Berlin Hackathon Debrief

["Hyrum K. Wright" <hy...@mail.utexas.edu>]

First, let me give a hearty thanks to the many people to worked hard
to make the Berlin summit a success.  It was really useful for those
of us who were able to come and work through both design and
implementation issues in a real-time, high-bandwidth way.  Oh, and the
T-shirts where cool, too. :)

In the interest of building upon that success, I'm interested to know
what people liked, and what they thought could be better.  I suspect
that this will not be the last time we have such an event, and I'm
interested in helping future planners in their efforts to similarly
succeed.  Please respond to this mail with those thoughts in mind.


Things that went well
---------------------
elego did so many things right here that it's hard to list them all.
They had a well-provisioned network, a well-stocked beverage supply,
and a well-designed t-shirt.  Both the venue and time-of-year were
perfect, with great weather and an awesome city to explore.  The
facilities were both interesting and top-notch, and elego seemed to
nail all the intangibles which made the experience so much better.
Even the recommended lodgings, though a bit distant, were great.

In addition, they took care of the little things.  Instead of debating
for a hour about where to go for food, Stefan, et al, just made
reservations at a reasonable place and took us all there.  Everybody
at elego was kind and accommodating, which meant we could get some
really solid work done instead of kibitzing about the little stuff.
In short, it Just Worked(tm).


Things that could be better
---------------------------
The conflict with other shows going on in town made finding hotels a
bit difficult (but in the end we still managed to get a good deal).

I think the attendance on Sunday was probably lacking (I know I wasn't
there).  Perhaps future events should be on a Tues-Fri format to allow
people like me who want to be home for the weekend that option.


Parting words
-------------
I can't wait until elego hosts another Hackathon.  Whoever does so
next has a high standard to live up to.


Please add your own comments as you see fit.

Cheers,
-Hyrum

Re: Berlin Hackathon Debrief

["C. Michael Pilato" <cm...@collab.net>]

Hyrum K. Wright wrote:
> First, let me give a hearty thanks to the many people to worked hard
> to make the Berlin summit a success.  It was really useful for those
> of us who were able to come and work through both design and
> implementation issues in a real-time, high-bandwidth way.  Oh, and the
> T-shirts where cool, too. :)

Hyrum has essentially said exactly what I would have, possibly because he
and I had this conversation already and agreed on all points.  But when
receiving praise, and extra "+1!" is always welcome, so here's mine:

    +1!

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <cm...@collab.net>
CollabNet   <>   www.collab.net   <>   Distributed Development On Demand

Re: Berlin Hackathon Debrief

[Greg Stein <gs...@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 21:16, Hyrum K. Wright
<hy...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>...
> In the interest of building upon that success, I'm interested to know
> what people liked, and what they thought could be better.  I suspect
> that this will not be the last time we have such an event, and I'm
> interested in helping future planners in their efforts to similarly
> succeed.  Please respond to this mail with those thoughts in mind.

Yup. At one of the dinners, we talked about ASF-related events, with
potential support from the ASF and its Conferences Committee. Looks
like a good starting point for that line of thinking is at:
  http://wiki.apache.org/concom-planning/ConComSupportedEvents

[props to Justin for pointing me there]

>...

Cheers,
-g

Re: Berlin Hackathon Debrief

[Stefan Sperling <st...@elego.de>]

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 08:16:06PM -0500, Hyrum K. Wright wrote:
> elego did so many things right here that it's hard to list them all.

Thanks Hyrum!

I'd like to note that the event would have been much harder to pull off
if we hadn't received sponsorship from other companies for the event,
namely Aservo, Collab.Net, VisualSVN, and WANDisco. This financial
support from across the board certainly made a huge difference.

There's also an account of the event from elego's perspective
on elego's website at www.elego.de, though it focuses more on what
happened outside the hackathon room.

Stefan

Re: Berlin Hackathon Debrief

[Lieven Govaerts <sv...@mobsol.be>]

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 3:16 AM, Hyrum K. Wright
<hy...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> First, let me give a hearty thanks to the many people to worked hard
> to make the Berlin summit a success.  It was really useful for those
> of us who were able to come and work through both design and
> implementation issues in a real-time, high-bandwidth way.  Oh, and the
> T-shirts where cool, too. :)
>
> In the interest of building upon that success, I'm interested to know
> what people liked, and what they thought could be better.  I suspect
> that this will not be the last time we have such an event, and I'm
> interested in helping future planners in their efforts to similarly
> succeed.  Please respond to this mail with those thoughts in mind.
>
>
> Things that went well
> ---------------------
[..]
I agree with all of those.

While discussing code and ideas with Ivan/Greg I've learned new things
about serf and ra_serf, so achieved at least one of my goals.

> Things that could be better
> ---------------------------
> The conflict with other shows going on in town made finding hotels a
> bit difficult (but in the end we still managed to get a good deal).
>
> I think the attendance on Sunday was probably lacking (I know I wasn't
> there).  Perhaps future events should be on a Tues-Fri format to allow
> people like me who want to be home for the weekend that option.
>

Maybe you guys did this on Saturday when I already left, but I'd like
to propose for next hackathon that we sit together for an hour or so
to talk about what everybody is doing in Subversion and what they are
planning to do during the hackathon and after that. If there's need or
an opportunity to help with some coding...

This can bring everyone up to speed quickly on the progress of 1.7
development, and be a kickstart for the hackathon.


>
> Parting words
> -------------
> I can't wait until elego hosts another Hackathon.  Whoever does so
> next has a high standard to live up to.
>

And, Berlin is great location, even the parts outside the elego office! :)

Lieven