majority of the audiences at Ruby-related conferences are more interested and have more to gain from many gatherings with their peers than they do in a classroom/seminar-like setting. The attendees just may not realize it yet.
I believe that the Conference Model is largely inappropriate for our community/communities. It’s time for another.
And this is why I say we need to invert the whole process.
I’m glad to see something come out of our discussion last week. I’m ready to make some stone soup.
“And this is why I say we need to invert the whole process.”
I have some ideas about how we can do that — removing the stifling presenter/audience divide.
Please keep me in the loop on this one.
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