Tag Archives: portland

community, conference, pgconference, postgres, postgresql , , , , 2 Comments

October is a month of many conferences

wherecamp

I just blogged about WhereCampPDX, and am enjoying a few days of quiet before heading out to Google for the Summer of Code Mentor’s summit this coming weekend.

I was so busy I didn’t have much time to blog about the PostgreSQL Conference West. It was great to see everyone, and I came away more sure than ever that PostgreSQL has the best developer and user community. We had so much fun, and I really enjoyed seeing the creative ways people are using PostgreSQL – for business (Proprietary to PostgreSQL), education (Visual Planner) and as a hobby (PL/LOLCODE).

WhereCampPDX was amazing! I had a couple fantastic conversations with Webb Sprague, a regular PostGIS presenter for PDXPUG and Portland PostgreSQL conferences. He’s interested in getting people together to talk about anthropology and tech, and how to better meet the needs of the people who will actually end up using disaster management software in a crisis. Look for a fabulous event from him this spring!

As far as GSOC, I’m hoping to take a lead role in this next year with Josh Berkus‘ help. He’s managed Summer of Code for at least two years, and has worked hard to match mentors and students, and we’ve ended up with several excellent contributions.

My plan for PostgreSQL is to start early on recruitment and project proposals, so that we have an excellent turnout next year. So, if you know of a project you want worked on, or know of students who would be good candidates – let’s get in touch now and start recruiting!

personal , , , ,

My Other Things

Audrey listed out her projects the other day, and I decided to follow suit:

  • PDXPUG – Portland PostgreSQL Users Group. I just spent the weekend with @markwkm and @gorthx at LinuxFest NW, a fantastic Linux conference. We met tons of people, made some new friends, and got a list of 15 people who want to be part of a new PostgreSQL User Group in Seattle! Also, there was a Tesla Coil. PDXPUG will host PGDay on July 20th, just before OSCON. It will be a day of talks, followed by a great party!
  • User Group Liaison, PostgreSQL Global Development Group – I’m running pugs.postgresql.org. Our community is adding about 2 new user groups a month throughout the world. I’ve given 6 talks in the last month, and will be giving two talks about people and user groups at OSCON.
  • PgUS – The United States PostgreSQL Association. I am Director, Treasurer and chief Guerrilla Marketing Campaigner (self-assigned title).
  • Legion of Tech – Board member, and part of the Finance committee.
  • BarCamp Portland – Fundraising coordinator, and trying to set up a long-term repository for conference notes, audio and video. We’ve got hosting of a super fast server from the Open Source Lab. Now I just need to finish configuring the website!
  • Gardening. I really like gardening. I had great compost this spring from compostable food, chicken manure, lawn debris and dirt/grass we’d dug up from our front yard. We removed the last of the grass from the front yard, and I’m hoping to get some tomatoes up there soon.
  • Chickens. I keep two chickens in my backyard and they are each laying 1 egg/day.
  • ptop. I help hack on ptop, a postgresql monitoring tool written in C.
  • PerlMongers. I regularly attend the Portland Perl Mongers and recently gave a talk on PL/lolcode – a lolcode implementation for the stored procedure engine inside of PostgreSQL.
  • Code-n-splode. I helped found code-n-splode, a coding group dedicated to getting more women involved in programming.

What about you?