nPost Event
So, last night’s event probably didn’t go EXACTLY how we had wanted it to go. For those of you who didn’t get the scoop, we normally have a little room up the stairs in the back with a projector, and that was to be used to show what Rob has been toiling away on in some damp dungeon for the last few months - it’s amazing how much more he got done when we threatened to stop feeding him. One of the projects is in an Alpha mode at this point, and would best be described as a CMS program, although the simple, three-letter acronym doesn’t really seem to do it justice. The second project is close to being a Beta release and was built on top of a lot of the CMS programs framework. It is a database describer that arose out of a very real need that Rob had at work. Being part of a company that, over the last 10 years, has had a variety of different programmers in and out of it’s team, attempting to efficiently use the functions available is an experience that rivals cracking the Da Vinci code (doesn’t Rob have a strange resemblance to Tom Hanks?).
Both projects are set to be released as Open Source, and are Rob’s (and my?) contributions and offerings to the community. But what does that mean? One of our goals in helping bring the nPost.com events to Vancouver was the idea of bringing together the many talents that seem to be hidden away. As a team, we aren’t (or at least shouldn’t be) looking at our peers as competition. Rather, we should be looking to help bring the limelight to the area and help each other succeed; too often Vancouver is overshadowed by Seattle, for obvious reasons, but even by the Industry back East. By bringing together the energy, innovation, and experience of people in the Industry that are also in the community, we help foster the growth of the Industry, help produce better products, and enjoy the benefits together! Whether that’s a private Beta release at Sxip, or teaming up and sending a group down to this year’s Yahoo! Open Hackday, as a whole, we are far greater than the sum of our parts.
Check back in the next couple days for links to what Rob’s been working on, and if you have any projects on the go or ideas in the back of your mind that you want to get some feedback on, definitely let us, and if you’re so bold, the entire community, help out how we can.
Thank you again to Nathan Kaiser of nPost for making his way up to Vancouver and helping put on the event. We will be looking at holding the next one in mid to late August, and looking for a new location - suggestions are welcome.