Ruby is an awesome language to code in. And Ruby on Rails has been the killer web framework in the Ruby community. It hides a lot of complexity that’s involved in creating/maintaining a web application. Still, writing good code needs great culture. And the Ruby and Rails communities have that built in.
There are a good number of conferences all over the world, throughout the year, that set the tone for a solid culture in the Ruby and Rails communities. Here are some of the notable ones that take place regularly.
RubyConf
RubyConf, is the official annual gathering of Ruby developers from around the world. Founded in 2001, RubyConf usually takes place in September/October. It has historically been the venue for announcements regarding the future of the Ruby programming language, as well as a place for the creators of all the major Ruby implementations to show their work, compare notes and involve the community. This year, it is planned to be conducted on September 29th. The conference will obviously kick off with the keynote by Matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto). Check out the conference schedule here http://rubyconf.org/schedule
RailsConf
RailsConf is the largest official conference dedicated to everything Ruby on Rails. This 4-day conference is co-produced by Ruby Central, Inc. and O’Reilly Media, Inc. Through keynotes, sessions, tutorials, events, and of course lots of hallway hacking, RailsConf provides a great environment for the Rails community to come together. This year it took place on May 16 in Baltimore. This conference is designed around all levels of expertise – from beginner to intermediate to advanced. It provides ample opportunity for all participants to connect, contribute, and collaborate throughout the event. Check out the conference site at http://en.oreilly.com/rails2011/
LoneStar RubyConf
LoneStar RubyConf is a 3 day ruby conference and is going to start on August 11th this year. The event will have keynotes from Chad Fowler, Obie Fernandez and James Edward Gray II. This is the fifth LoneStar conference. You can check out more info at http://www.lonestarrubyconf.com/
RubyNation
RubyNation is an annual two-day, dual-track technical conference presented by the Washington DC area Ruby community. RubyNation is usually held in April. In 2011, the notable speakers were Dave Thomas, Blake Mizerany, Dr.Nic Williams, Scott Chacon and Chad Fowler. Check out more about Ruby Nation here http://www.rubynation.org/ . The conference videos are available at http://blip.tv/rubynation
RubyConf India
RubyConf India took place in May this year, in Bangalore. Yehuda Katz, Nick Seiger, Matz, Chad Fowler and Ola Bini were some of the notable speakers at the event. The event is usually organized and sponsored by Thoughtworks. This 2 day conference has grown in popularity in it’s short lifetime of 2 years owing to a fast growing Ruby community in India. Check out the website at http://rubyconfindia.org/2011/
RubyConf Taiwan
RubyConf Taiwan is going to be conducted in August, with lots of Good speakers on board. Checkout its schedule and book tickets here http://rubyconf.tw/2011/schedule.html. They are open of registration now.
RailsCamps
RailsCamps are becoming popular in countries like Australia, UK, USA, Denmark and Poland. The event usually lasts for 2 days. The rails camps are conducted all over the world and the upcoming RailsCamps are listed here. They sell a cool black TShirt too http://railscamptee.com/
The good folks over at confreaks record and post these conference videos online for everyone in the community. Hop on over to check some of them out.
