Category Archives: conference

I’m keynoting today at SCALE10x

Posted on by
3

Slides (as of this moment) are here: Mistakes were made. I changed quite a bit of the beginning and end, given how big the audience is. Previous talks, we’ve usually ended with a fun “omg, here’s the craziest story I know” session. I imagine we’ll get a little bit of that today.

Postgres folks will note a relevant picture on slide 13. :)

This is my first keynote! Thanks so much to SCALE for inviting me. There were at least 1500 registered attendees as of Friday, so looking forward to a big crowd.

Where to find me at #LCA2012

Posted on by
Reply

I’m going to be pretty busy while in Melbourne and Ballarat for the next 10 days.

Here’s my itinerary:

There’s a rumor that Stewart Smith and I might do a Q&A about databases in the cloud. If it happens, it will involve lots of pessimism and swearing.

Drop me an note if you want to meet up! I’ll be in Ballarat until early Friday morning.

Then I fly back to LA to give a keynote at SCaLE that Sunday (blog post about that coming).

Packing list for LCA 2012

Posted on by
3

I leave in two days for Linux Conf AU, in Ballarat, Australia! This is my second LCA, and I’ve given talks internationally at least 10 times. For the past six months, I’ve used a short checklist to help make sure I don’t miss the important things (ticket, passport, underwear!).

Today, I took a little more time to prepare and share what I’m taking with me.

This is based on Tantek’s SXSW Packing List. I share this list under Creative Commons 3.0.

Caveats:

  • I generally do not wear jeans or slacks to conferences, and when I do, my pants do not have pockets. They’re bulky, uncomfortable on long flights and, frankly, don’t look as good as a skirt. So, I’ve adjusted some of the stuff in the list for that wardrobe choice.
  • I generally do not wear t-shirts to conferences I speak at.
  • I am going without a smartphone at the moment. My last one was stolen in a Vancouver, BC coffee shop in early December 2011. I’ve taken it as an opportunity to simplify, and so far, I feel better.

Night before

Lay out your outfit for the next day.

  • Underclothes (bra, underwear), socks and a tank-top slip. – I found these Dynamic nylon/spandex slips that go under sweaters and dresses. Super versatile, cheap ($16?) and look great. Having trouble finding them online, but Sloan sells them in Portland.
  • Dress – Something simple that will be comfortable on the plane, like this Urban Outfitters knit drape dress.
  • Leggings – black, probably bring two pair and again, these look great under a dress or sweater and can be taken off when you transition from 30F to 30C weather. I found the best value fleece leggings at Ipnosi.
  • Boots – black, zippered are my favorites. I’m going to another conference immediately after LCA back in the US, so I need something other than sandals for the trip.
  • Hooded jacket – I’m taking a green hooded duck canvas jacket with zippered pockets. Great with a dress, and nice, low-germ substitute for a germ-rich airline blanket during the 10+ hour flight.

Backpack

  • A backpack – I have a NorthFace Surge (have had three of these). They will often dip below $100 in certain colors. The laptop area is a little big for the Air, but overall, this is a solid, spacious pack. I’ve put 10 days worth of stuff for a conference and holiday in Japan with this pack. Has a nice bonus pocket in the bottom and useful double zipper on the front for stuffing random documents and quick access to a Kindle, a few inner pockets for separating tools, pills and etc..

Here’s all the stuff that goes into my backpack!

Essentials

  • Passport and Visa (if necessary) – And you might need a Visa where you’re going, so check before you leave! A visa for a 3-month trip to Australia is usually fast and easy.
  • Wallet – I bring ID, I try not to bring keys with me since my neighbors have keys and my husband picks me up and drops me off at the airport.
  • Ear plugs – Essential for dorm accommodations and getting stuck in airports.
  • Small, unlined notebook – I doodle, and leave notes for people. Nice if there are perforated pages in the back so that the binding of the book doesn’t fall apart after ripping out pages.
  • Pens and a pencil – Pencil is more durable in the rain (hail, Portland!)
  • Burts Beeswax Lip Balm – Planes and hotels are so dry!
  • Small bottle of lotion – Washing hands and filtered air ends up leaving my face and hands chapped.
  • Small Camera – I have a Canon Elph. Bring an extra SD card in case your existing one goes corrupt!
  • e-reader – I have a Kindle, but any e-reading device will do. I’m bringing Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception as my research project for the flights.
  • Book – I’m also bringing a The Graveyard Book for taxi-ing and lift-off. A thick newspaper might also work here.
  • US-based Phone – I currently have an LG-VX5600 with no data plan on Verizon. I pay $10/mo on a family plan that has something like 300 texts and supports at least 300 minutes per person.
  • Laptop – I’ve got a 13″ Air. Loving it so far.
  • Music storage device – maybe an iPod/iTouch.
  • A paper envelope – for storing receipts and stray bits of paper with notes.
  • Ziplog bags – for liquids getting through the airport, packing away nicknacks, temporary storage for food, an easy water cup and dealing with anything that might explode in transit.
  • Handmade bags and enclosures for tech gadgets – I made two pouches to hold cables, devices and power converters. I hate having lots of stray items rolling around in bags. This helps me not lose things and maintain a little more order. Having a sewing machine makes this easy – I made two items last night for the trip! :)

Secondary contents

  • Ocular backup – I talked my eye doctor into giving me a set of disposable contacts for last-minute scuba dives or impromptu 2-6am clubbing where glasses would just be silly. I also always bring a spare pair of glasses and my prescription.
  • Unruled pad of paper – For taking notes in sessions and bigger sketching
  • Energy bars – two or three for the plane. I prefer Clif bars and Lara bars. Builder bars (20g of protein!) are good if you’re going to have a series of breakfasts that are all carbs.
  • Peppermint gum – coffee, carbs == bad breath
  • Hat – Good for runs in hot, sunny weather, or instant camouflage in crowded rooms.
  • Anker Astro2 8400mAh External Battery – Includes a flashlight. Great for charging any of your devices and making friends.
  • John’s Phone – a simple phone that can be used most anywhere. Doesn’t support texting, which may be an issue. :) It’s a quad-band phone that supports 2G / GSM 850-900-1800-1900 Mhz. The only things it *doesn’t* support are pure 3G and CDMA networks. My plan is to get a Telstra SIM at the airport when I arrive. Suggestions welcome.
  • Ethernet cable – the dorm rooms at LCA in ballarat don’t have wireless.
  • earbud headphones
  • Small laptop/shoulder bag – A tiny bag to just carry your laptop. Much more convenient in the evenings and brunches.
  • Universal power adapter – I’ve used this particular model in five countries. I can’t say that it’s my favorite – if I had thought about it earlier, I would have gotten an AU power converter plug a couple weeks ago!
  • Sandals – something to change into after landing in warm weather!

Carry-on bag

I use an eBags Motherlode eTech Mini. I’ve had three of them, and the worst part is eventually the zipper dies. They have a lifetime warranty policy, but I travel enough that I’ve just bought a new bag rather than wait for a repair. But I’ll be testing that next month when I’m home for a while. :)

For the carry-on

  • Empty Water bottle + carabiner – so important when you’re in dry, air conditioned climate for weeks.
  • Energy bars – I take about 2 per day of the trip
  • Stain remover – Great suggestion from Tantek, and essential when you’re on the road perpetually.
  • Woolight liquid detergent – great for hand-washables and dry-clean-only dresses. And way cheaper than $200 to get five days of clothes cleaned in a hotel laundry.
  • Sunblock and swimsuit – Always bring a suit regardless of the weather. Nice bottom layer in a pinch.
  • Fleece pants – excellent for sleeping and laundry day while travelling.
  • Pumas – pair of walking/running shoes for any occasion.
  • 6 pairs underwear, socks – and however many bras are appropriate
  • Workout gear – depends on your body type, but I bring 2 sport-bras, short fast-drying yoga pants and a fast-drying technical top. Much easier to clean than cotton. In unfamiliar or cross-country terrain, I bring a separate pair of running shoes and a plastic bag to protect everything else from the dirt.
  • 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 1 pair pants, 4 tops, 1 sweater – enough outfits for three talks, a keynote and an evening out!
  • Lip gloss, lipstick and eyeshadow – I stick with a Shiseido slightly-sparkly lip gloss, MAC red lipstick for evenings and a black/white combo eye shadow. I use the black for eye liner and the white for accents.
  • Bathroom kit – includes: toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, shaver, nail clippers, face moisturizer, deodorant, hair product, vitamin C, advil and a multi-vitamin.

Tech pre-work

  • Set up a perma-logged in IRC session for yourself. I use irssi in a screen session on a cloud-hosted virtual machine.
  • Set up bitlbee to login to your IM in the same session. This is awesome for people who don’t use IRC leaving you notes while you’re offline.
  • Check out the wiki for any events shaping up and add those to your calendar or TripIt plans.

Print your boarding pass

24 hours before your flight, be sure to:

  • Log on to your airline’s website
  • check-in online
  • print your boarding pass
  • put it in your backpack

Night before

  • Collect devices and chargers: phone, Kindle, laptop, usb power supply. Maybe also tablet. Pack spare batteries in checked luggage.
  • Confirm in wallet: enough US cash for two meals, credit card, debit card, identification. If you have status on an airline, bring the card for cutting in line.
  • Confirm how you’re getting to the airport, and the time you need to be there.
  • Confirm how you’re getting from the destination airport to your hotel or first stop.

Morning of

  • Shower and put on clothes laid out the night before
  • Put: laptop, kindle, phone, notebook, keys, any reading material, wallet and IDs in carry on. Include:
    • power cable(s) and supply(s),
    • video adapter(s) connected to your external monitors
  • Arrive at airport 90 minutes early
  • Join the #lca.conf.au IRC channel

Have a great flight!

Landing

  • Pick up a SIM for your phone – for Melbourne, that’s at the nearest Telstra store, and there’s one in the airport.
  • Take public transit into town – There’s almost always a bus or train that will take you into the downtown of a major city. Melbourne has a skybus that leaves every 10 minutes from the terminal right into downtown!

And your adventure begins! :)

Headed to PgConf.EU

Posted on by
Reply

I’m headed to Amsterdam for PgConf.EU and very excited for my very first European postgres Conference.

I’m giving two talks – Managing Terabytes, and Mistakes Were Made. Both are cautionary tales about the things that one can do terribly wrong with database management, and system operations management. My goal with these talks is to start a conversation about what we can learn from failure.

I encourage everyone to share their stories about what fails. Not only are they great “campfire stories” for entertainment, but they help us all learn faster, and they teach us what ultimately works when everything is failing.

In the same vein, UpdatePDX is putting on another “tales of failure” set of short talks the following week back in Portland. I’ll be leading the charge with a short story of my own, followed by at least two other tales of failure.

Postgres Open: next year (!), resources, video

Posted on by

Postgres Open is over!

I wanted to share a few resources, and remind attendees to fill out our survey. I really appreciate the detailed comments I’ve been getting! Keep them coming.

I wanted to specially thank our program committee:

Robert Haas
Josh Berkus
Gavin Roy
Greg Smith

They were the people who put together and edited the website, found sponsors, recruited speakers, voted on talks, gave talks and tutorials and executed the many tasks needed to make the conference a success. We plan to make key members of the Postgres community part of the operation of the conference going forward. We’re really just emulating the way that PgCon is run.

I have some more thoughts about what makes a conference “community-operated”, and once my budget numbers are settled, I’m going to share with you what running the conference costs in terms of my time, and in terms of dollars to operate. It’s important to both understand the costs involved, how much of my time is required and what that means for you as either a sponsor, speaker, attendee or volunteer supporting what we are doing.

NEXT YEAR: September 17-19, 2012

I’m pleased to announce that next year’s conference for September 17-19, 2012 at the Westin-Michigan Ave. So mark your calendars now!

The conference will continue to be operated as a non-profit, with proceeds going toward operation of the following year’s event, and a very small percentage going to Technocation, Inc – our fiscal sponsor and a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to developing educational opportunities and resources for software professionals.

We had fantastic support from our sponsors this year, and hope to expand that next year.

In particular: 2ndQuadrant, EnterpriseDB, Heroku and VMWare’s support were instrumental in pulling this event together. We really only started planning in May. It feels good to now have a whole year ahead of us!

With greater sponsor support, we can help fund some of the things that attendees asked for like: soda (which costs $8/soda – I feel as though we should get some kind of gold plating for this), conference tshirts, and a closing party.

Please get in touch if you or a company you know is interested in sponsorship for 2012!

Slides:

Speakers are uploading or linking their slides to the PostgreSQL wiki. If the slides you’re looking for aren’t there, please ping the speaker or me.

Streaming Video:

Streaming content will be available for about 30 days.

I will be getting all the video on flash drives this week. My plan is to upload it to either vimeo or youtube. I don’t really have the resources to provide individual copies of the videos, but if we find a location for raw data upload, I’ll pass that along to you all.

Reflections on a negotiation workshop: we’re better at it than we know

Posted on by

The Sunday before OSCON, I gathered a group of women who work with open “stuff” to participate in a workshop on negotiation with David Eaves. He talked a little bit about his recent work in open source communities in an interview with Ed Dumbill. I’ve mentioned David a few times in previous posts here, and was excited to finally get to meet him in person.

My goal in bringing people together was to launch an effort among open source communities to recognize negotiation as a core, required skill. I decided to target women in open source as the initial audience.

The day-long training was structured around two simulations, one based on personal experiences, and the other using an entertaining business situation – where two sides come together after about 45 minutes of research to negotiate an agreement.

Much of the “lecture” time was spent identifying key steps in a negotiation, and sharing a framework that helps individuals prepare for difficult conversations. A key feedback loop was:

It’s a very simple loop, but crystalizes much of the core of what negotiation is about. Preparation, execution, targeting a goal and reflection.

Like much of what I covered in the “Mistakes were made” talk, the diagram documents and reveals common sense as a system. Negotiation is a feedback loop, and there’s always opportunity for even better, more collaborative and satisfying deals.

Another revealing point in the workshop was that the goal of a negotiation is not necessarily to come to an agreement, but to find an acceptable resolution. That includes a BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). Which is to say – enter into a negotiation with a clear idea of what your alternative is, and what your bottom line is so that you can feel comfortable walking away knowing what your next step is (even if it is not your preferred step).

Finally, during the workshop and simulations, I realized how many of the research and bits of process that were suggested I was already doing! It was very nice to leave with a framework for future negotiation, and a set of questions to ask myself and others.

My reaction to the preparation was to consider how I could share whatever I prepared with my negotiating partner in the future. And then I realized that probably wouldn’t always work, but it was a lovely thought. What if we could develop the strength in more of our relationships to be that open and direct?

I highly recommend attending any workshop that David gives in the future, and will be blogging about some suggested reading as I get through the books.

Leslie Hawthorn has blogged about her experience.

We were able to hold the workshop, thanks to the sponsorships of Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, Google, Technocation, Inc and O’Reilly.

OSCON: We’re at the end…

Posted on by

I’m finally getting to blog, and here are a few highlights:

* “Mistakes were made” was a great time. Thank you everyone who shared stories. And those of you who attended, please connect with me – email or whatever, and let’s continue our discussions about failure.
* I have a little bit of editing to do left on the harder, better, faster, stronger slides. Talk ratings have been very high (thank you audience! :) Should have that up tomorrow!
* Not having a booth at OSCON was a real bummer for Postgres. We need to figure out a way to make this happen for us every year.
* Great having the time to connect with old friends in the hallways this week.
* Thanks O’Reilly for supporting our open source community.
* Thanks Google Open Source Programs office for bringing together open source leaders yet again this year for some important conversations.

Thank you everyone from the Postgres community who contributed to the Postgres day just before OSCON. All the speakers and their talks are listed here.

We need to keep having adjunct events like this! I think LCA has it right scheduling Mini-BoFs to provide networking opportunities for the distinct groups. I think OSCON should formalize this next year, and figure out a way of facilitating those groups in a more structured way.

I have another blog post brewing about difficult conversations.. but that’s going to have to wait until after I enjoy the brewers fest!

Getting ready for OSCON, code of conduct and cultural change

Posted on by

UPDATE: See bottom of post.

I totally should be working on my talks right now, but instead I’ve been talking with people about the lack of a code of conduct for OSCON.

I’ve written before about cultural resistance, and how I think it fits in with changes that must happen in technical communities when we invite more women in.

One of those changes is making it clear that women (and other minorities) are not just tolerated in public spaces, but that they are explicitly wanted there.

I think OSCON has made great strides in that direction by changing their marketing materials to include the faces of women. Sarah Novotny, co-chair of OSCON, travelled extensively to invite women face-to-face to submit talks. There are many women speaking at OSCON this year.

OSCON put the time and energy into creating a sense that women were already attending (which they are), and that they wanted more.

So, why all the fuss about having a code of conduct? Well, this community is changing.

What people think of as “summer camp for geeks” is this year a gathering that by definition includes people who haven’t previously been part of the OSCON community. When a community (which OSCON definitely is) sets out to change the gender percentages, it needs to be clear that the women are being invited to join and shape the culture, not just show up to be tourists of the existing culture.

The leadership of the conference needs to establish with existing attendees that the cultural change is wanted. The fact is, OSCON is a for-profit enterprise, with a business driving the event. Grassroots activism is helpful in encouraging change, but ultimately, the owners of the brand need to make a statement in addition to the marketing.

I applaud Jono Bacon for his creation of an anti-harassment policy for the Community Leadership Summit. I also am heartened at O’Reilly’s recent tweet that they are following this conversation.

I don’t think that codes of conduct are the perfect solution. But how else do we communicate to everyone participating that the change is happening, and that they need to accommodate new members *who are very different from them* during a period of cultural adjustment? That’s not a rhetorical question — I am genuinely interested in answers to this question.

I’ve updated my profile to state that I am pro-code-of-conduct, and included a link to anti-harassment resources, which I think should be part of an overall code of conduct. Donna put up a wikipage with easy to cut-n-paste additions for OSCON speaker profiles. If you agree that a code of conduct is a positive direction, please join us!

UPDATE: Tim O’Reilly has blogged about his expectations in a post titled “Sexual Harassment at Technical Conferences: A Big No-No” regarding a code of conduct for conferences under the O’Reilly umbrella going forward.

Looking for worthy “mistakes were made” stories

Posted on by

I’m giving a couple talks at OSCON this year! One of them is titled “Mistakes were made“, and I need a few good stories.

I’m focused on web operations, but really, any stories where there was a plan, and it went horribly wrong, would be great. And, I’d love to know whether whatever went wrong ultimately got fixed, hacked around or was just left as-is.

Thanks!

Summer’s finally here: Plans and more plans

Posted on by

I’ve been pretty busy since I left PgCon. Emma is gearing up for a pretty awesome API release, and I’m working on a bit of tricky migration code.

I’ve also got a number of upcoming talks to suss out:

And, then August off from the conference circuit, and a trip to Chicago for Postgres Open. And I’ve agreed to MC for another great event coming to Portland this fall.

So, I’ve got a busy few weeks ahead preparing for such great conferences coming here to Portland.

Otherwise, chickens are laying eggs regularly, I’ve got a delicious looking crop of cherries developing in the front yard, and maybe some strawberries if the sun lasts for a few days. For the moment, I’m taking it easy today, reading a few books and relaxing in warmth that Portland has deserved for quite a few months now.

Cheers!

Photo courtesy of roome via Flickr