Update on NoSQLCamp Austin

Back in November, I wrote about our intent to host NoSQLCamp Austin.

Our goal was simple -- to help bring fellow Austinites up to speed on some of the latest currents in data and databases.

There have already been numerous summits and conferences on NoSQL topics: no:sql(east), OpenSQLCamp in Portland, and numerous NoSQL meetups. A quick glance at the nosql-discussion google group will show similar events occuring around the world.

So that I could get a better idea of what everyone wanted out of such an event, I sent out a survey to 90 people who had expressed interest in attending (Thanks to those of you who replied). What I discovered was that most were just getting their feet wet and were looking for an opportunity to learn more. To have a useful event, I would need to bring a lot of speakers/presenters in from around the country.

From the responses, I also got the sense that the potential attendees would not be too well served by an event where they spent an hour hearing about graph databases, followed by an hour on memcache, followed by an hour on document databases, etc. I come to think that a one or two day camp where we try to cover everything is not the best format.

Instead, I believe the best way to help propogate all the new ideas is by a series of Database Dev Days. For example, we host a Drizzle Dev Day. Brian Aker has been the main force behind Drizzle (wikipedia), and I've been looking for a good excuse to bring him back to town. I know that the folks at 10gen Confluence would love to come to town to talk about MongoDB (wikipedia). Rather than give them a two hour slot in a whirlwind event, why not simply have a MongoDB day?

Thanks to everyone for all the emails. Instead, why not post your thoughts in the comments here, so everyone else can see. Let me know what you think.

-Lynn