Open Source Bridge

Excerpt

Description

In May 2008, five busy programmers in town for a conference sat down for dinner and decided to do a book together. We dreamed big dreams for the project scope, made big plans for technical collaboration, and yes, made big mistakes as we worked. Two years later, reality looks really different than we’d imagined—better, in fact.

In this talk, you’ll hear about:

• Getting through the Trough of Sorrow
• What to do when you have all the responsibility and no authority
• Laughing at your estimates (and getting stakeholders to laugh with you)
• What worked for us (and what might or might not work for you)
• Lessons for freelancers, telecommuters, and distributed teams

Speaking experience

Speaker

• 

  Ian Dees

  • Website: http://www.ian.dees.name/
  • Twitter: undees
  • Identi.ca: undees
  • Favorites: View Ian's favorites

  Biography

  Ian is a Portland-area software utility player who spends his (heh) “spare time” recklessly concocting music, teaching his rug rats how to bicycle, and composing lists in threes.

  He is also the author of Scripted GUI Testing With Ruby, and co-author of Using JRuby and Cucumber Recipes, published by the Pragmatic Programmers.

  Sessions

  • * Give a Great Tech Talk
    • Title: Give a Great Tech Talk
    • Track: Culture
    • Room: B304
    • Time: 1:30 – 3:15pm
    • Excerpt:

      Why do so many technical presentations suck? Make sure that yours doesn’t. Josh Berkus and Ian Dees will show you how to share your ideas with your audience by speaking effectively and (when the situation warrants it) showing your code.

    • Speakers: Ian Dees, Josh Berkus
  • * How 5 People with 4 Day Jobs in 3 Time Zones Enjoyed 2 Years Writing 1 Book
    • Title: How 5 People with 4 Day Jobs in 3 Time Zones Enjoyed 2 Years Writing 1 Book
    • Track: Business
    • Room: B204
    • Time: 11:00 – 11:45am
    • Excerpt:

      Hear how a distributed team tackled a big project (a book about a large open source project) in our spare time. Along the way, we encountered tools, techniques, and working styles that may be useful to you in your own career—or at least serve as a humorous warning.

    • Speakers: Ian Dees