There are basically two reasons for me to personally participate in various community events:

1. The selfish answer is that I want to make myself better.
2. The unselfish answer is that I want to make other people better too.

The second one of these is hard. One thing that was re-emphasized for me during Seattle was that the biggest challenge that any community faces is converting the unbelievers. Obviously most of the people who turn up for ALT.NET events have bought into the ideas (I am not going to go down the rat hole of defining what those ideas are). But how do we increase the number of people who are aware of and hopefully buy into some of the ALT.NET dogma?

The problem was well illustrated in the Are Auto Mocking Containers (AMC) Evil session in Seattle . The amount of concepts that need to be understood and pain that must have been experienced to even reach the point when an AMC comes into play is enormous. So how do you take your stereotypical Mort (I am not using this term in derogatory way) and at least make them aware that there might be another way to do things?

When we were discussing this problem over lunch we came up with the idea of the Open Spaces session. It sounds kinda lame but the idea for each Elegant Coder is to "bring a friend" who might be open to some new ideas and at it's core that's what this event is all about. It's going to be a lot of fun...

This first podcast features David Laribee, Jeremy D. Miller, and Chad Myers.  If you have any interest in what Alt.Net is about, this is a great introduction.  Well worth the cost of 45 minutes and a 10 meg download.

I thought Martin Fowler answered the question very well:

"Anything that causes a state change to my world, my domain model… I capture in an object, you can think of it as a command object, I like to think of it as an event object. That object carries with it all the information about the kind of state change it might be. Then I have some way of processing it against my domain model to actually perform the change, but I still store and persist that event object as part of the record of what I’ve done.” DDDD video, 49:00ish

He are a couple of great articles from Martin's site which elaborate on his statement, if you are interested in making the transition from request/response to messaging I recommend giving them both a thorough read. I am currently in the process of making the transition myself and I found them very helpful.

Fowler - Event Sourcing

Fowler - Event Collaboration

Also from the session came a great list of other reading materials, so bone up!

Pattern Oriented Software Architecture Books 1-4

Enterprise Integration Patterns 

Domain Driven Design 

Domain Driven Design Quickly (Free 100 page compressed version in PDF provided by InfoQ)

Power of Events

Distributed Event Based Systems

Event Based Programming

Software Architecture in Practice (weighing 'ilities')

SEI - Quality Attributes (PDF)

Thanks to all the attendees including Evan Hoff, Udi Dahan and Greg Young for helping compile the great list of books you see above. (as well as their contributions to the conversation in general) ]]> http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/30/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddresources/feed/ 4 http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:56:25 +0000 Jarod Ferguson http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/ This last weekend (yes, a week ago I know) at Alt.Net I had the opportunity to convene a session on DDDD.  (which was also joined with Event Driven Architecture and one other messaging related topic)

The open spaces format makes it easy for whoever is there, to talk about whatever they want. DDDD, or distributed message base systems in general, was exactly what I wanted to talk about. This was my first open spaces conference, so I was a little nervous to be convening in front of highly respected peers. Luckily with all the tremendous talent in the room, being the convener for DDDD was about as complicated as finding a Starbucks in Seattle. I also learned the golden rule of open spaces, which is - if all else fails... turn it into a fishbowl.

Part of the responsibility of the convener is to provide a take away of what was talked about. Unfortunately given the magnitude of the topic, and my hectic schedule, I am sitting here 1 week later looking at 4 pages of thoughts and no real way to comprise what’s in my head. So my solution is to break it up into a series of posts just to get something out there.

So let’s start with the video. The conversation is very dense, and is packed full of great info. Some of what is said is hard to follow without context, so I challenge you, if you are interested in the topic to listen to it several times. Even after being in the room, the 3^rd time I watched the video I was still learning more and more.

Before I left I wasn't as pumped up about Seattle as I was for Austin in the fall. This is because my role has changed during the past 6 months and day to day development is very much a thing of the past for me. I suppose the real question was whether all this was still relevant to me. Thankfully the answer was a resounding yes.

Before the whole thing kicked off Dave Laribee asked me what I wanted to get out of the event this time. My answer was simple:

1. Drink too much
2. Have some good conversations

Obviously there was an element of intentional humor in my answers (1st bullet). However the key to this type of event (Open Spaces + lots of REALLY smart, open minded people) is that your preconceptions about a wide array of topics will be challenged. And they were. I talked a ridiculous amount of tech. On the Saturday I geeked out from 8 am until 2 am the next morning. Talk about brain overload!

For example Greg Young's views on DDD using object databases and building super "ility" systems really got me thinking about a whole new approach to building applications. I definitely need to spend more time exploring these concepts.

There were also some excellent discussions about Auto Mocking Containers and whether or not they are evil. My conclusion was that they are not inherently evil...but that they can definitely be used for evil purposes (hide code smells). And the entire discussion highlighted how difficult automated testing really is and how much knowledge and experience you need to get it right.

Chris Ortman had the brilliant  idea of a developer exchange. I know that there are some obvious barriers (damn you corporate America!) but there are huge potential benefits too. If we as a community can figure out a way to make this happen then we're all going to get a lot better.

One aspect of the event that almost everyone agreed upon was that the identity crisis in the ALT.NET community is over. There were no sessions that attempted to define ALT.NET. And this was good. We (as a community) have grown up!

It was also very encouraging to see a lot less of anti Microsoft sentiment than last time. Part of this is due to the aforementioned maturing of the community. But more importantly the two sides (deliberate choice of words) are working much more closely together. So much has improved over the past 6 months. For example we now have access to the source and the tests for the MVC Framework. Woo hoo! And there is a two way dialog in process about how to do things. Prism is a great example of this (great work Glenn).

Time to stop rambling. I want to close by saying that if you haven't attended this event before then I implore you to try and go to Austin in October. You'll get 3 months better in 3 days. And it doesn't come any better than that.

I thought Martin Fowler answered the question very well:

"Anything that causes a state change to my world, my domain model… I capture in an object, you can think of it as a command object, I like to think of it as an event object. That object carries with it all the information about the kind of state change it might be. Then I have some way of processing it against my domain model to actually perform the change, but I still store and persist that event object as part of the record of what I’ve done.” DDDD video, 49:00ish

He are a couple of great articles from Martin's site which elaborate on his statement, if you are interested in making the transition from request/response to messaging I recommend giving them both a thorough read. I am currently in the process of making the transition myself and I found them very helpful.

Fowler - Event Sourcing

Fowler - Event Collaboration

Also from the session came a great list of other reading materials, so bone up!

Pattern Oriented Software Architecture Books 1-4

Enterprise Integration Patterns 

Domain Driven Design 

Domain Driven Design Quickly (Free 100 page compressed version in PDF provided by InfoQ)

Power of Events

Distributed Event Based Systems

Event Based Programming

Software Architecture in Practice (weighing 'ilities')

SEI - Quality Attributes (PDF)

Thanks to all the attendees including Evan Hoff, Udi Dahan and Greg Young for helping compile the great list of books you see above. (as well as their contributions to the conversation in general) ]]> http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/30/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddresources/feed/ 4 http://elegantcode.com Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://elegantcode.com/2008/05/27/bring-a-friend-why-have-an-elegant-code-open-spaces-session/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bring-a-friend-why-have-an-elegant-code-open-spaces-session http://elegantcode.com/2008/05/27/bring-a-friend-why-have-an-elegant-code-open-spaces-session/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 18:37:28 +0000 Jason Grundy http://elegantcode.com/2008/05/27/bring-a-friend-why-have-an-elegant-code-open-spaces-session/ Last week Scott announced a Elegant Code Open Spaces Session. But why are we doing this? Obviously when answering this question I am speaking for myself and not necessarily the rest of the Elegant Coders...although who could possibly disagree with the constructed and reasonable argument that follows!?

There are basically two reasons for me to personally participate in various community events:

1. The selfish answer is that I want to make myself better.
2. The unselfish answer is that I want to make other people better too.

The second one of these is hard. One thing that was re-emphasized for me during Seattle was that the biggest challenge that any community faces is converting the unbelievers. Obviously most of the people who turn up for ALT.NET events have bought into the ideas (I am not going to go down the rat hole of defining what those ideas are). But how do we increase the number of people who are aware of and hopefully buy into some of the ALT.NET dogma?

The problem was well illustrated in the Are Auto Mocking Containers (AMC) Evil session in Seattle . The amount of concepts that need to be understood and pain that must have been experienced to even reach the point when an AMC comes into play is enormous. So how do you take your stereotypical Mort (I am not using this term in derogatory way) and at least make them aware that there might be another way to do things?

When we were discussing this problem over lunch we came up with the idea of the Open Spaces session. It sounds kinda lame but the idea for each Elegant Coder is to "bring a friend" who might be open to some new ideas and at it's core that's what this event is all about. It's going to be a lot of fun...

This first podcast features David Laribee, Jeremy D. Miller, and Chad Myers.  If you have any interest in what Alt.Net is about, this is a great introduction.  Well worth the cost of 45 minutes and a 10 meg download.

I thought Martin Fowler answered the question very well:

"Anything that causes a state change to my world, my domain model… I capture in an object, you can think of it as a command object, I like to think of it as an event object. That object carries with it all the information about the kind of state change it might be. Then I have some way of processing it against my domain model to actually perform the change, but I still store and persist that event object as part of the record of what I’ve done.” DDDD video, 49:00ish

He are a couple of great articles from Martin's site which elaborate on his statement, if you are interested in making the transition from request/response to messaging I recommend giving them both a thorough read. I am currently in the process of making the transition myself and I found them very helpful.

Fowler - Event Sourcing

Fowler - Event Collaboration

Also from the session came a great list of other reading materials, so bone up!

Pattern Oriented Software Architecture Books 1-4

Enterprise Integration Patterns 

Domain Driven Design 

Domain Driven Design Quickly (Free 100 page compressed version in PDF provided by InfoQ)

Power of Events

Distributed Event Based Systems

Event Based Programming

Software Architecture in Practice (weighing 'ilities')

SEI - Quality Attributes (PDF)

Thanks to all the attendees including Evan Hoff, Udi Dahan and Greg Young for helping compile the great list of books you see above. (as well as their contributions to the conversation in general) ]]> http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/30/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddresources/feed/ 4 http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:56:25 +0000 Jarod Ferguson http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/27/altnet-seattle-takeawayddddvideo/ This last weekend (yes, a week ago I know) at Alt.Net I had the opportunity to convene a session on DDDD.  (which was also joined with Event Driven Architecture and one other messaging related topic)

The open spaces format makes it easy for whoever is there, to talk about whatever they want. DDDD, or distributed message base systems in general, was exactly what I wanted to talk about. This was my first open spaces conference, so I was a little nervous to be convening in front of highly respected peers. Luckily with all the tremendous talent in the room, being the convener for DDDD was about as complicated as finding a Starbucks in Seattle. I also learned the golden rule of open spaces, which is - if all else fails... turn it into a fishbowl.

Part of the responsibility of the convener is to provide a take away of what was talked about. Unfortunately given the magnitude of the topic, and my hectic schedule, I am sitting here 1 week later looking at 4 pages of thoughts and no real way to comprise what’s in my head. So my solution is to break it up into a series of posts just to get something out there.

So let’s start with the video. The conversation is very dense, and is packed full of great info. Some of what is said is hard to follow without context, so I challenge you, if you are interested in the topic to listen to it several times. Even after being in the room, the 3^rd time I watched the video I was still learning more and more.

Before I left I wasn't as pumped up about Seattle as I was for Austin in the fall. This is because my role has changed during the past 6 months and day to day development is very much a thing of the past for me. I suppose the real question was whether all this was still relevant to me. Thankfully the answer was a resounding yes.

Before the whole thing kicked off Dave Laribee asked me what I wanted to get out of the event this time. My answer was simple:

1. Drink too much
2. Have some good conversations

Obviously there was an element of intentional humor in my answers (1st bullet). However the key to this type of event (Open Spaces + lots of REALLY smart, open minded people) is that your preconceptions about a wide array of topics will be challenged. And they were. I talked a ridiculous amount of tech. On the Saturday I geeked out from 8 am until 2 am the next morning. Talk about brain overload!

For example Greg Young's views on DDD using object databases and building super "ility" systems really got me thinking about a whole new approach to building applications. I definitely need to spend more time exploring these concepts.

There were also some excellent discussions about Auto Mocking Containers and whether or not they are evil. My conclusion was that they are not inherently evil...but that they can definitely be used for evil purposes (hide code smells). And the entire discussion highlighted how difficult automated testing really is and how much knowledge and experience you need to get it right.

Chris Ortman had the brilliant  idea of a developer exchange. I know that there are some obvious barriers (damn you corporate America!) but there are huge potential benefits too. If we as a community can figure out a way to make this happen then we're all going to get a lot better.

One aspect of the event that almost everyone agreed upon was that the identity crisis in the ALT.NET community is over. There were no sessions that attempted to define ALT.NET. And this was good. We (as a community) have grown up!

It was also very encouraging to see a lot less of anti Microsoft sentiment than last time. Part of this is due to the aforementioned maturing of the community. But more importantly the two sides (deliberate choice of words) are working much more closely together. So much has improved over the past 6 months. For example we now have access to the source and the tests for the MVC Framework. Woo hoo! And there is a two way dialog in process about how to do things. Prism is a great example of this (great work Glenn).

Time to stop rambling. I want to close by saying that if you haven't attended this event before then I implore you to try and go to Austin in October. You'll get 3 months better in 3 days. And it doesn't come any better than that.

The open spaces format makes it easy for whoever is there, to talk about whatever they want. DDDD, or distributed message base systems in general, was exactly what I wanted to talk about. This was my first open spaces conference, so I was a little nervous to be convening in front of highly respected peers. Luckily with all the tremendous talent in the room, being the convener for DDDD was about as complicated as finding a Starbucks in Seattle. I also learned the golden rule of open spaces, which is - if all else fails... turn it into a fishbowl.

Part of the responsibility of the convener is to provide a take away of what was talked about. Unfortunately given the magnitude of the topic, and my hectic schedule, I am sitting here 1 week later looking at 4 pages of thoughts and no real way to comprise what’s in my head. So my solution is to break it up into a series of posts just to get something out there.

So let’s start with the video. The conversation is very dense, and is packed full of great info. Some of what is said is hard to follow without context, so I challenge you, if you are interested in the topic to listen to it several times. Even after being in the room, the 3^rd time I watched the video I was still learning more and more.