Rubyists, hello,
my colleague Ryan and I are developers at a start-up building a web app on Rails. We recently decided we’d like to launch a blog/forum related to issues we expect to encounter, and that others have encountered with Rails in an enterprise context. The glaring irony many Rails shops with a similar need seemingly encounter, of being compelled to use a non-Rails CMS like WordPress, or Tumblr, became obvious to us.
Frequent attendees at Toronto Ruby Brigade events, and fans of the group in general, we were concurrently looking for a way to bolster and give back to the group. The influences harmonized like Lennon/McCartney: we imagined the Brigade taking on building an open source Rails CMS as a group project. We soon discovered, auspiciously, that the idea of the Brigade developing a Rails CMS was already on the table among some of its original organizers. With their blessing, Ryan and I have decided to contribute what time and resources we have available to us to help realize it.
But first things first; such a project only makes sense if enough of you want to do it. Accordingly, the first goal of this event is to gauge interest in it. Assuming there’s enough, the point then is to meet, discuss, and decide on its goals and logistics. Broadly speaking, we’d like to build a CMS, and do it in such a way that we can incorporate hack nights and a mentoring program into the process. The specifics will be left to consensus between everyone who is interested in taking part (for instance, what kind of CMS should we build, one like WordPress that could be used without much technical knowledge, or one targeted at devs).
So, if you are interested in helping plan, contributing to the design, hacking on, and mentoring or apprenticing within the context of the development of a Rails CMS, by all means show your interest by signing up for the event. If the event is full, add your name to the waiting list; if well more people sign up then there is room for, we will consider moving to a bigger location.
I encourage you to start the conversation about what this project can be, whether in terms of CMS design, how to go about building it, or how we should organize mentoring around it, now. Post your ideas to the feed below, and we will be sure to make them part of the conversation during the event.
Event Agenda
6:30 - 7:30 : Brainstorming
What are the goals of the project? What strategy should we take to realize them?
7:30 - 8:00 : Schmooze & Chow
Pizza, pop, and other programmers, o my.
7:30 - 8:30 : More Brainstorming
How will the mentoring programming work? How should we track the project? How often should we have hack nights?
A couple of notes:
- This is a planning/brainstorming event. There will be no hacking (yet), so it isn’t necessary to bring a computer.
- The door to the building locks automatically after 8 o’clock. If you have to step out during the event, be sure you don’t get locked out.
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