[also posted on Elizabeth’s Blog]

Short version: it rocked!

See the photos.

Long version: 3+ days of collaboration, exchanging information, hiking, building campfires, and basically getting silly is now on my “highly recommended things to do before you die” list. Not only does a gathering like this provide you with an outlet to expand and share your knowledge on a professional level, it gives you an opportunity to relax with like-minded people and just plain have a good time. We had 12 total attendees, which made it nice to get together as a large group, but also allowed those who wanted to venture off in smaller groups to do so. There were ample opportunities to talk about technology and other subjects, and the conversations were always lively. I enjoyed the “take it as it goes” attitude we adopted, and I think it really fostered the development of professional relationships. The Wi-Fi and cell phone service was a little flaky, but I think we were all able to go with the flow, and we didn’t let it get in the way of our un-conference.

I really enjoyed Ben and Chris’s presentations on REST and regex, and they did a great job of making them easy to understand and professional. Thanks for all your hard work, guys! I also greatly enjoyed the informal discussions that came up. Some of the topics we discussed included

• trying to hire good developers & the Zend certification’s role in that
• managing client expectations through agile development
• how books introduce people to PHP and how beginners may learn pitfalls from the very beginning
• the Zend Framework and the front controllers
• simplepie.org’s RSS aggregator
• Ajax and accessibility issues
• JSON and JPSPAN
• why and how we all got into PHP
• the publishing industry
• s5
• astronomy and other related topics
• and numerous others

There were also others on our list that we didn’t get to talk about as a group, but perhaps we’ll continue those through our phpappalachia mailing list.

The weather was basically cooperative (except for the hailstorm we got caught in while hiking up to Clingman’s Dome on Day #2!) Thankfully Day #3 redeemed itself and we were able to make a return trip. We saw some amazing views although I was terrified to climb to the top of the observation tower, so I hung back near the bottom.

All in all I greatly enjoyed the mix of professional discussions with the informal attitude we adopted, and I am happy to have fostered some great PHP friendships. Heck, I even got to try some grits which I’d never had.

I think the photos really captured the spirit of the conference. I’m really looking forward to a bigger and better PHP Appalachia next year!

To me, it’s always very interesting to hear the pre-PHP stories of other PHP programmers — the days before they programmed in PHP, what they did and how they came to call themselves PHP programmers. The stories vary greatly from programmer to programmer, and almost none begin with: “I was working toward a degree in computer science ….” In fact, the more people I talk with, the more I’m convinced that the typical PHP programmer, in fact, sort of got to where they are by an odd arrangement of life circumstances we call coincidences. Almost none elected to be where they are, but nearly all enjoy the work they do, many to a great degree of passion.

Joined by Elizabeth Naramore, Chris Spruck, Randall Bollig, and James Logsdon, we discussed how we all have diverse backgrounds ranging from marine biology to organizational behavior to literature to business to early employment from job offers while in high school. I’ll let the reader decide to whom each background belongs. I think other programming communities do not have such diversity of backgrounds; I could be wrong. Yet, it seems to me that other communities have developers who started with the intention of gaining a Computer Science degree for the purpose of being a programmer. This does not seem to be the case (to me) with much of the PHP community.

Such were the conversations held in my Honda Pilot as we ascended into the Great Smoky Mountains with the intent to reach the summit of Clingman’s Dome. As I pulled into the parking lot near the summit, visibility dropped to near zero as clouds enveloped us. I opened the door to a great blast of icy wind, and though we weren’t exactly dressed for the occassion — we saw a family wearing scarves and toboggans — we proceeded to hike up the half mile trail to the summit. We couldn’t make out much of the way in front of us, so as it began to sprinkle a freezing rain, we made the decision to turn back, not knowing how far from the top we were. We determined this was a good thing, for, even as we were soaked in the rain walking back to the car, it began to hail and sleet with great force once we reached my Pilot.

Rain-soaked and cold, we proceeded down the mountain, nevertheless upbeat and, I think, happy to have shared the adventure with fellow and diverse PHPers.

How did you come to be a PHP programmer?

[Cross-posted on BenRamsey.com]

Ben Ramsey is, at this very moment, giving a presentation on REST, and you are missing it if you aren’t here.

If you are here, we seem to be getting the best internet access on the “Linksys” network. There are 5 access points above 60dB in the conference room. Randall is getting 0% packet loss to New York : 38.1/44.2/148.2ms.