Ruby And Rails Practice: Mike Hall Interviews Benjamin Oakes |…

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

I'm here. Hi, I'm Mike. I'm here with Benjamin at the WindyCityRails conference in Chicago. And Benjamin is involved with the New Haven Ruby community and the Iowa City Ruby community. Right now you're in Iowa. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing now and maybe also how that compared to what you're doing in Connecticut? Sure.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Well, I helped start the Iowa City Ruby community about four years ago with some other great people. And I moved to New Haven and I'm just now coming back. So I got a lot of experience while I was in New Haven running a group. There was one that kind of died off. And, you know, we're bringing in some of the same experience we had there, like having a site and using Meetup, which is actually very, very helpful for us versus just having a mailing list. And we've done a lot to get more jobs and stuff listed on our site and have that be a place people actually go and talk. I don't know. For the most part, like, we've gotten really consistent where we have a meetup every two weeks.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

And I'm really hoping to bring a lot of that same stuff over to the Iowa City group because right now it's definitely a lot smaller.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Because it's a smaller area. And, like, you know, Connecticut, it's right next to New York. We'd have people come up for that.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Right.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

I mean, Iowa City is close enough to Chicago that sometimes maybe people would come over, maybe yourself. But, you know, maybe, maybe not. But surprisingly, both places. Close is a relative turn. Yeah, right, right. I mean, it's not a train ride away yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, for the most part, like, New Haven isn't incredibly technical. I mean, Iowa City is actually around the same level, believe it or not.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Really?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

But, yeah, it's really just kind of about, you know, you have these communities just to bring people together.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

And that makes a big difference just being around other people, like, at a conference like this. You know, just being able to talk to somebody and give experience.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

So how long have you been running the group in Iowa again?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

I started about four years ago with a guy that's now at Twitter. Oh, okay. But that was, you're in Iowa now, but you were in Connecticut before. So you've been running a group for about four years. Yeah, some other great people. One was Denny. He's at the university. And then a guy by the name of Wesley Berry. He works at Roku right now. He's taken on a lot of it. And then I'm stepping back in and helping him out and growing up. So what, I mean, you were saying that the technical levels of the two communities seem to be on par. Similar, yeah.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

But was there a major cultural shift between Connecticut versus Iowa City or?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Yeah, I mean, Iowa City's a little more kind of, like, I mean, there's definitely a personality difference. There's really, I mean, people, Rubyists all over are really kind of similar.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Really?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

You know, like, which is nice because, like, they're mostly nice. And, you know, there's kind of a stereotype that's sometimes true that Connecticut or Connecticuters are sometimes, like, get out of my way. I'm driving here or something. If you sit down with people, like, they're all awesome.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

I always like talking to new Rubyists. Yeah, yeah. No, it's, the Ruby community for me has also been very, very positive. But as far as getting people to come out to the meetings, you know, I've noticed between being in the suburbs and being in the city. And I've heard between just different cities. Yeah, like, and Iowa City did not use Twitter as much, I've noticed, which was a big thing for us. So communication has had to be a little different. And also, as far as, not the technical skill, but the industries that the people are coming out of or working in. I mean, how, is there a different, like, almost comparing, like, a Java group to a Ruby group.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

There's got to be, like, are they working in the same kind of industry? Do you have a lot of people that are, like, looking at startups, maybe, in Connecticut?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Yeah, yeah, there are definitely, there are definitely some more startups. I mean, I still work for a startup in Connecticut. They let me take my job along with me, which was really nice. And, Iowa City, there's more, like, education and stuff, like, Pearson's there. Pearson, like, textbook company and stuff like that. And they have some Ruby involvement. Yeah, but, yeah, definitely more startups, I'd say, in Connecticut.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Okay.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

But that's starting to change in Iowa, which is exciting for me. And that's something I want to help build out.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah. And you do a bi-weekly meeting, you said?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

In New Haven, we do.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Okay.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

In Iowa City, it's right now every three weeks, which is a little confusing.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Yeah, it's the beginning of the month or the end of the month this time. Yeah, right. And I still have really close ties to everybody in New Haven. And I really want us to, like, be able to collaborate where we've done some by, or, like, we've gotten together for Google Hangouts before. So we had the guy that wrote design patterns in Ruby. His name is escaping me right now. I know which book you're talking about.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

So he came and did a Google Hangout with us and the Rubies, Iowa City Ruby group, and then the New Haven group. And so we're trying to kind of keep the same schedule.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

We did that as, like, a joint meeting?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

Mm-hmm. Yep. So, I mean, there's a few hours difference. Oh, just an hour. Oh, just an hour.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

So. Eastern time versus central time. Yeah, so it's only one hour.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

And it was cool. So, like, we read the book, and then we talked about it, and the author was there, and he took some questions. And, you know, we want to keep doing stuff like that and collaborate because running a user group is hard, and it's hard to keep up the momentum. And if we can work together, it's a little easier.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Have you worked out, has there been a difference in approaching sponsors?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

I mean, some different communities, I've heard, have different levels of receptiveness to sponsoring.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Do you work with?

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

So, in New Haven, there were some very vocal members that were against even having job postings, which I think is a vital thing because if we're going to have a Ruby community, we have to have people that can survive being Rubyists.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Yeah.

Benjamin Oakes ruby and rails practice

So, that was a point of contention a few times until we finally just made it official, no, you can have job postings. But, really, as far as sponsors have ever gone, I mean, we've done O'Reilly books. Those are easy to get. But, for the most part, it's just, like, different companies, they want to help build the local Ruby community, and they help push it forward. And that's why the groups are around, because it's really about the members. That's great.

Mike Hall Interviewer, UGtastic

Well, thank you for taking the time to talk with me, Ben. Definitely. Appreciate it.

Ruby And Rails Practice: Mike Hall Interviews Benjamin Oakes | WindyCityRails 2012

Mike Hall

Benjamin Oakes

The Conversation