Bandung Ruby on Rails Workshop, 28 – 29 Juli 2008 ||= REVIEW AND BEHIND THE SCREEN

How this workshop could happen? It started from Indonesia Ruby Community Meet-up in Bandung, one ID Ruby guy got an initiative saying to me that he really wants to learn ruby and ruby on rails, he also wants to expand ruby especially in Bandung, but how… he said that he experienced with his previous efforts, he gathered many Indonesian human resources then trained them, but then he got less than the expected results.

At that time, I said, your story is pretty much reminding me of one student of MMU in Kuala Lumpur asking me when we met at KL Sentral, how to make more and more ruby meetup eventhough without Kamal (at that time he was in Seattle), that student said he really wanted to learn more about ruby but he’s also a newbie, I said, we, ruby communities in Indonesia, usually make events like meetup, gathering, etc, based on members’ initiative. So just make it happened.

That’s more or less of what I said, furthermore, there was a chicken coming late, but no worries, Indonesian people are so much forgiving as long as the one who did mistake said sorry (in Indonesian language, it means ampun, not only maaf, so it’s rather different than an English version of sorry if we analyse the culture, anyway), so then there were a collaboration to make this workshop event happened, the chicken said if we lack of people who can organise then we can elaborate with our Bandung Linux Community (or Klub Linux Bandung). And then good communication flew well… until this event would really happen.

I said, as long as I am physically still in Indonesia, I would help, eventhough I had to go back and forth Jakarta – Bandung almost once every two weeks at that time. Besides, I actually really want to be able to write articles about ruby, ruby on rails, merb, and any other ruby technologies in Indonesian Media as I actually got supports from them already, but I got the problem that if I’m busy with real projects then I just can’t touch the writing I’ve ever done… So I expect that from this workshop event, we could compile those training sessions to be many more and more writings, that hopefully will suit to articles in Indonesian magazines, and hopefully will finally be compiled to be books in Indonesia with the name of Ruby Community in Indonesia. I honestly don’t care of making money from publishing those writings and resources as what I care is more and more Indonesian people can grow much much better and can answer Industrial needs with international level, besides we’re from open source community, so, welcome to the copyleft culture.

I honestly said that’s my weakness, as I knew where my weakness is, and as I knew where my strength is, I want to expand my strength, I’m just getting real. And thankfully I got supports from many Indonesian people, for non Indonesian people, if you didn’t know that Indonesia consists of a bunch of islands and so many tribes, so not only one Indonesian type, you won’t be able to imagine, visualise, and draw my feeling that I got such a warm welcome in any regions and islands in this country. I only came from a plain ID Ruby member, who actually only wanted to learn, learn, learn, more and more, I didn’t know nor expect that the progress would be this far around 4 years ago. It must be because of all supports from all those nice and friendly Indonesian people.

I won’t mention sponsors and other officials right now, as I still got something else to do, like preparing check and recheck that we’ll do at INTI place, making sure that everything would be alright. As far as I remember, I put those sponsors’ name on our Indonesian Official Ruby Lang Site. I’ll probably only put pictures and documentations here on this blog linked from ID Ruby archives.

We would take many inputs for all of improvements. For example, an idea of having more and more people allowed eventhough we actually limit attendees to 25 – 30 only, was actually coming from BHTV event 2 days ago, I honestly said that I didn’t know and didn’t really follow of current Indonesian news and conditions, so ya, that’s why we’re striving to get more and more feedbacks and hopefully the next and next and next events would be much better lah.

The first guy’s initiative for this event named Widoyo once said this event was really like a surprising dream, having me coming to West Java. Well …. I do know of Indonesian culture, I took that as a complement, I just want to emphasise that we all learn together, I have nothing special, again because I do know of Indonesian hierarchic culture, I just don’t want to be “an Indonesian Charlatan”. I only share what I know so far, I would only honestly say things I can do, and things I can’t do. This is why I often emphasise to those so many Indonesian people that we’re all free to speak (we, Indonesian people, started to have free to speak cultures just in recent years, as people used to be jailed in silent, this is why I always support any Indonesian people who want to share knowledge, most people in Indonesia usually [note: not all] are more aggressive while stating opinions, as we’re not as mature as western like European or American friends that got free to speak culture for around 500 years), giving feedbacks, and correct anyone if the guy’s wrong, and no one should feel embarassed for being honest and open.

So, I’d like to thank you for all people who support ruby events in Indonesia. Glorious Ruby Indonesia!

Review:

There were supports from communities that we really appreciate because we’re late telling them that we got such an event, but they seems to be excited to fully support us, those communities are OpenSuse Indonesia, Ubuntu Indonesia, and also IGOSCenter.

Let’s see whether we got strong computers to run autotest directly to see those rspec and/or test unit passed.

Let’s see whether we really will have video documentation for this event.

Let’s see how many people will show up and come up with interactive discussion.

Let’s see that we can really manage to “conquer” (learn) this ruby and ruby on rails with very limited internet access in that place.

Let’s see if those attendees will really have something to bring back home and practice what they’ve learnt from this ruby on rails workshop.

There were actually some employers who are afraid of losing their employees after having trained from this workshop, I’d say that it’s a programmer choice to choose whether he still wants to join the company, those Indonesian employers should strive to be better and better, we live in Information Era, where it’s all open, we can’t hide the truth, people can open internet easily and trace the fact from going underground, no matter what. I personally would kill employers that are happy and full of laughter doing slavery in Indonesia no matter what their diplomacy. I have no doubt at all that a programmer would always want to be with a company that he loves and feels that it’s an honour to work in the gig.

Personal Thanks:

To all people that I learned things even only one letter, to all experiences that I took benefits of it even only at one pinky size, to all people who showed me ways not to get solutions, to all people who are good in strategy and shared with me of how to get solutions, you’re all my teachers. Thanks!

Update Saturday, July 26th, 08.

On Monday:

- Remember to check whether the markers are ready

- Remember to check whether the ubuntu linux server is ready

- Remember of my dvi vga converter

- Remember to put off my sandals before entering the class.

- Remember to bring along my comb and anti dust allergic medicine.

- Remember to have enough breakfast but with not that much javanese cabbage so that my stomach status would be ok.

- Remember to check the microphone works otherwise I will have to shout

- Remember to bring along a bottle of water just in case I will always be thirsty

- Remember to remind attendees to be dare to speak, interrupt if I’m too quick or too slow, but also help me get back to my previous concentration.

As far as I remember that’s all I guess -_- Wish us luck, ma!

UPDATE Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Tak nyanyi dulu: Halo halo bandung, ibu kota periangan… kota kenang-kenangan. suudah lama beta, tak berjumpa dengan kau, sekarang telah menjadi lautan api, mari bung rebut kembali. # [ oops, sorry it was full of glory song in Bahasa Indonesia actually, history said that our local Indonesian heros burned the city to kick colonial people from West Java Island. They used to get our "merdeka" or victory with most of "gerilya" or underground and always move around tactic in the jungle with limited weapons like sharp bamboos or magic (no way, I don't feel like saying it anywhere, course by typing it here I'm also saying it here, what I mean is I don't want people believe from what only people said, but they must see the magic themselves and analyse that magic skeptically) ]

Want to see Bandung Ruby on Rails Chicks? Here you go! (Oh no no no, please don’t associate them as same as our European nor American friends, they’re still pure asian, you know?! Let’s take an analogy that a Japanese girl is sensitive, oops.. so there was no hug and kiss as a respect or greeting, they’re even too ashamed to shake hands actually / but I have no idea of what their hearts said that they actually want that but just didn’t say/do it, you know-lah, you must come to Indonesia to understand why they act like so -_- # ie teh rek ngomong foto atau awewe bandung atuh? panas euy kepala… lieur… )

Urang nyanyi deui ah: Es ce’ ce’ ce’ ce’ duh cece’ …. # te nyaho rek ngomong naon. [yup, a bit broken Sundanese language -_- one of tribe languages in Indonesia]

Here’s a review from a mentor :

1. The front of class room is clean, but the back of class room is dirty. NEVER expect me to say dirty is clean -_- Look at the windows, look outside, it’s still dusty. There were also unused chairs at the back. There were also around 10 – 20 unused monitors and computers back there, why the hell are they there if they’re not used! Their cables didn’t even plug well! That made my eyes sick! those dirty dusty places, like not that clean table at the back made my allergy back again to sensitive skin :( Note, when I say dirty and dusty, yup, there’s just still dust there … sigh …. Indonesia…. NEVER expect many more tourists if we’re not that ready with maintaing our own goods man, NEVER expect international speaker from outside of Indonesia would come. We should be ashamed of a dirty class (even “only” at the back).
2. There was no ergonomic microphone for a mentor, so a mentor must always place it on the table so that a mentor must shout / yup, throat-ache. Or even if we actually got 2 microphones, but it often lost of battery power.
3. Server was not ready from the class room. There was a server actually, but it’s Windows. Windows? Uhm.. what the hell is Windows? No way lah ;-) We couldn’t replace the server to Linux. So Niwatori brought his Ubuntulinux laptop and set it to become a server. No, no, no, for that classroom people or head, just don’t feel bad about it, we all need to learn always. I mean learn using *nix/linux as our habit, yup, using *nix/linux in every day life, no microsoft windows.
4. Some attendees’ computers were not ready, they really wanted to try what we explained on the projector, but they even didn’t successfully run instant rails there. Again, we were forced to use windows as a default operating system because the class room got a windows operating system. Where is the place? Mau dipalakin? Ahh.. kayaknya dari awal emang perasaan saya nggak sebut tempatnya dimana deh di blog ini, jadi … # kaburrr
5. Projector worked nicely with my mac laptop (powerbook)
6. There was only a syllabus. No f*cking slides. Only practice, theory, practice, theory. No written tutorial step by step. F*ck Mentor. Oops. Luckily we got a smart chicken who helped building and compiling our workshop session to be written well on wiki / to be updated, will be announced if it’s ready and it’s uploaded well on the net to Ruby Indonesian mailing list
7. Coffee break was good! There were various delicious cakes, we could choose coffee or tea to drink.
8. Lunch was good! Well actually it’s a bit cold, but, I guess that’s because they prepared it earlier perhaps. It’s overall good lah! Nice supporters
9. There were around 3 people who actually subscribed and confirmed to the email that we spreaded out, but they didn’t come
10. There was a nice certificate for attendees. Note: because I conducted this event as a mentor, and there’s my name there, I want to emphasise to employers who got that certificate someday somehow from our former attendees, be sure to test them what we told them, just test them about MVC, where should we put codes when we code Ruby on Rails, what is mixin, why should model be fatter than controller, why should we test our ruby on rails application before we code it, how to integrate for example user that has many photos, how to do programming ruby on rails with rails edge, how to install plugins, how to install rubygems, how to create automations in ruby, yup, in short, just make sure you test them alright.. No no no, if you as an employer got a candidate that bring that certificate, never expect that they’ll be proudly show you how they can make things using scaffold, as we actually just showed it at the last day, we emphasise the fundamental and XP (eXtreme Programming) practice, so not always that lazy magic, unless they also know how to make that magic.
11. I got a nice present! Books! Ma, they’re sweet! What are the titles? Well, I don’t think I’ll be redundant repeating to entry 4 books here while I can just be up to date in Good Reads Social Networking Site! (Yup, make sure you’re also there Indonesian people! Kalau yang ikutan workshop, ikutan di satu komunitas seperti goodreads ini adalah satu dari sekian contoh praktek nyata adanya etalase atau praktek lebih membuka diri)
12. Frankly, I didn’t expect to be paid! Really! I swear! But … oh well .. I didn’t look at the quantity, but I really looked at the sweet thing from their heart to give such complement! Besides, actually I’m not yet at the level where I don’t like to be given money for sure eh. If people asked how we could make this event happened, well actually there was a guy told me that he really wants to expand ruby communities in Bandung – West Java – Indonesia, but how, then I just showed him the way, I said that if I’m physically still there then let’s just do it, I’ll do whatever I can help. So that’s it. Then they just invited me to go to their office, well apparently I just knew that their building is not small, man! :p
13. Overall my impression of those head people, well for example like RICE head, Klariti head, dan head head yang lain lah ya, was good! What I agreed and liked to their attitude is they have a will to coordinate their own employees and strive to exploit their employees’ potentials. Let me give you a picture of what I’ve seen from a good CEO or a good strategist outside of Indonesia, they even want their employees be happy, have fun while working, exploit their potentials, be much better eventhough their employees are not working for them anymore. So for friends from US, there are also some people that got those similar wills in Indonesia :-) and yes, Indonesia _is_ growing.
14. I saw signs that there would be many more projects for Ruby on Rails in Indonesia, for example, some people who got important positions in some companies asked me how they can get rubyists to have their projects done ;-) So I expect that more and more Indonesian people can answer those challenges, please don’t always refer to me, but think that I will refer to you (if you/current reader is also a Rubyist[candidate]) after I see/feel your potentials of course :-)
15. I felt bored at the day one, honestly, but if I saw those many stars from attendees’ eyes, I also saw the reasons why I should fit my speed to their speed. I just felt that at the day one, they thought that I was too fast and they couldn’t follow, so I did refreshing and review at day two, and make sure that everything was going well, like running more to check whether their computers were ready or not, making sure that they correctly set up their rspec well and ran it well along with their coding practice, etc.
16. I saw some sick attendees but they still came to the workshop, remember, I do know Indonesian culture ah. We musn’t just be angry if we see they sleep at the classroom. We must know reasons why they do that, most of Indonesian people economy is not from rich background, I’ve had an experience that one student didn’t attend school very well, well actually they are studying in a formal school, but they seems to be sleepy, but if we ask them why, they said that they must help their parents to make brick stones… if they don’t do that, then they wouldn’t be able to eat. No, don’t be sad yet, there was actually one bleeding-heart true story from Jakarta, that there was one poor old man, carrying around his garbage box, yup he’s a garbage man, but apparently after around one month, that box contained his son’s corpse, why did he do that? Because he doesn’t have enough money to have his son buried properly at the cemetery!
17. I was actually angry at the day one because I blamed local people who didn’t tell me very well about how long we would arrive using public transportation in this city, but seems they didn’t know that I didn’t really feel good about being late, yup I’m sometimes (Indonesian standard/or often for American standard) late, but I don’t like to be late. It’s not predictable if we use public transportation in this city. So at day two, I just came earlier and luckily I arrived at the classroom at ten to nine. So I was in time.
18. I can see a sign that we can compile an article from this workshop :-) so if we think of whose name that would appear there, well, simple, just mention that’s it’s written by Ruby Communities in Indonesia. So how would the money go and flow? Simple, just use that money to have other ruby meetup, workshop, seminars, events, hacking together, etc :-)) So we’re just having fun here :)) We got money like toys while having fun with these computer stuffs and hobbies.. Long live Open Source! Open Source will never die!

Ok k k k , let’s pause a sec, what’s more ruby event in Indonesia ? Well, it’s not a must that Arie must be physically in Indonesia then we can grow together and have fun! Let’s just make events based on each ID Ruby member’s initiative. You know what, I can see that there’s a sign that many more open source communities would be happy to make events together, for example, java communities admit that java language sucks and it’s dead, but JVM rocks! So hey just use ruby syntax running on JVM then! :)) Yeah ya ya ya… so we’ll just make JRuby on Rails yup still with familiar ruby stuffs, then just have one plugin, then just make/deploy it as a war file, simple. So that it’s going to be ready to have it run under java server. Oooooh yes, it’s dead easy doing deployment in J2EE using catalina, tom cat apache server, we just do copy paste to the directory to have it run, and the server would detect the app automatically (pretty much similar like autotest that automatically detects any changes happening in current rails project directory), then it’s just automatically setup, also if we want to remove it, just remove it :)) yup, rm blah, then if we refresh the server management system from the browser it’s just not there anymore, dead simple, ah?! Note: please don’t call me an expert, I don’t like that term, I’m always a newbie forever. Someone actually showed me how to do it. (If Indonesian people asked where? just Google it got dammit! RTFM!).

That was one simple example that could probably take one day workshop ;-) What else? It’s easy! Make Best Ruby Deployment Workshop! Provide a qualified mentor who’s strong also in *nix/linux administration and also networking! Hey, don’t say Indonesia doesn’t have it, it’s a shame to say Indonesia is hackers’ country to people outside Indonesia :p yeah we know that those crackers like hiding underground and difficult to approach, but hey hey ! remember difficult doesn’t mean impossible :)) So take it easy.

What else? Agile Software Developement and Algorithm. That’s an interesting topics as well :) Just emphasise that we can use any language to learn agile software development and algorithm. Make sure that we can grow much better and better and better… by making our fundamentals stronger. So there would be no spoon feeding people. How? Why? Who? Well .. a guy who ask/request how to create a search feature is a clear example for that, search for Pilkada (Regional Party Election) name is dead easy, we (Rubyist) can get it done not more than 2 minutes! We just directly think that model needs to have a class method named search(name=nil) which contains Model.all(:conditions => ["name LIKE ?", "%" + name + "%"]) then just make two lines in one action method inside a suitable controller, def search; @pilkadas = Pilkada.search(params[:name]); end; then just specify the rendering to index as the view is just the same man, so need to touch view lah. Then what? done? Don’t forget to fit the config/routes.rb ah, map.resources :pilkada, :collection => { :search => :get }. DONE! Well, for an experienced Ruby Developer it actually can take less than ONE minute!

Wait a minute! Was that one minute including rspec (Behaviour Driven Development/BDD)? well, nope, it would probably take 5 minutes doing timeboxing with rspec / from model and controller. But oh well, just give the ruby developer more money, more free foods, more ergonomics things like keyboard, mouse, chair that can do massage or just bring a real therapist who’s pretty for sure… I’m sure it wouldn’t take more than 4 minutes -_- It’s only a simple SQL SELECT * FROM pilkadas WHERE name LIKE ‘%name%’ being wrapped in Active Record style…. just type in browser http://localhost:3000/pilkadas/search?name=arie then voila, Partai Ruby Perjuangan, as what that unique chicken said while giving a demo of a real live ruby on rails project from what his company got in local city (in Indonesia / or a country of Bali Island). as simple as that.

What’s another idea? Well, still many many many :)) Merb! What else? Design Pattern (yes including Meta Programming here) ! What else? Why don’t we just do it instead of asking me over and over without doing anything and wasting my time ah???? Don’t have those fucking looooooooooooong Indonesian formal meeting with me! I hate that! and I mean it! Let’s just simply talk for 2 – 5 minutes to state the clear idea of what we’ll do then just do it! Let the event organisers have their works done. Let mentors get their syllabus and probably also slides and presentations and codes done. As simple as that -_- Sponsors? Place? I’m still thinking of having geeks meetup in a nice 6 stars hotel in Indonesia! How much is that? As far as I know there is even a 5 star hotel in West Java that only costs for around USD 20 per day :)) Why hotel? Said most of poor Indonesian people ( yup including me :p / hiding from Europe and other high-tech continents temporarily # kabooooorr ) let’s go having fun on top of the mountain! Can can! ;-)

Ok, now I’m beginning to get tired and sleepy right now is 11:17 PM (I’m currently at GMT+7). No worries for Indonesian people, eventhough I frankly hate Indonesian bureaucracy but I love Indonesian natural resources, too many things that aren’t developed yet, why? because most of Indonesian people don’t love their country! they don’t even care! they’re sleeping! How to wake them up? Simple! Fuck them! Steal their resources! Steal batik! Steal Indonesian songs! Invest more and sell more Indonesian stuffs, they will surely wake up and get angry :)) Why am I saying this?! Because I’m tired of many lazy Indonesian people…. So I’m still on earth, there was actually a ruby guy who offered me many reasons why we should live outside this earth planet, but I’m not that trained so I guess I’ll still be around on earth planet, no worries. ok time to go to bed. Have a great day! Selamat tidur yang nyenyak dan mimpi indah rengkuh secercah titik-titik cerah………….

To be updated along with the latest progress…