If you’re using Twitter, I set up an account for PostgreSQL Conference East: http://twitter.com/postgresqlconf
Please follow it if you’re interested in the latest updates! I’m working on the detailed talk pages this week, and will announce there when they are up.
Saturday night, February 9, at 8pm, Richard Broersma and a crew of 15 launched LAPUG. Noel Proffitt, from the City of Garden Grove, gave a great talk on time-oriented (or temporal) database design.
He presented an example of a set of columns, rules and triggers for tracking both valid and transaction time. Noel also was kind enough to give a plug to the temporal data type that Jeff Davis and I presented last PGDay before OSCON. There was some suggestion that Jeff should submit the code for version 8.4.
We also showed off the new PUGs website, and talked a little about what had brought people to the BoF.
A few students from Cal Poly were there, along with many experienced administrators from around LA. Richard mentioned that his company was willing to host the group’s first meeting, and Noel offered to bring a projector. The group also asked about potential topics, so I am going to start a talks repository on the PUGs site. Ultimately, I’d love to have the authoritative and searchable repository of PostgreSQL talks for all PUGs to use as starting points and references.
Thanks go to Robert Broersma for taking the initiative and announcing the meeting, and Joshua Drake for scheduling the BoF. Also, it was a pleasure to spend the weekend with Joshua, Robert, David Fetter and Josh Berkus in the SCaLE PostgreSQL booth.
I’m looking forward to great meetings from LAPUG in the future!
Sunday’s keynote at SCaLE was given by Stormy Peters. She talked about open source, business contributions and the social and financial economies driving development.
Three of her research questions were:
Her conclusion was that the developer community needs to teach businesses how to do things right for the community. We can’t wait for businesses to figure it out on their own. The call to action was a good one, but it seemed to leave some audience members scratching their heads. One audience member asked, “How do we do that?”
A few interesting figures she mentioned:
One quote that stuck with me was: “Typically people have been divided between left and right brain [professions].†I don’t agree. I think you only have to look briefly at the history of science to see that creativity (“right brainâ€) and reason (“left brainâ€) have often gone together.
The developer community just like many others – regular people who want to be useful, and inspired by their work. Creativity may not be asked for in a person’s work. But people invent, dream and create regardless of whether their profession requires it.
Just a quick note that I’ll be at SCALE February 8-10. I’ll be attending the Women in Open Source track (with maybe a quick side-trip to DOHCS: Mobile decision support in Tanzania), and then helping with the both Saturday and Sunday. You can direct message me on Twitter (selenamarie) if you’re interested in meeting up!
I’m also looking forward to the PostgreSQL BoF on Saturday night (8pm, Laguardia room), and maybe having some sunny weather!
Thanks to one of Audrey’s RSS feeds, I read Women in Computer Science – An Endangered Species of a New Kind? this afternoon. About the same time, I received email from a professor at UMD who is helping organize PostgreSQL Conference East. She would like to hold a Women in Open Source Focus Group session during the conference, and we’re looking for participants.
Dawn Foster tagged me a while ago to tell 8 things that you may not know about me:
I’ve been filling my time with some community and open source work.
First, I’m working with Audrey and some other fabulous community members on Calagator, open-source calendar aggregation with teeth! Our next codesprint is coming up on February 2. Everyone is welcome!
Ignite Portland is coming up on February 5, aka Super Tuesday. We’re up to 400 RSVPs. I’m hoping for a rowdy, fun crowd.
The new PUGS site is coming along. I just got some patches to plug a wiki in there, and I got a pre-release of the PostgreSQL theme used by the Italian PostgreSQL site. Looking forward to digging in this evening.
Michael Schwern’s geek2geek has been a taking off. I wrote a guest post about the Pickup Artist. We’re riffing on the idea of social engineering, and the Pickup Artist focuses on manipulation and physical cues.
Finally, I’m leaving for SCALE on February 8th. Lots too do before then!
Last week, I accepted the role of User Group Liaison for PostgreSQL in North America. Thanks, Joshua Drake, for nominating me. And thanks to everyone who commented on the thread. I was smiling for a couple days from the nice things that were said.
My first task is to upgrade the now elderly PUGS server – the site for our User Group blogs. Look for an updated site on Monday!
I will be attending SCALE on February 8-10. I’ll definitely be seeing talks from the Women in Open Source track, hanging out at the PostgreSQL Booth, and attending the LA PostgreSQL Users Group BoF session at 8pm, Saturday February 9 in the Laguardia room. See you there!
Update: I made the PostgreSQL Weekly News!
Sadly, my winter vacation is over. I needed a couple weeks to recharge after a crazy year of wrapping up old stuff (finally done with the ERP project) and starting lots new things (Legion of Tech, PostgreSQL Conferences, my first cyclocross race!).
If you’re interested in more about me, you can check out my profile at Portland On Fire, a new project from Raven Zachary about Portland residents. Raven is planning to profile a new person every day this year. I’m January 6.
Also, don’t forget about PostgreSQL Conference East. Registration will open this week! The call for papers will be open until February 3, 2008. I’ve got my work cut out for me arranging all the details from here, but I’m looking forward to working with some great community members out in College Park, MD.
I’m giving a talk on January 17th, titled “10 new things you can use in PostgreSQL version 8.3”. Last week, I felt like PDXPUG was running itself — we’ve got the next six months of talks lined up already. I’ll be publishing our calendar over on the PDXPUG blog tomorrow.
== Hugo nominees announced == http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/105093922/hugo_nominees_announ.html (from Boing Boing) Cory Doctorow: This year's Hugo nominees are out — congrats to all the great nominees! It's amazing to see great books like “Glasshouse,†“Rainbows End,†and “Blindsight†on the ballot, along with stories like Ian McDonald's “The Djinn's Wife,†Bill Shunn's “Inclination,†Geoff Ryman's “Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter,†Ben Rosenbaum's “The House Beyond Your Sky†not to mention Neil Gaiman's “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,†Tim Pratt's “Impossible Dreams†— and the list goes on! An art book by Picacio, a bio of Alice Sheldon, a memoir by Chip Delany; badass movies like Children of Men and V for Vendetta, and a really top-flight list of Campbell nominees! Christ, it's going to be hard to pick favorites this year. Novel Michael F. Flynn, Eifelheim (Tor) Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon (Del Rey) Charles Stross, Glasshouse (Ace) Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End (Tor) Peter Watts, Blindsight (Tor) Novella “The Walls of the Universe†by Paul Melko (Asimov’s, April/May 2006) “A Billion Eyes†by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, October/November 2006) “Inclination†by William Shunn (Asimov’s, April/May 2006) “Lord Weary’s Empire†by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, December 2006) Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson (PS Publishing) Novelette “Yellow Card Man†by Paolo Bacigalupi (Asimov’s, December 2006) “Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth†by Michael F. Flynn (Asimov’s, December 2006) “The Djinn’s Wife†by Ian McDonald (Analog, July 2006) “All the Things You Are†by Mike Resnick (Jim Baen’s Universe, October 2006) “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter†by Geoff Ryman (F&SF, October/November 2006) Short Story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties†by Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things) “Kin†by Bruce McAllister (Asimov’s, February 2006) “Impossible Dreams†by Timothy Pratt (Asimov’s, July 2006) “Eight Episodes†by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, June 2006) “The House Beyond Your Sky†by Benjamin Rosenbaum (Strange Horizons, September 2006) Related Book Samuel R. Delany, About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews (Wesleyan University Press) Joseph T. Major, Heinlein’s Children: The Juveniles (Advent) Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon (St. Martin’s Press) John Picacio, Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio (MonkeyBrain Books) Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari, eds., Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches (ISFiC Press)