Dave Thomas, Martin Fowler, Paul Graham Keynotes; All in One Day

Day one of RailsConf served up fantastic keynotes from Dave Thomas, Martin Fowler and Paul Graham; all in one day!

Dave talked about how huge Rails already has become and then he challenged the community to make three improvements to Rails. Martin talked about what makes Rails, Ruby and agile development so great (while admitting that he’s never personally used Rails). The last half hour was especially good. I didn’t take any notes so I hope a transcript is published so that I can remember the details about what I liked so much. I do remember him wrapping up with saying that more than technology and tools, the most important thing in a community is the people. He said that in the Ruby community, the PEOPLE are top notch. Paul talked about the huge advantage of being marginal. As always, Paul was funny, controversial and inspiring. Overall day one was fantastic. I personally have never been to a conference with that many homerun hitters slamming ‘em home in one day. Besides those three guys, the place was seething with all of the big players in the Ruby and Rails community and it was really great to be in the presence of so many smart and friendly folks!