This will be a departure from recent GeekAustin events. In addition to the drinks and conversation, members of Semantic Web Austin will be hosting presentations /sessions back in the BoomBoom Room. If you are interested in the semantic web, ontology, microformats, info architecture — or just want to toss back some drinks with folks who are — we look forward to seeing you.
Juan Sequeda (CV) and John De Oliveira of Semantic Web Austin, are currently assembling the program for the event. We’ll be posting details on speakers as we receive them.
Event: Semantic Web Austin Launch Party
Host: GeekAustin
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 6PM-10PM
Location: Union Park Austin ( 612 W. 6th St.)
Event listing on Facebook
Event listing on Upcoming
Juan just created the following:
SemanticWebAustin Facebook Group.
SemanticWebAustin LinkedIn Group
GeekAustin co-conspirator Whurley wants to know a little bit about you use the internet. Please take his survey at http://www.polldaddy.com/survey.aspx?id=20acbf3fc0bafaff
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I believe I first heard about Austin Jelly last November. Since then, it’s grown to become the main topic in the local Friday twittersphere. There has been a lot of press recently about Jelly as a national phenomena, and although Austin was one of the first Jelly cities, there hasn’t been much coverage on how it emerged locally. I asked Dusty Reagan, the chief instigator behind Jelly in Austin, to give me a bit of the history and background. |
Lynn Bender: In the mid 90s mojosdailygrind had ethernet jacks in the walls. It was the first wired coffee house in town. Because I found myself spending more and more time in front of a computer, and didn’t want to sit at home, I spent a great deal of time at mojos. I wasn’t the only one. The place was full of laptops — at the time, this was something unique. I’d see more or less the same geeks every night. Many became good friends, several I hired, and a few others I helped to find a new gig. This seems commonplace now though. On any day, go to Medici, Epoch, Café Caffeine, and you’ll see a room full of laptops. Hang out more than a few times, and you see that each has a community of sorts. What is it that distinguishes Jelly from the ad-hoc communities of tech workers that form in many of the coffee houses in town?
Dusty Reagan: I believe what distinguishes Jelly from ad-hoc coffee shop working communities is Jelly attendees are deliberately gathering and seeking a social outlet. The ad-hoc coffee shop communities you’re describing typically grow organically over an extended period of time. Jelly is kind of a community-building catalyst / ice breaker. When you come to Jelly you’re encouraged to introduce yourself to other workers. I’ve found that in the typical coffee shop working culture people generally work in silos. Jelly is an excuse to break out of your silo.
I should also mention that Jelly can be held at someone’s home, apartment, or office. It’s really all about making connections.
Bender: What was it that motivated you to launch Jelly in Austin? When did you launch it?
Reagan: I learned about coworking in general back in September 2007 after reading this article on Independents Hall on FreelanceSwitch.com. The concept of “coworking” hit such a strong chord with me that I wanted to see it happen in Austin immediately. I figured the best way to make coworking happen right away was to start Jelly meet-ups. I took one month to promote and generate buzz around our first meet-up. Then we met for the first time at Genuine Joe’s on Nov 2nd.
My motivation around Jelly and coworking comes from my deep-seated belief that work as we know it is evolving and it’s up to us to help change it for the better. Jelly fits in with my vision of how people should work. I’m passionate about sharing that vision.
Bender: There are a lot of great independent coffee houses in town. What factors led you to choose Café Caffeine? What sort of things does a venue need to make it suitable for a Jelly?
Reagan: Café Caffeine is a great place for Jelly because they have Wi-Fi, plenty of outlets, an open space, good food, great coffee, and they let us rearrange the furniture. But the number one reason Café Caffeine is great for Jelly is Ruth Glendinning, co-owner of Café Caffeine. She really understands and embraces Jelly and casual coworking. If you’re looking to host a Jelly meet-up at a coffee shop, get the support of the owner and/or manager. It has made a huge difference for us. Thanks Ruth! And thanks to Maggie Duval for introducing Austin Jelly to Café Caffeine and Ruth!
Bender: With Jelly, Michael Agustin’s Indie Austin group, 501 club, and the Austin Social Media Club all meeting simultaneously at Café Caffeine, are you encountering space issues?
Reagan: To date we haven’t encountered space issues at Café Caffeine, though we’re certainly starting to push the limit.
I’m extremely excited about the cross-pollination of Austin organizations because I think it strengthens our city-wide community. It turns people on to organizations that they may not have known about and widens our social circles. I think Jelly is a great community melting pot because the concept of Jelly is so universal: people gathering to work on separate things together. That concept is appealing to a lot of groups and individuals and makes for a neutral meeting ground to collaborate and mix it up.
I’m looking forward to our future space problems. I think the solution will simply be to expand Jelly to additional venues and/or increase meeting frequency.
Bender: I heard there are plans for a Jelly North Austin. Tell me about that.
Reagan: You bet there are! Jelly used to alternate between Genuine Joe’s (North Austin) and Café Caffeine (South Austin) on alternating Thursdays and Fridays. I did this to try and accommodate the largest possible number of Austinites. Unfortunately it turned out that the irregularity of the meet-ups really hurt attendance. I’ve learned that consistency is the key to gaining momentum in the Jelly community. We now hold Jelly every single Friday at Café Caffeine without fail. Now that the South Austin Jelly meet-up time and location has become established, I think we’re ready to start something consistent up North.
Jelly meet-ups can be hosted by anyone, anytime, anywhere. I encourage folks to host their own Jelly meet-ups if they get the urge. I consider these regularly scheduled meet-ups as a kind of “corner stone” of the community, but I’d love to see some ad-hoc Jelly meet-ups spring up. We’ve even had a few already hosted by Stephen Gutknecht at Uncle Billy’s Brewpub.
Bender: For folks who have never been to Jelly, how would you describe the experience?
When you work at Jelly, it’s like you’re working with a bunch of friends. Expect to do some socializing and meet some people outside of your professional circle. Lots of people come to cowork at Jelly, not just geeks. We’ve had lawyers, professors, librarians, real estate agents, artists, and numerous other non-geek professions represented. It’s really casual; some people only come for a few hours, some people prefer to keep to themselves, other people want to meet everyone there.
Occasionally other Austin organizations will meet at Jelly. If you’d like to participate in their meetings, just pull up a chair. If you’d rather not, pop in your earphones.
Bender: Any future plans for Jelly that you can share with us?
Reagan: There are some interesting things brewing on a global landscape. Nothing I can really speak of yet, but I don’t mind teasing. Watch www.workatjelly.com or chat me up at the next Jelly.
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Originally, we were planning to have a WordPress 2.5 release party. Rumor was that there was a complicated problem that might take another month to solve. Rumor also was that Andy Skelton was working on it. To everyone’s surprise, 2.5 was released at WordCamp Dallas. So instead of a release party, we’re having a WordPress Fest. |
Our co-hosts for this party will be Refresh Austin and the Austin WordPress Meetup Group. I credit the folks at Refresh Austin with helping me make the change to, and learn how to take advantage of, WordPress. Paul Menard, leader of the Austin WordPress Meetup Group, was the one who converted the GeekAustin slashcode template to WP. Whether you are considering making the move to WordPress, want to meet some local WordPress gurus, or just want to toss back a few drinks with the Refresh and GeekAustin folks at Union Park, you’re invited.
A note about the venue: There is plenty of room at Union Park. You won’t be standing in line to get in. The drinks at Union Park are generous and reasonably priced. They have a food menu so you can come straight from the office, and although parking is not difficult to find on W. 6th, valet parking will be available.
The details:
WordPress Fest - Hosted by GeekAustin and Refresh Austin
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Union Park, 612 W Sixth St. (map)
For those of you who use them, we have event pages on Facebook and Upcoming.
To get on the email list for future GeekAustin events, send an email to linearb@gmail.com.
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I first found out about Bryan Menell’s Austin High Tech Happy Hour when he and I both scheduled an event on the same day. Ooops. A few months later, I discovered AustinStartup.com (get the RSS feed), and found that Bryan is responsible for that as well. Recently, Bryan gave me a sneak peak at a new site he was working on — the Austin Emerging 100. Bryan has clearly been a very busy guy.
Before reading this post, go check out the Austin Emerging 100. If you’re looking for work with a startup, this should be the first place to check. |
Lynn Bender: Bryan, The Austin Emerging 100 is going to be a tremendous resource for all of us. It looks like a considerable amount of work went into it. How many folks were involved in the development of the site? Did you have any corporate sponsorship?
Bryan Menell: The website will be a great resource for the many people who ask me every week about what technology companies are hiring, who they are, and what they are up to. It started as a spreadsheet that Bryan Jones (CEO of Moximity) put together, and we collaborated to grow the list. At various points I asked for input from friends who are angel investors, PR professionals, and other members of the tech community. At first I thought it would be difficult to even come up with 100 companies, and then it became even more difficult to limit it to just 100. There haven’t been any sponsors of the project, but I would certainly welcome some!
(You can read Bryan’s own post on the Austin Emerging 100 here).
Bender: You also manage AustinStartup.com and the Austin High Tech Happy Hour. Did you originally envision this suite of sites, or did you create each as you discovered a need? Do you have any future plans that you can share?
Menell: Each one kind of came up independently, and each has it’s own support system. AustinStartup was intended to promote and expose all the cool technology stuff going on in Austin, and the happy hour was my wife’s idea. At the first happy hour over a year ago there just weren’t many social events for technology folks. I wish I could say there was a grand plan behind it all, but it all just sort of happened. My future plans include taking a break from dreaming up little side projects. Although I think it would be really neat to create something like TechCrunch’s CrunchBase just for Austin technology companies. Anybody want to collaborate on that project?
Bender: You are on the Board of Advisors of Texchange. Could you tell me something about the organization?
Menell: Texchange is a great organization for C-level executives in Austin technology companies, and for entrepreneurs. The quality of the networking is amazing, and the content in the monthly programs is top notch. In June Geoffrey Moore (who wrote Crossing the Chasm) is speaking, and that will cap off a tremendous year for Texchange. I encourage anyone who is interested to attend as a guest of mine to try it out.
Bender: Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t say: “Austin could be another Silicon Valley. if only we could…..”.
Yet, every day I see folks turn down opportunities to move to the Valley because they love Austin. How are we doing? What are we doing right, and what are we missing?
Menell: I lived in the valley for a few years, and it’s been 12 in Austin now. We don’t want to be like the valley because Austin is so much better. One of the things we do lack is a great support system that helps entrepreneurs get from idea stage to an investable stage. One of the ways we could do that is to pull entrepreneurs who have seen liquidity back into the startup community. I think we need higher levels of venture investment in more diverse areas like mobile, B2C, social media, and cleantech. Today we’re more diverse than ever before, but we could definitely use more.
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Over the last few weeks, there has been an increasing amount of talk about the upcoming ProductCamp Austin. I asked Paul Young, one of the organizers, if he could give us the background on the event. |
Lynn Bender: You’re a local guy. Where did you get the idea to host a ProductCamp Austin. Have you previously attended one in another city? Have you attended a BarCamp?
Paul Young: I’ve been in Austin for 10 years, and had several opportunities to move out to the Valley, but always turned them down because we love Austin. One aspect of the Bay Area that I’ve always had a jealous eye towards is that their critical mass of technical and marketing people really lends itself to organization of great events.
Aside from the various BarCamps, the first ProductCamp (called P-Camp) was held in the Valley back in March. I looked at what they did and thought “we need that in Austin.” I sent out some feelers to people I’ve met through my Product Management blog (Product Beautiful) and away we went.
I’ve never done a BarCamp before, so this is a new experience for me as an organizer as well. We’ve set some ambitious goals for sessions and attendance, and I know this is going to be a great event because whenever you put smart, capable people together in a room, good stuff happens.
Bender: GeekAustin recently interviewed Jason Cohen of SmartBear (interview). Jason mentioned that he was using Agile practices in his marketing programs. I notice that many of the people involved with, and blogging about, ProductCamp Austin have a knowledge of Agile, Design Patterns, and similar tools. Even the word Pragmatic hints at the classic text The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas. What’s going on? Are the marketing folks getting hip to engineering methodologies or are the engineers taking over the marketing dept?
Young: Both! “Big M” Marketing, which includes Product Management, is very interested in solutions to the customer’s problems and not just ordering t-shirts and making their YouTube video “go viral.” Agile has some great aspects about turning code in fast iterations and not over documenting, but the beauty of Agile is that it injects a greater understanding of the customer and her problems into the company. There are a lot of reasons why Agile is catching fire, and whichever one you like, they all get back to “how can we solve a problem that’s real?”
Interestingly, most Marketing teams still perform their positioning in a very waterfall-like manner: go in a room, position, output documents…redevelop a year later when the Sales team says that the message isn’t working. Can we position a product like we develop in Agile? Develop, test, refine continuously? Sounds like a great session for ProductCamp!
Bender: What kinds of sessions do you expect ProductCamp to cover?
Young: ProductCamp will have sessions covering all aspects of the product management and development lifecycle. John Milburn from Pragmatic Marketing will lead a session about technology assessment and where to put your development dollars. Bjorn Aannestad has signed up to facilitate a discussion about different methods we use to do feature prioritization. I’ll be leading a roundtable about working with offshore manufacturing and development. Proposed sessions include how Product Managers can work effectively in an Agile shop, career planning and transitioning into and out of Product Management, and dealing with GUIs in requirements.
Bender: How many folks do you expect at the event? I’ve noticed that a few barcamps have attracted upwards of 1000 people. Do you think that there is a limit to how big a barcamp type event can scale before it ceases to be an un-conference and turns into a traditional conference?
Young: Because ProductCamp is focused on more specific topics than BarCamp, I doubt we will see 1000 people. We’ll probably have less than 100; our goal is to have a high quality group who are dealing with the pressing problems in the product development process every day. The sessions are going to be interesting and thought provoking, and participants should come ready to be challenged - and challenge one another. Product Management is still poorly understood in technology companies, so it is up to us to help define what is a critical role that will shape the software and products we use in the future.
As far as keeping the spirit of the event, I strongly believe that no one wants to come out to hear a bunch of talking heads droning about process and continuous improvement. The un- in un-conference means that the rule of 2-feet applies: if you don’t feel like you’re getting value in a session - find another! ProductCamp is participation driven, and the day will go where the participants take it.
Bender: Is this a free event? I see that Pragmatic Marketing is one of the sponsors. Who are the other sponsors? Are you still seeking additional sponsors? Do you need additional volunteers?
Young: This is a 100% free event and everyone is welcome! The only cost is participation.
ProductCamp is sponsored by Pragmatic Marketing, Austin Ventures, St. Edwards University Professional Education Center, The Association of International Product Marketing and Management, and NetStreams - and we are seeking more (email pt.young@gmail.com).
We will never have enough volunteers! If you are interested in ProductCamp, first go sign up as a participant. Then list yourself on the wiki under “Volunteers” and we’ll find a job for you! Finally, if you feel like you have something to share about Product Management or Marketing, or the way products and software are being developed, sign up to lead a session as a speaker.
Bender: When and where will ProductCamp be held?
Young: ProductCamp will be held Saturday June 14th, 2008, 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM at St. Edwards University’s Professional Education Center on 9420 Research Blvd., near Mopac and 183. To sign up, and learn more, go to the official site for ProductCamp Austin.
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I first met Jim “Decibel” Nasby at Nuclear Tacos. Jim was one of the early members of distributed.net. He was also the one who introduced Whurley and I to each other (”You guys need to trade phonebooks.”) Jim was an early adopter of, and is considered a top expert in, Postgres. Following his announcement of a Austin Postgres User Group, I interviewed him on the state of Postgres and the job outlook for Postgres pros. The Austin Postgres User Group will be meeting Tuesday, May 6th, at Sun Microsystems. More details here. |
Lynn Bender: A few years back, I searched Dice/Monster and found only three job postings in all of Texas which contained the keyword Postgres or PostreSQL. what is the job market for Postgres experts in Austin nowdays?
Jim Nasby: I see two distinct markets for people with knowledge in Postgres; there are companies that (generally) past the startup stage, have money to spend, and want someone that has a substantial amount of Postgres and database expertise. There are very few people in the world that have that skill set, so demand is very high relative to supply. This is a market that experts in other databases should pay attention to.
The other market is companies that are using Postgres, but don’t think they need an expert. This is where you will find people who don’t do database work for a living, but have experience with Postgres. In cases like this, having Postgres on your resume will give you a decided edge over a similar candidate that doesn’t have Postgres experience.
Something else that I’ve noticed is that a lot of Postgres jobs don’t get listed through channels like Dice or Monster. A lot more of this hiring seems to be via word-of-mouth. So I don’t think low numbers on Dice or Monster are very representative. One data point that I can throw out is that until recently I’ve averaged one serious inquiry from a recruiter per month. This has fallen off in the last 6 months or so, possible due to my reduced involvement with the community.
Bender: Almost every database has a certification program — Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and even MySQL. Is there any equivalent yet for Postgres. What are some of the ways prospective Postgres DBAs can distinguish themselves?
Nasby: There are many benefits that come from being involved in the Postgres community, and distinguishing yourself as an expert is just one of them. So let me address all of them in one answer.
First, simply reading the mailing lists is a great way to learn about Postgres, as well as good database practices. pgsql-general, pgsql-novice and pgsql-sql are good places to start. Even better than just lurking is participating. Asking questions about things you’re not clear on, as well as answering questions from others when you can.
Second, reading pgsql-hackers is a good way to learn about how the database actually works on a nuts-and-bolts level. This is an important step up… understanding how the database functions takes you to a much higher level than just being able to write queries; you can start understanding how database design must consider how the database actually functions.
Finally, there is the level of actively participating in the development of Postgres. This doesn’t have to be in the form of code, either. There is plenty of room for help with things like documentation and advocacy. You can also contribute at a technical level even if you’re not writing code.
Bender: For someone just starting out with, aside from a knowledge of SQL, what are most critical skills for a Postgres DBA to have? and what is the best way to obtain them?
Nasby: I’m glad that you mentioned “knowledge of SQL”. SQL is nothing more than a language, and a very simple one at that. I think this is a point that many people fail to grasp. Working with databases is very different than working with procedural code; it requires a different mindset. I constantly see SQL that was clearly written by someone who was thinking in terms of “first I do this, then I do this, then I do this”; they were thinking procedurally. Databases aren’t procedural engines, they’re set manipulation engines. In order to actually be proficient with databases you have to think in terms of sets of *data*, not sets of *operations*.
Also, I want to point out that there are 3 different areas of database expertise: administration, development, and architecture. A database administrator (DBA) is generally concerned with keeping production databases up and running. They are similar to systems administrators. Database developers are concerned with writing code that interacts with the database; queries, stored procedures, as well as portions of client-side code. Database architects work with the structure of data in the database, as well as higher-level considerations. Things like table design, materialized views, designing replication environments. Of course, it’s very common for people to wear many of these three hats.
The key to success with a particular database is understanding how it differs from other databases. For Postgres, this means understanding what MVCC is and how Postgres implements it. When you understand that, you’ll understand how critically important vacuuming is. It also means you don’t have to worry very much about lock contention issues, something that can be a huge pain in other databases. It’s also important to understand what most of the different configuration parameters do (there are a few that can generally be ignored). Understanding that means understanding some of how the engine actually works. There’s some good references for this information available.
There are also things that aren’t Postgres-specific. for DBAs, it’s good to understand how the different backup and recovery mechanisms work. For developers and architects, understanding how to think in terms of sets is critical. Understanding of how the engine works is also useful for developers and DBAs; it’s pretty critical for architects. Replication is something that DBAs and architects should also know.
Bender: Senior level folks and decision makers often ask me “Why is Postgres better? Why should I switch from MySQL?” What would you tell these folks?
Nasby: With Postgres, data integrity is the number one driving factor behind everything. Right behind that is stability. Performance is 3rd. MySQL tends to do things “the easy way”. The trade-off here is that Postgres can be seen as being “hard” compared to MySQL, and there is a bit of truth to that. MySQL can be a bit easier at the very beginning. But once you get into a larger environment, those initial differences become meaningless, but data quality issues are huge.
People like to point to MySQL’s customer list and get a warm fuzzy that since so many other well-known companies use MySQL it must be good enough for us. What they fail to understand is that MySQL is a commercial company with a commercial product, and that list is marketing material. The list for Postgres isn’t as big and impressive because the community focuses effort on the database itself and not as much on marketing.
So, if you’re starting from scratch, I think there’s a very strong case to be made for Postgres. If you have existing code it becomes a bit trickier, because there is the cost of actually migrating. What I can say is what I’ve seen time and time again, and that’s people who finally bit the bullet and migrated and are much happier, or people who are still on MySQL and hating it, but perceive the pain to be just below the pain of migrating. I’ve yet to find someone who’s regretted migrating to Postgres.
Bender: MySQL seems to have a wide variety of storage engines available. Each seem to be suited to a particular type of task. Is there an equivalent to this in Postgres?
Nasby: I think multiple storage engines is MySQL’s Achilles heel. It sounds great in theory… give people the flexibility to use the right storage engine for the job. But the reality is that the storage technologies are too different to work well in one product. For example, there are serious caveats with transactions in InnoDB because of MyISAM. And you find pieces of MySQL technology that only work with one storage engine.
I think a far better approach is to look at what *database* engine is best suited for a given task, or if a database engine is even the right answer. There are options built on Postgres, like Greenplum’s MPP that scale well into many terabytes for data warehouse applications.
Having said that, there are efforts in the Postgres community to add options that will make it’s storage format useful in a broader range of cases. One example is being able to mark a partition as read-only. That allows for covering index scans. It also potentially allows for stripping out a lot of per-row overhead. There are also different indexing methods being worked on.
Bender: I realize that the Austin Postgres user group has not had it’s first meeting yet, but can you share a bit of your vision for what you would like to see? Programs? Speakers?
Nasby: My personal goal for the user group is to promote Postgres and to provide a resource for people in Austin / central Texas that are using Postgres. Ultimately, I think it’s those users who will determine what the user group looks like.
The Austin Postgres User Group will be meeting Tuesday, May 6th, at Sun Microsystems. More details here.
