Wednesday, April 29, 2009

We need a US Groovy/Grails/Griffon Conference

It's been over a year since the best conference I've ever attended. The Groovy/Grails Experience was held in February 2008 near Washington DC. It was an awesome experience. For the nostalgic and those with too much time on their hands you can read my review of it here.

But we are way overdue for another. The folks that put that conference together, Jay Zimmerman and Scott Davis, both heroes of mine, tried to organize another but when the economy took a turn for the worse they decided to hold off. I understand their concerns. One only has to look at the desperate attempts at drawing attendees the JavaOne organizers are going through to realize that this is a tough climate for conferences. But hey we're talking about Groovy, Grails and Griffon here.

These are technologies that transcend tumultuous times.
While other conferences are being scaled back or cancelled, The GR8 conference, dedicated to G3 technologies, has had to move to a larger venue! And from what I've heard, the turnouts at the growing number of Groovy and Grails training classes haven't been too shabby. The G3 user group community continues to grow. The Grails podcast audience is climbing. We even have a G3 dedicated magazine. We are ready for a G3 Experience.

So, what are we going to do about it? We could get together and put one on ourselves but I still have faith in Jay and Scott. Anyone who has been to a NoFluffJustStuff or related conference knows that nobody does it better. So, let's let them know that it's time. Here's a few steps you can take:

  • Go to the 2GX website: http://groovygrails.com/gg/2gexperience and use the form there to register your interest.

  • Go to the NoFluffJustStuff feedback form and tell them it's time. You can even plead for your favorite city.

  • Send Jay and/or Scott an email (I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to track down their email addresses)

  • Repeat this urgent plea on mailing lists, news groups, forums, at user groups, at work, in letters to the editor, etc.

  • Finally, if you are attending an upcoming NFJS event (coming to Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Columbus) tell Jay or Scott that it's time for another G3 Experience.


Let's get to work, we can make it happen. After all, we are the G3 community. It's not like we're a bunch of (insert your favorite inferior language or technology here) hackers!

I'll see you at the next G3 Experience!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Linux Journal Readers Choice Awards

Well the votes are in and Groovy didn't get enough votes to get mentioned in the Linux Journal's Readers Choice awards.  The winner for favorite programming language was Python and favorite scripting language was bash (go figure :)  But I know that many Groovy users registered their votes in the "other" category so I wouldn't be surprised if next year we're at least on the list.  In fact as evidence that a write in one year can do well the following year, I am thrilled to announce that Contegix won the Readers Choice Award for Favorite Linux Friendly Web Hosting Company!  A quote from the article: "Talk about a meteoric rise, Contegix went from one write-in vote in 2008 to champion of the Favorite Linux-Friendly Web Hosting Company category in 2009."   

Since I have only been working for Contegix since last October, I don't feel like I can take any credit for this big win, but I am still thrilled because I can see how much they deserved it.  I have never worked with a more dedicated and sharp team of technologists.  It is an honor to be among them and I hope I can do my part to help win this award again next year.

But back to Groovy, the key point here is that last year Contegix was just a write in!  This year Groovy was just a write in...  Just wait till next year!   In the meantime, thank you to all you who voted for Groovy and for Contegix!