Xander Miller's Lightning Talk announcing the launch of a new Ottawa Rails community project: Project Night Meta, a rails app that helps facilitate and organize Developer Meetups. You can sign up to join the basecamp here: http://goo.gl/s4BkPd

1. Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly,
hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may
think it's a long way down the road to the
chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
-Douglas Adams
Thursday, 25 July, 13
Hi
my
name
is
Xander
Miller.
I
want
to
start
my
presenation
with
a
quote
about
space.
“Space
is
big.
You
just
won't
believe
how
vastly,
hugely,
mind-­‐
bogglingly
big
it
is.
I
mean,
you
may
think
it's
a
long
way
down
the
road
to
the
chemist's,
but
that's
just
peanuts
to
space.”
-­‐Douglas
Adams
This
quote
talks
about
a
really
big
thing,
space.
We
really
can’t
appreciate
how
big
space
is.
And
more
interestingly
there
are
lots
of
things
in
life
smaller
than
space
but
still
far
too
big
for
us
mere
humans
to
comprehend.
For
instance
right
now
you
are
part
of
something
big
and
may
have
not
even
considered
how
big
it
is.
You
are
in
a
rails
developer
presentation
night
in
Ottawa
and
that
alone
is
pretty
awesome.
We
have
a
great
community
here.

2. Thursday, 25 July, 13
But
we
are
aren’t
the
only
rails
meetup.
In
many
major
cities
in
Canada
there
are
groups
like
ours.
The
same
is
true
for
major
cities
in
the
states.
This
is
a
screen
shot
of
meetup.com
search
for
rails
groups
with
no
distance
limit.
We
have
San
Antonio,
NYC,
Tokyo.
In
many
major
cities
all
over
the
world
rails
groups
are
meeting
up.
Heck,
We
just
had
a
presentation
by
developers
in
Australia.
And
that’s
just
rails,
there
are
Java
Script
groups,
python
groups,
.net
groups.
You
are
part
of
a
big
and
growing
trend
of
developer
meetups.

3. Presentation Nights
Project Nights
Thursday, 25 July, 13
These
diverse
groups
have
some
things
in
common
they
have
presentation
nights
and
they
have
project
nights
and
each
type
of
event
poses
its
own
logistical
challenges.
And
these
logistical
challenges
can
be
hard
to
overcome.

4. Organizing Presentations
Project Information
Collaborative Coding
Project Communication
Thursday, 25 July, 13
For
presentation
nights
you
need
a
way
to
organize
presentations,
sort
through
presentation
pitches,
and
after
the
presentation
is
done
the
challenges
don’t
stop.
Often
many
participants
want
a
copy
of
a
presenters
notes
and
slides.
You
have
to
arrange
and
communicate
some
sort
of
mechanism
of
distribution
of
those
notes
and
slides.
Project
nights
also
pose
many
unique
challenges,
Sirst
there
is
the
problem
of
sorting
people.
Which
people
are
there
looking
to
help
with
projects
and
which
people
have
projects
they
need
help
with.
Also
people
with
projects
need
to
be
able
to
explain
their
projects
efSiciently
to
the
people
interested
in
helping
with
projects.
So
the
people
wanting
to
help
with
projects
can
make
an
informed
decision
about
which
project
they
want
to
help
with.
Then
once
a
group
has
been
established
it
is
often
very
hard
to
communicate
with
each
other.
There
is
email,
chat,
other
services,
which
do
you
use,
wait
how
do
you
even
communicate
to
people
what
to
use,
once
you’ve
decided.
And
of
course
there
is
always
the
problem
of
working
collaboratively
on
code.
GitHub
solves
that
problem.

5. No Unified Tool
Thursday, 25 July, 13
In
fact
most
of
these
problems
can
be
solved
individually
by
existing
apps
already
out
there
but
then
you
have
to
communicate
what
tools
you
are
using
for
what
problems.
And
this
can
create
a
whole
new
set
of
problems.
Meta
problems.
You
now
have
problems
dealing
with
problems
and
there
is
no
uniSied
solution.
But
we
are
developers
and
we
can
build
the
tools
we
need.
So
I’m
proposing
a
project
night
project
to
build
this
uniSied
tool.

6. Project Night Meta
The project night project
that’s all about project night.
Thursday, 25 July, 13
I
call
it
Project
Night
Meta.
Meta
meaning
self
referencing
because
it
is
a
project
night
project
that
is
all
about
project
night.
Its
a
way
we
can
help
ourselves
but
also
help
this
incomprehensibly
big
and
growing
movement
of
developer
groups
around
the
world.

7. Thursday, 25 July, 13
I’m
not
interested
in
hacking
on
this
alone.
I’m
looking
for
help
and
input.
I
want
to
hear
from
some
of
the
long
time
organizers
what
challenges
they
routinely
face
and
what
sort
of
app
they
wish
they
had
to
solve
it.
I
want
experienced
developers
with
their
wisdom
and
advice
on
how
to
do
things
the
right
way.
I
want
inexperienced
developers
to
help
too
with
their
wild
creativity
helping
challenge
convention.
So
this
idea
isn’t
even
off
the
ground
and
could
go
in
alot
of
directions
from
here.
But
we
need
to
start
somewhere
so
I’ll
give
you
a
brief
sketch
of
what
I
envision.
Basically,
we
don’t
reinvent
the
wheel.
We
still
use
the
great
apps
that
are
already
out
there
we
just
build
a
hub
app
that
links
the
existing
apps
together
using
their
APIs
in
a
way
that
suits
our
needs
and
workSlow.
We
use
Meetup
for
organizing
the
location
and
announcing
the
events.
GitHub
for
a
code
repository
and
Twitter
Lists
to
help
people
working
on
a
project
together
communicate.
We
have
our
hub
app
pull
the
information
we
need
from
all
of
them
and
organize
it
into
a
uniSied
project
view.

8. Join the Basecamp
http://www.xandermiller.ca/top7
Thursday, 25 July, 13
That’s
the
pitch,
we
code
for
ourselves
and
that
larger
community
of
developer
nights
that
we
are
all
a
part
of.
On
project
night
we
work
on
a
project
to
facilitate
project
nights.
I’ve
started
a
basecamp
for
this
and
I
hope
you’ll
join
me
there.
Here
is
a
link
to
a
static
site
with
a
link
to
a
Google
form
where
you
can
submit
your
email
to
join
the
project.
I’ve
also
posted
the
link
in
the
meetup
event
comments.
My
name
is
Xander
Miller.
I’m
a
data
science
samurai.
Ruby
ninjas,
hack
with
me.