Last weeks Drinks and Drupal party, co-hosted by GeekAustin and Four Kitchens was a whole lot of fun. Expect more in the future. I promise I’ll try to keep the Drupal posts to one a week. This post doesn’t count toward that.
The Austin.Javascript LinkedIn group is continuing to grow. Kyle Simpson and Joe McCann are bringing in a range of speakers for the monthly meetings. If you want to get up to speed on the latest Javascript libraries, this is the group to meet.
The Agile Austin group is hosting Ask an Expert tomorrow at Mangia Pizza. Tomorrow’s host will be Walter Bodwell, the CEO of Planigle. Planigle provides consulting, training and tools to help teams adopt and get the most out of agile development. To keep abreast of Agile Austin events — and there are many — join the Agile Austin Yahoo Group
If your looking for something closer to the Discovery Channel with beer, check out Nerd Nite Austin. To accommodate the crowd, they’ve moved the event to Buffalo Billiards. Att tomorrow’s event, Dr. Jonas Moses will demonstrate how bio-medical innovation happens (or doesn’t) in his presentation “The Accidental Innovator”, JC Dwyer will explain how arcane politics become modern social policy in “From the Black Plague to the Bread Line”, and Philip Wheat will ponder what happens when everything around you gets smart in “Bits & Atoms - the rise of Smart Environments.” — with beer.
We just wrapped up the MySQL Associate Certification Prep a few weeks ago. It was a sharp bunch of folks, and a lot of fun.
Below are the upcoming classes which will be scheduled over the next 4 months.
1) Introduction to Drupal - This is a beginning level class. It will begin around the end of the May, and will meet downtown each week for 8 weeks. The curriculum will be based on Jeff Robbins’ book - Using Drupal.
2) Intermediate topics in SQL - This is a four session class covering intermediate to complicated joins, multi-level subqueries, and related mid-level topics.
3) The Apache Config File - Special Topics - This is a one session class focusing on three issues which frequently trip up webmasters: virtual hosts, aliases, and mod-rewrite.
To reserve a place in any of the above classes, send a note to linearb@gmail.com
The classes below are tentatively scheduled for the fall:
4) Beginning CSS — This is an 8 session class
5) MySQL Developer Certification Prep
6) Basic Unix/Linux for DBAs
We have had offers from instructors to teach beginning C/C++ and Java classes. If you are interested in these let us know. If there is sufficient interest, we’ll arrange a time and location. We had originally planned to host an Introduction to PL/SQL class and a MySQL Administrator Certification Prep class. We may do these in 2010.
We plan to open source the course materials and put them up on GeekAustin for folks to download. However, we are still converting the course notes into useful documentation.
If you have any questions regarding the classes, send a note to linearb@gmail.com
-Lynn Bender
GeekAustin
When the word got out that the City of Austin was considering a 750K contract with an out of state firm to rebuild the city website, there was outrage, heated discussion, facebook groups, and subsequent news stories — which ultimately caused the council to postpone it’s decision.
Most people were angry that the city was using an out of state contractor. Yet, few people remarked that the city had not, in any broad public fashion, asked the citizens what they wanted in a website.
whurley, long-time open source advocate, used this as an opportunity to test his recent ideas on crowdsourcing and open collaboration, and quietly began work on a platform to bring the process out into the open.
Last Friday, Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOM let the cat out of the bag. However, she didn’t say where the bag was. So, here it is:
From the title page:
OpenAustin is a community-based effort to crowdsource the requirements and development for the new City of Austin web site using local software developers, marketing experts, and graphic designers that have been displaced from their jobs due to the current economic downturn. This will produce a superior web site for the citizens of Austin at a fraction of the cost of the city’s lowest bid.
Seems like a pretty clear mission statement.
Nevertheless, I suspected more was afoot, so I called whurley to get more details:
GeekAustin: Whurley, it’s not like you gave the city any choice. You’ve given the folks a platform to discuss what they want in a city website, and how they want it implemented. How do you recommend that the city respond and participate in OpenAustin?
whurley: That’s an excellent question. This isn’t an anti-city government movement. It is a community movement based on some very simple principles. One of these is that it’s simply not right to design web-based application services or content without involving the very people who are not only using it on a daily basis, but are also your source of funding. This doesn’t mean that we intend on excluding the city or anyone else from the process. In fact it’s quite the contrary. I’m hoping that this will if nothing else helped reduce the over $700,000 that was bid byas much as possible. In a perfect world the city would take full advantage of this to not only reduce their research and development costs but to reinvest in the local community at the same time; something I think we all can agree would be good for Austin overall.
GeekAustin: You and I have been in many meetings where the discussion goes on endlessly, and the the decision finally comes when someone with a strong arm says: “This is how we are going to do it.” Is http://openaustin.org/ merely a massive RFP, or do you envision it as a place where decisions can be made.
whurley: The website will do wonders for collecting requirements. Still, we’ll have to actually relevance rank each of the recommendations and then provide a simple analysis of time, scope, and cost for the overall feature set. This is something that many are questioning from a feasibility standpoint. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact when managed properly this type of community involvement can produce returns far in excess of what’s invested while making both the city and the citizens happy at the same time.
In regard to decisions being made, that is something that is still to be foreseen. Again this is no affront to the city. This is a large group of people, talented people, who are stepping up to try to bring a resolution forward to a situation that has turned much of the tech community on its ear. This shouldn’t be seen as something we’re doing “for” the city, but rather something we’re doing “with” the city. After all, what is a city that is not made up of its citizens?
GeekAustin: I’m surprised that you didn’t use an open source solution, like Drupal, for OpenAustin. Why did you use IdeaScale?
whurley: Well, there was a small issue of timing and scale. Building a custom solution would’ve taken days or weeks, and not be the minutes and hours that openAustin.org was built in. For the actual website, I strongly recommend and support the city using an open-source solution. It is my understanding that they were looking at using Plone. While that’s not a bad solution, I do think something like Drupal might be a little more well-suited to community-based effort because of the large existing base of Drupal developers we have in Austin. At the end of the day though, this is my choice. We all have a say in the investment the city is going to make in the website that will not only represent us, but provide us with basic access to city services.
GeekAustin: What will be the key to everyone being successful in this project?
whurley: That’s simple, everyone involved from an individual citizen to the
city’s leadership needs to understand a couple of key points:
1) There is a difference between control, and influence.
2) This is not about the me, it’s about the we.
3) There is really no limit to what we can achieve if we truly are
open in working together on this effort.
GeekAustin: While I have you on the record, I have a few more questions. Assume that, unlike Stacy Higginbotham, I won’t tell anyone. Which of your upcoming projects can you tell me about?
whurley: (laughs). First off I think Stacy did me a huge favor in not only publishing about the effort but bringing up some very legitimate questions; which by the way have been added for open discussion on our website. Now, while I always have a number of projects going to bounce this back to you since I believe we have a little party going on on the 20th. Perhaps you should tell your readers about that and the Linux Against Poverty effort we’re working on?
GeekAustin: You just did. Besides, I’m asking the questions here.
GeekAustin: Although some of the folks downtown might think otherwise, OpenAustin doesn’t seem like the kind of thing an evil genius would do. Are you thinking of taking a new moniker?
whurley: Absolutely not. Everything I do in my professional and personal life has always been very counter intuitive to most people. So I see no reason why should change of my style midstream.
GeekAustin: Can I tell people about that other project?
whurley:
Daniel and I already have a pretty full schedule for the spring GeekAustin free classes. However, following the kerfuffle surrounding the City of Austin’s website design, quite a few folks came to us asking if there were any local resources for learning Drupal. There is at least one Austin Drupal user group, but it’s members are mostly folks who already have some facility with Drupal.
So, following some conversations with those who expressed interest, we have decided to host a (free) Introduction to Drupal workshop. This group will be halfway between a class and a study group. The group will meet once a week for 8 weeks. We will start from the very beginning — installing Drupal on a Linux machine. Over the following weeks we will cover several mini projects including: setting up a job board, an event calendar, and a wiki. We will also cover the basics of theming. We will have guest speakers at several of the classes.
The two books from which we will draw material for the class are: 1) Using Drupal, by Jeff Robbins, and 2) Pro Drupal Development, by John K. VanDyk. If you don’t already have a Linux-based computer, we are making arrangements with local computer shops to supply them for about 50-65 dollars.
Tentatively, the first session is set for the last week of May. For more details, or to reserve a space, send a note to linearb@gmail.com.
Let’s make Austin a Drupal town! - Lynn
Austin Drupal users Facebook group
I’ve been overwhelmed putting things in motion for Linux Against Poverty. Meanwhile, all sorts of other cool things are going on in Austin’s tech community:
Damon and friends just published a directory of Austin on Rails members.
Austin IxDA has been gathering steam recently. They have a panel on effective prototyping coming up on April 21 at Frog Design offices on Congress. RSVP here.
The Agile Executive just posted a history of Agile Austin (The Agile Austin Blueprint for Building a Community). Scott Killen and colleagues have done a great job building a local “community of practice” surrounding Agile methodologies.
Jim Freeze and friends have been bringing the Ruby community together. They have been holding evening meetings and weekday luncheons. You can find out more at the Austin Ruby Google group.
Austin Linux Group just updated their list of Austin area Linux User Groups.
As a follow up to the earlier post on GeekAustin today: I received the following note from Brewster McCracken’s office:
“Investing taxpayer funds for web operations only makes sense if the investment dramatically improves government efficiency and stimulates the local economy. I am not satisfied that the website redesign proposal before Council meets either objective. Therefore, I cannot support the current proposal to spend over $700,000 on a website redesign.
“My specific concerns include:
• a new website must make it possible for citizens to pay their bills online, including by credit card
• a new website must make it possible for citizens to obtain any service online for which they currently have to drive to a government office or conduct by telephone
• any new website proposal must be part of a comprehensive government efficiency improvement effort
• given Austin’s significant local talent pool in website architecture and software, any new website solicitation must include aggressive outreach to local companies. If at all possible and financially feasible, we should tap local talent and support the local economy.”
Despite the argument that twitter is little more than than a forum for people to shout what they had for lunch, it is a great tool for spreading new quickly.
And the news that spread like wild fire yesterday was the Austin Business Journal story that the Austin City Council is voting this week on whether to award a contract to a California company to redesign the city’s Web site. The value of this contract could be between 700K and 1.5M.
In the story, Austin City Chief of Staff Antony Snipes said that “while the city tries to contract with local companies whenever possible, it also has a responsibility to get the best deal for the money“.
Most of the responses to the ABJ story were strongly in favor of contracting locally. Randall Baker, of PuraVida Ventures, made one of the more detailed arguments:
“This is an incredibly irresponsible move by the city staff. First, the taxpayers monies they speak of - 32% of it comes from technology related business, many of them web design firms. Second, of the 3000 technology companies based in the Austin/CenTex Region several hundred are web design firms, one international firm is located within 100 yards of city hall. Third, If no companies from the region either submitted responses or their responses did not meet the city staffs criteria then I would submit that either the city staffs criteria is wrong or the bidding process precludes firms not based upon their abilities but rather some irrelevant city bid criteria. For the city to have even been working on this project for over 15 months shows the inability of city staff to even understand the industry in which they are attempting to operate. In the period they have been “working” on the design, over 30,000 people have moved to our region the internet has doubled in users and over 4 extabytes of unique information has been generated.”
Within hours of the story’s appearance, a facebook group devoted to this issue appeared; and thanks to rapid dissemination through twitter, it passed 200 members in the first 24 hours. At this rate, the public hearings should be packed.
As of this morning, it appears that most of the discussion on the issue is going on in the facebook group.
Here are the next set of upcoming GeekAustin Free classes.
1) Basic Unix/Linux for DBAs — this class is geared toward MS SQL Server/Access folks who want to get a better handle on *nix for MySQL/Oracle/Postgresql, etc.
2) MySQL Developer certification prep — this will be held immediately following the *nix for DBAs class.
3) Basic SQL Queries — this is an abbreviated version of our basic SQL class. This class deals specifically with queries. The class meets for 5 sessions.
We are also considering hosting a CCNA certification prep. Quite a few folks have been asking for it. If you are interested in adding your name to the list, send me a note at linearb@gmail.com.
Although we call them ‘classes’, some of the sessions are equal part class and equal part study group. We are finding that, with the more advanced topics, many of the folks bring considerable experience to the group. Adopting a more participatory framework allows all to benefit from each other’s experience.
If you are interested in hearing more about the GeekAustin free classes, look me up at BarCampAustin.
By now, many of you know about the Linux Against Poverty (facebook) event in April. The goal is to prepare a few hundred computers to be donated to underprivileged children in the Austin area.
Our event partner, HeliOS, does this year ’round. Although GeekAustin hopes that Linux Against Poverty will help HeliOS obtain a year’s supply of machines, truth be told, they could use some hardware today. This afternoon. now.
Some of the items HeliOS needs are:
*Wireless cards, both pci and usb
*Working monitors, if CRT’s please make sure they are working…they cost $30.00 to recycle
*External cd/dvd roms…many of the computers they get do not come with sufficient bays for internal cd/dvd players/burners
*RAM (memory) they specifically need PC133 sticks, preferably of the 512 size.
*Functional or quickly repairable laptops. HeliOS will be using them for wheelchair-bound kids
For a more complete list, visit the HeliOS current needs page.
Looking forward to the Linux Against Poverty event, HeliOS will os need drop off points — preferably in a retail space. It would be ideal to have two — one each on the North & South sides of Austin. The space would need to be large enough to store 20+ PCs, monitors, printers, & errata. If you think you or someone you know might be able to help out with this, please contact Ken (helios@fixedbylinux.com). As consideration for your support of HeliOS, I will be providing advertising on GeekAustin.
Thanks for everyone who has already shown their support.
-Lynn
This Tuesday’s RefreshAustin meeting features Jon Loyens on jQuery and Sara Summers on design process. This will be a good one. 7PM at Buffalo Billiards.
James Hillhouse just created a Cocoa Coders LinkedIn Group.
The GeekAustin MySQL Certification prep class is pretty much full.
GeekAustin Alumnus Michelle Greer will be hosting the Austin Twestival this Thursday at Ace’s Lounge. Twestival benefits Charity:Water. Water is sort of like Bill Gibson’s future. It’s not so evenly distributed. We pee in it. Other people don’t have any. You can buy tickets for Twestival here. And yes, I will be there.
I suspect that SXSW Interactive is going to be bigger than ever this year. Are there really 650+ speakers this year at SXSWi? You should start walking every day, so that you can get in shape.
Here’s a question that folks have been asking me recently? “Is Austin a tech town?” If not, what are the tech towns? Other than….. “The Valley’.
-Lynn
Here’s the scoop. The class begins on Wednesday February 11th, and will meet every Wednesday, 7:15PM, at Union Park downtown, for eight weeks. Sun charges $1995.00 for this same class. The GeekAustin class is free. We still have a few seats left.
There are three core MySQL certifications: 1)MySQL Associate, 2) MySQL DBA, and 3) MySQL Developer. The MySQL Associate certification is not tied to any particular version of MySQL, but focuses on details of using MySQL that are universal no matter what version of the software you are using.
It is our goal to prepare you to successfully pass the test by the time you complete the class.
Read more for details and prerequisites for the class
Until Linear sent me on the assignment, I never knew SXSW threw parties in other cities. That is what I get for growing up in Austin and wondering why other people love my hometown so much.
SXSW Interactive and Porter Novelli came to SF and threw a great party at Mighty that was the perfect prelude for Austin’s premier yearly event. Although Mighty and Harlot are both common San Francisco tech party venues, Harlot is someone’s idea of naughty, in a very typical San Francisco way, the way I actually imagine a housewife feeling the first time she puts on a latex corset. Mighty actually reminds me a bit of Union Park, home of many GeekAustin parties, except it’s a better place for a dance party. Mighty was a great open space with minimal fuss in decoration - the paintings on the wall actually seemed like they were chosen based on actual personal preference rather than just thinking they were the hip thing to have in their club. Kudos to both Porter Novelli and Shawn O’Keefe, SXSW’s Interactive Festival Producer, for choosing the perfect venue.
It was nice to have a touch of home in San Francisco – a more low-key friendly event than a lot of the events I’ve been to in the Bay Area. Most people at the SXSW SF event were raving about Austin if they’d been there or talking about what an awesome place they had heard it was. One person remarked they liked Austin because it was less pretentious than San Francisco – I hope to find that still true when I come back for SXSW Interactive in March.
In contrast to what I’ve heard of late about discussions of job losses at Austin tech parties, there was less outright fear at the event than a wariness in many that a job loss might be pending at some point in the next six months to a year. Though there was a fair amount of feeling among some that they might soon have the axe swinging down, the SF tech crowd seems to be a bit lighter in mood at parties than back in Austin - maybe it’s fact that everyone here does yoga all the time or maybe it’s the fact that marijuana is not frowned upon by the authorities that keeps people upbeat here in SF all the time.
Start-up and entrepreneur are not really catch terms here - they are much more matter of fact. The most common topics of conversation were what people were working on, tv shows they were watching and people showing off the apps their companies were developing for the iphone. I think that’s something particularly San Francisco — whipping out one’s iphone to show off your work. I think there are a few reasons for that. You might never know who you’re talking to knows. For all you know, they could know an investor that could save your company or pass the word on and buy it. Also, I think people here take a great deal of pride in their work and really do want to show off what they are doing. Events like the SXSW SF pre-party help pass on the word about products or projects in the most old-fashioned of advertising and social networking ways - word of mouth.
Like any good party, the randomness of whom you meet is what makes an evening memorable. I met Bay Area filmmaker Aron Ramen, who recently made some rather explosive videos (your servers are not bulletproof, Your server will blow up, Your server will burn) advocating cloud computing for San Francisco hosting company GoGrid. The randomness was memorable because my current boss is friends with GoGrid’s CEO, and their new chief of technology was the sysadmin who trained me at my current job, and with linearb’s recent tease about what whurley is currently working on, cloud computing had been in my mind . Hopefully, I’ll get to hear about cloud computing and other recent developments in Austin soon while enjoying a few (or more) drinks.
Hope to see all of you at SXSWi this year. - Jana
As you know, I usually don’t post jobs on GeekAustin. However, RGM Advisors is currently looking for Unix/Linux Systems Support Specialists. I have several friends who have worked there a while and speak highly of the company. Check out their careers page.
GeekAustin alum, Michelle Greer, just posted a great interview with Tom Serres. Tom talks about how technology is changing politics. This is the followup interview I wanted to do, but Michelle beat me to the punch. Good interview. Tom’s company, Piryx, will be co-hosting the E-nauguration Party on January 20th. (RSVP on Facebook).
If you haven’t already bought your SXSW interactive badge, you’ve got two more days to get it at a $70 discount. Quit sending me emails asking if there is a GeekAustin discount. Buy your badge by January 16th. There’s your discount!
Speaking of SXSW interactive, as I stated last year, you can easily re-coup the cost of your badge in free corporate booze during the many evening events — and to prove that, GeekAustin Bay Area correspondent and resident ontologist, Jana Thompson, will be flying in to Austin for SXSWi to show you how it’s done.
Whurley is getting things in motion for BarCampaustin 4. There is now a BCA4 page on Facebook.
Google is closing its Austin office. If you are on twitter, you already knew this.
I am looking for a few additional folks to help out at the GeekAustin party. If you’re interested, and not a recruiter, send me a note at linearb@gmail.com
GeekAustin friend Whurley will be writing a column on cloud computing for Infoworld. Want to know what else he has up his sleeve? I’m not telling.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Austin ranked #10 for creation of new jobs in 2008. However, Houston ranked #1, and Dallas-Fort Worth ranked #2. Details at the Austin Business Journal. My hometown of Detroit led the nation in job loss. Am I glad I moved to Austin? So where are those jobs?
Jason Cohen’s weblog, A Smart Bear, is a finalist in the Weblog awards. Jason has some great insight. Good to see him getting recognition.
Michelle Greer just interviewed the brainy Brandon Wiley, of Ringlight. I’ve been wanting to interview Brandon for a while, but Michelle beat me to the punch. You can find the interview on Nerdabout Austin.
Tom Serres, of Piryx (GeekAustin interview), just informed me that he will be speaking at SXSW 2009 on the movement online of political campaigns. Tom and Piryx will be co-hosting the GeekAustin E-nauguration Party. Tom will be live, via Twitter and Qik, from the DC Inaugural Ball.
Speaking of twitter, I seem to be getting more and more of my news from twitter. Alex Jones (GeekAustin interview), of Refresh Austin, recently explained how twitter is becoming increasingly valuable. Want to learn the dos and don’ts of twitter? Check out Omar Gallaga’s guidelines. Want to meet other twitter folk? Come to GeekAustin’s Inaugural Tweetup (the party within a party).
Daniel and I have been busily working on the curricula and materials for the upcoming GeekAustin classes. Tentatively, these are the free classes we will be offering in 2009:
1) MySQL Associate Certification Prep
2) MySQL Administrator Certification Prep
3) Introduction to PL/SQL
4) Basic Unix/Linux for DBAs
5) Intermediate topics in SQL
6) Basic SQL Performance Tuning.
The classes vary from 3-10 sessions. We will be offering each of these free classes only one time in 2009. We are considering offering the basic SQL class one more time right after the beginning of the new year. We will only offer it once on 2009. We limit the class size, and despite the fact that we haven’t yet made a formal announcement, most of the classes are already half full. If you are interested in any of the above classes and would like to get on the list, send me a note at linearb@gmail.com. The free classes are taught downtown on weekday evenings.
We also offer the basic SQL class on-site for local companies. For rates, contact me at lynn.bender@gmail.com.
