Web 2.0 Expo: thoughts from David
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Ai technical lead David Yoon made a great compilation of Web 2.0 Expo observations, below. This wraps our conference coverage.
General points from the conference:
Technology: the conference from a technology perspective was very heavily focused on just a few topics:
-- cloud computing and the problem of scaling websites
-- next generation of browsers and bringing web applications even closer to desktop applications
-- graphics and the re-emergence of Javascript as a hugely important language
Wednesday
Lessons from Visual Programming with JavaScript: John Resig (creator of jQuery) talked about Processing.js, a new library that he created to help interact with the canvas element.
10 things we’ve learned at 37 signals
--I thought this was one of the better talks of the conference
-- planning is overrated/decisions are temporary/optimize for now
-- create waves of interest -- momentum is very important
-- interruption is the enemy of productivity
-- out-teach, out-share, out-contribute
-- most of these points are applicable for small, non-client facing tech shops
Go REST with Rails
-- DHH gave a great talk about REST and Rails, aka reasons for a restful architecture (mainly for communication/interaction between sites), and discussed some of the features that are built into the framework to handle it. Most developers here already know the principles/reasons but it was a good presentation.
-- Support in rails 2.1 for etags/not modified headers
Thursday
Building in the Clouds: Scaling Web 2.0
-- Panel discussion about cloud computing from a variety of companies (google, 10gen, amazon), where it currently is and how to make best use of it.
-- Ability to scale massively in a very short amount of time – example of the facebook photo application that scaled from 5 servers to 5000 in a week using amazon.
-- Not suited to all application/companies, developing for cloud applications requires a shift in developer mentality.
-- Relevancy/importance of cloud computing
Designing for the Internet(s) of the future
Very interesting talk by Genevieve Bell – anthropologist researching trends in global internet usage
-- China now has more active internet users than the US, this trend will continue
-- Internet is becoming widespread in the developing world, though generally it’s become shared (1:many people per device), asynchronous (delay of days/weeks between the transfer of information)
-- Trend toward disconnecting from the internet
-- Concerns: Privacy issues, cultural health
The sequel to SQL: Why you won’t find your RDBMS in the clouds
Great technical talk about object databases/cloud computing.
-- scaling databases: partitioning (sharding) over multiple servers is hard/slow when using relational databases
-- object databases
- examples: BigTable (google), SimpleDB(amazon), Mongo (10gen)
-- pros: scaleable
-- cons: - no joins across tables…
- eventually consistent (not good for banking transactions)
- query limits (1000 entities for google, 250 for amazon)
Friday
State of Web Development
-- chrome/gears, web applications are becoming more and more like desktop applications
-- js will become *really* fast in the next generation of web browsers, the language will potentially have much more influence
-- rise of Ajax as the important medium for providing a better user experience.
General points from the conference:
Technology: the conference from a technology perspective was very heavily focused on just a few topics:
-- cloud computing and the problem of scaling websites
-- next generation of browsers and bringing web applications even closer to desktop applications
-- graphics and the re-emergence of Javascript as a hugely important language
Wednesday
Lessons from Visual Programming with JavaScript: John Resig (creator of jQuery) talked about Processing.js, a new library that he created to help interact with the canvas element.
10 things we’ve learned at 37 signals
--I thought this was one of the better talks of the conference
-- planning is overrated/decisions are temporary/optimize for now
-- create waves of interest -- momentum is very important
-- interruption is the enemy of productivity
-- out-teach, out-share, out-contribute
-- most of these points are applicable for small, non-client facing tech shops
Go REST with Rails
-- DHH gave a great talk about REST and Rails, aka reasons for a restful architecture (mainly for communication/interaction between sites), and discussed some of the features that are built into the framework to handle it. Most developers here already know the principles/reasons but it was a good presentation.
-- Support in rails 2.1 for etags/not modified headers
Thursday
Building in the Clouds: Scaling Web 2.0
-- Panel discussion about cloud computing from a variety of companies (google, 10gen, amazon), where it currently is and how to make best use of it.
-- Ability to scale massively in a very short amount of time – example of the facebook photo application that scaled from 5 servers to 5000 in a week using amazon.
-- Not suited to all application/companies, developing for cloud applications requires a shift in developer mentality.
-- Relevancy/importance of cloud computing
Designing for the Internet(s) of the future
Very interesting talk by Genevieve Bell – anthropologist researching trends in global internet usage
-- China now has more active internet users than the US, this trend will continue
-- Internet is becoming widespread in the developing world, though generally it’s become shared (1:many people per device), asynchronous (delay of days/weeks between the transfer of information)
-- Trend toward disconnecting from the internet
-- Concerns: Privacy issues, cultural health
The sequel to SQL: Why you won’t find your RDBMS in the clouds
Great technical talk about object databases/cloud computing.
-- scaling databases: partitioning (sharding) over multiple servers is hard/slow when using relational databases
-- object databases
- examples: BigTable (google), SimpleDB(amazon), Mongo (10gen)
-- pros: scaleable
-- cons: - no joins across tables…
- eventually consistent (not good for banking transactions)
- query limits (1000 entities for google, 250 for amazon)
Friday
State of Web Development
-- chrome/gears, web applications are becoming more and more like desktop applications
-- js will become *really* fast in the next generation of web browsers, the language will potentially have much more influence
-- rise of Ajax as the important medium for providing a better user experience.
Labels: conferences, web 2.0
