Mike Hall on Founding Practitioner Rooms at Crystal Lake Library | Field Notes
Reflections in front of the Crystal Lake Public Library on founding the Cloud Developers Group (CDG) in 2009, Corey Haines challenge, Ryan Gerry, SCMC, practitioner rooms, and introducing The Sound Above rewatch series.
The Guest
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I'm standing in front of the, uh, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Public Library, here, uh, on Crystal Lake, uh, it's a beautiful, um, building, um, it's also, where I've been bringing my family for, well, since, since before I even had a family here, um, uh, it's also the place where I, I hosted, uh, the first, uh, user group that I, I, I knew of in, uh, Crystal Lake, um, and, uh, a little bit of a story behind that, is that, uh, it was the Cloud Developers Group, and they hosted it down here, um, needed, uh, a space I could rent out that
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
was legitimate, but, uh, didn't cost money, and, uh, I think there was a rental fee, like, a deposit or something like that, I, it, it was nominal, um, but, uh, yeah, uh, this is the place where I hosted the first, uh, user group that I was aware of, out, out this way, uh, if there was another one, maybe, predated me, or we just missed each other, I don't know, you know, I would actually love to find, find, find out, find out, and connect those dots, I wouldn
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
't see that as a, uh, as a negative, or a, um, um, did, uh, uh, delegitimization or derailing of the story, uh, my narrative is that I, as far as I'm aware of, um, it was the first new user group, at least, uh, in the area, and had a number of, uh, people respond to my call out, um, and if I, if I forget everybody who attended, well , let me get, let me get to how I ended up here, okay, so I 'm Crystal Lakeian, uh, that's my stupid term, um, been, again, coming to this library since forever, as far as, uh, moving to Crystal Lake,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
and, uh, you know, I, I knew it was a good place, and they had the downstairs, um, uh, uh, space that I could, that was rentable to the public, I called them, came in, I might have even written that check, who knows, it was a long time ago, um, and, uh, um, then I put out a call, hey, here's the date, come out, everybody, I, I don't remember where I posted, I think it was, like, a Google group, or something like that, um, and, uh, I don't know how I got connected with all these people entirely, it's, it's, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's bizarre, I
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
mean, I, I know that Ryan Jerry, um, he and I met at, at a Software Craftsmanship North America conference, I think it was, but man, you know, I, uh, I, like I say about det aching from, uh, the community and going too far heads down, and then dealing with the questions of identity, I, I get it, and, uh, but it's also a cool story, now, um, sometimes cool stories kind of suck while they were happening, um, the, uh, the reason I, I, I founded the girl, I was probably on Twitter, you know, when it was cool, and, um,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I was tweeting with people that were, like, in that craftsm anship group, and I was complaining, just like, you know, so many other people do, about what I don't have, blah, blah, blah, I don't have a tech community, I wish I had a tech community, you know, somebody to, uh, to connect with way out here in the, in the sticks, um, and, uh, Corey Haynes said, I, I don't have my account anymore, but it's, it's out there somewhere, I didn't, in the ether, but , uh, said,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
basically, he called me on my, my whining, and said, then make one, and, uh, I was like, whoa, ah, dang, dang it, ah, now I gotta do something, I can't, I , it was, what did I say about coming into the bit, I meant it, um, so, I knew I was trying to grow past being a .NET developer, I'd kind of been a Microsoft developer for a while at that time, not, not working for Microsoft, but a Microsoft platform developer, and, um, I wanted to be able to connect with people,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
and I didn't want to be exclusionary, uh, I, I wanted to be able to have, as, yeah, diverse, yeah, um, it also means having the most people receptive to an idea, not just, um, checking a box, uh, because I'm actually interested in what people have to say, and I have found that people who have different backgrounds do have different perspectives on things, because they've had to make decisions from other incentives, um, and, uh, so, I, I was looking, it was really new, cloud was new with
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
Google, um, Google had their, um, Google, I forget what it was called, but anyway, I had an account on it, and I hosted the first cloud developer group's website, using WSGI, um, on, uh, the Google Cloud Platform, um, and, uh, I think it was Ryan, Jerry gave a talk about S3, and that was still new, I don't know if, remember if EC2, like, had really become a thing yet, um, because I have a feeling that if it had, sooner that, um, um, um, the group would have lasted longer
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
, but, uh, it, it was this meeting, though, it was, it was that, that those thoughts is that we were in the context of Google's new cloud server, or I should maybe talk with the building behind me, um, let's see if I can get that in there, yeah, yeah, just like, have a library, um, but that, uh, these were not tied to a specific, I don't think Azure was even a thing, uh, at this time, but , um, it, it was only a few meetings, though, I think we talked
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
about sharding, and, and something about S3, and then, uh, you know, Ryan did his presentation, I, if I, if I'm not remembering, remember, I'm trying to remember 15 plus years ago as well now, too, 20 years ago now, too, and, uh, over time, I'm going to be doing research and collecting these notes up, uh, but, um, the point was, is that to get as diverse an audience as possible, Python, JavaScript, I already had a story, I'll tell about JavaScript, but, um, I wanted
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
to decouple entirely from my identity being only the Microsoft platform, because I felt like they weren't developer friendly at that time, and I was looking at how do I maintain my skill set and, uh, find a way to navigate into new networks of people so I could find a place that I could, I could work in, um, and, and, and, you know, I don't want to be cynical about that, I don't, I, I have my own stories about motivations, but, uh, um, the point of that first cloud developer group
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
was to be as inclusive as possible and bring as many different types of developers, because I was also thinking that, like, I worked with so many .NET developers who really were, like, Microsoft first, everything was, like, if it wasn't a Microsoft platform tool, it wasn't, it wasn't in the stack, and they would defer to, you know, whatever they thought Microsoft did, cool, whatever, more power to them, whatever, but I, I had a difference of opinion, um, I wanted to be open to more, and, uh,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
that call to action, that me whining in public, making, you know, showing my butt, uh, and, um, then getting a call out from somebody who I respected, who really did make me take a step back and say, what do I, what do I value, and it's what I'm , what I'm willing to put effort into, and that was finding a way to connect with people, and to help people connect outside of their original eco systems, echo chambers, some people, you know, in different contexts, have different experiences,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
and just bringing them together, and it was here that I did that one, and, uh, it was kind of fun that in that first meeting, uh, they, they wouldn't let me, uh, the, the, the staff wouldn't let me operate the, uh, the projector, and they didn't have somebody in there, I think, that could operate the projector at the time, and, you know, we would do, we were trying to be, uh, nice, but we're like, you know, I'm like, I, I know how to work a projector, I'm fine, I'm fine, it's gonna be okay,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
and, but, you know, hey, they didn't feel comfortable with it, you gotta respect that, you know, don't argue with them, they're your guests in their, their facility, and if they don't feel comfortable with you tinkering, even if you do know what you're doing, you know, don't do it, um, you know, it's, but it's the discretion between doing that to, you know, there, there's a line, but in that context, they were lovely, gracious, but also, it was charming, and that these technologies
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
were still kind of new at the time, and, you know, when you 're facing new things, you feel uncertain about them, you feel like they're always going to break on you, or they're going to cause a problem, or that you're going to get into a situation where you can 't get out of it, and that's what they were facing, and we're facing now too, with AI, but it's okay, um, yeah, I just want to bring back here is that these, these communities don't have to be auspicious, uh, to start
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
, and that even though there's been complexity in, in the story of what became SCMC, which is the, uh, successor to, uh, um, cloud developers group, was that, um, from here, went on to really sit down with some, some people, and, and that'll be , uh, you know, Ryan and Jim Succi in particular, um, and we pivoted this group into Software Craftsmanship McHenry County, and they still mean, let's say they, because, you know, you know, it's been 17 years, and it's under new
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
leadership, and it's, it's, you know, there's a, there's a point where you, um, it's not yours anymore, and, um, you know, I struggled with that, you know, for a while too, um, again, that's what I said, it wasn't always me being super gracious either, um, but, uh, it's a story that does talk, I think, a bit about what was happening out in the ecosystem on Twitter at this time, the conversation inside of Chicago, inside of software craftsmanship, you know, this, this,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
this movement, which, again, it's, we're facing this question of what is the end of software engineering, uh, user groups, I, I don't know what to say, I'm, you know, I wish I could say I never hold up myself, you know, I went through COVID too, and all the, uh, social anxiety that came with that, but, um, I see, uh, young people coming together, but, um, that it's, it's really just, um,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
finding a way to do these meetups, we used to have these coding coffees, and pear Fridays, and, and these different meetups, because there was like, I don't know, there was something going on, and right now we've got something going on that doesn't feel so great, that was optimistic, this is pessimistic, but, um, it doesn't have to be big and fancy to mean something, and sometimes it takes a while for that to feel that way, at the time you're doing it, you feel a little
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
embarrassed, um, because it's so modest, but, um, you wish you could do better, you wanna, you're always comparing yourself to the group downtown that's got the bigger sponsor or whatever, but when you have people that come out week after week, and well, let's just say month after month, but show up, and they speak, and then when we added the slack down, they participated, and they still talk there. there are communities of people like us, who are software
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
developers who, listen, we might not even have been the best, you know, there might have been somebody who was there only for the, for the check, who just was a natural wizard, and they'll never do it again, they don't care, that's fine, the world needs them too, for some reason, and, and I don't mean that sarcastically, I mean that there is a reason, I just might not know what it is, um, but, uh, there's always room for, um, a little bit of, you know,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
maybe pizza or something after, uh, a gaggle, and, uh, you know, two people coming together to talk about tech is the first step in tech community, there was meetings that I had here, where it was me and one other person, and I still gave a presentation, because that was the game, you know, and, uh, from this, I, I, I only lasted two years running it, and I had a lot of things going on, and I couldn't, couldn't keep it up, again, wish I had handled it better,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
but I am very grateful that, that the people that I connected with valued their connections, and they, and they, they, they stayed connected. And again, that, you know, I'm not trying to get metaph ysical or metaphorical here, but, uh, that's, uh, that's something, you know, there's an identity to software , being a software developer, being a software engineer, and, um, it brings us together to talk about the same stuff , and
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
do it for almost two decades. And it is independent of me, so it's not me imagining it, it isn't me just manifesting everything, and just, oh, it's just what I, I'm imagining. No, these people really are doing it. It's real. And it's self-sustaining. And they, they continue on through job changes. You know, I've seen people like myself over the years, they 're still
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
tapped in, I was, you know, watching from the outside, because, you know, things are complicated, but, um, that's life. And that's, uh, it's a lesson, but, um, and when DHH says, you know, just somebody, that's, your skills don't matter. I'm not even mad at DHH.
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I have, I've said this to a few people, he's, he's, uh, he knows how to get people talking. Um, and, uh, it is the, um, infinity gauntlet wearing gorilla in the room, um, that we've all been getting body blow after body blow, facing other legitimate cause that AI is the reason that we 're, um, have seen so many layoffs in the industry and why people are using platforms and, and decrying the death of software
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
engineering now. I don't know. But, um, there is something to this. Otherwise there wouldn't be a reason that we have to say it 's dead. So let's understand what that is. And I'm not the greatest software engineer in the world. I'm just simply somebody who's gotten to see a certain
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
pattern and responded to a few certain circumstances and calls to action myself, which all started really from a tweet and booking the downstairs room, Crystal Lake Public Library, and saying, Hey, who wants to come talk about nerd stuff? So, over the course of these videos,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I'm going to be watching with you, hopefully. I don't want to only look at those videos as being the, um, the all end all of everything that's, um, I'm calling the series The Sound Above. It's a pretentious sounding title. And I embrace that. Um, the reason being is, uh,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
you know what, I'm going to save that for a follow up video. All right. Thanks. Bye. We'll see you next time.