As I was recalling some of the conversations I found myself in last night, though, I realized - at some point I became a tech evangelist. The one conversation that stuck out in my mind where I was asked "So, is this sort of evangelism what you do for a living?" To which I responded, "Ha! No!" I mean, I'm a developer, right? I write code.. or, at least, isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing?
It certainly hasn't been conscious (although, perhaps I should pretend that it has), but if I look at some of the Drupal presentations I've given, things like DrupalCampToronto and the Toronto user group, plus some of the OpenID talks I've done lately... it might just be true. Heck, I even like doing it!
walkah, tech evangelist : coming to a conference/camp/etc near you.
]]>And if I have to sit through a demonstration of a tag cloud or web login form, so help me.
So, naturally, I'll be doing a presentation exclusively about login forms... and I'll probably throw in a tag cloud for laughs. As for the 6 questions, here's what to expect:
There you have it. If you haven't yet, sign up and I'll see you there.
]]>To me, however, the best part of last night's event was the general feeling or realization that there is actually a strong community here. Personally, as someone who can't make it out to all the events, I have found the "Always on Unconference" that we've started lately in the torcamp skype room as a great way to keep in touch, follow up, etc. However, as a relentless advocate for free software and open protocols and standards, I urge the community go pop in to either the #torcamp irc channel or the xmpp group chat - you can find me in both :) Looking forward to the next event!
]]>I enjoyed Arnold's presentation - not because the demo was really a demo - but because it reminded me how powerful a tool like drupal could be when focused for and tailored to a target such as artists and artisans. Sounds like a great install profile. I also had to laugh when someone (besides me) asked why he didn't build his tool using drupal.
However, like several other attendees, I had to stop and wonder about firestoker. I've heard Tom Purves speak at a couple local events now, and in general they seem to be rather well versed in "Enterprise 2.0" concepts... but the bit of their application (either version) we saw last night made me wonder "why bother"? I certainly didn't see any features or functionality present that didn't exist in hundreds of other free tools (not to mention their app design looks a heck of a lot like basecamp). I don't understand why they would build their own, proprietary system... seems like a lot of development time and resources better spent elsewhere. But, I'm biased. Again, I was left wondering "Why not build it in Drupal"?
I found Sunir Shah's design bibliography demo to be entertaining and well presented. I know Sunir's a wiki guy and all... but the design bibliography should really have been built in drupal too.
I hereby propose a 5th standard question for DemoCamp demoers: "Why didn't you just use drupal?" No?
]]>I definitely have to make it to more of these - lots of fun, interesting folks 'round here. My highlights were: Damian Conway talking about Perl 6 - he's a really entertaining speaker, paruba.com - for looking like something i might actually use, and seeing David Crow out and about - without him toronto wouldn't even have a tech entrepreneur scene at all.
fingers crossed i can make it to the next one too...
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