There are three tracks at RailsConf 2006 in Chicago, and all of them are about Rails! How do I choose between all these goodiepacked presentations, demos and discussions? Well, I’m a developer, so it’s in my nature to be analytical - I’ve categorized and prioritized all the talks completely subjective and with no other information than the one found at the RailsConf site. I did this using three principles:

  • Deployment is really hard, so I need get smarter in that area
  • I work in a Microsoft-world, so I want all the Rails vs. Java/.NET stuff
  • I want to experince some of the VIPs from the Rails community

I’ve categorized the talks into six categories:

Development and technologies: Code and technology centered talks
Deployment and performance: Luckily, there a lots of talks on deployment-related matters
Rails vs. “the big boys”: Talks that focus on moving from Java/.NET to Rails
Testing: Talks about testing
Real-world applications: Talks that take a starting point in real Rails applications build by the speakers
General wisdom and entertainment: The infamous “other” category.

I’ve then created this colored overview, and decided which talks I think I will attend (marked with bold):

  Grand North Grand Central Grand South
Friday
10:45 Introduction to Capistrano
Deploying Rails with Capistrano
 AC/DC, Stravinsky and Rails
Learn from the creative aesthetics of music - and listen to it!
 Tooling Rails
RadRails - why an IDE can be a good thing
13:15 Inside Instant Rails
Packaged Rails environment across platforms
 Meanwhile, In The Rest of the World…
How to communicate Web 2.0 to the average Joe
 Rails and Asterisk Get A Dental Office Talking
Rails for the medical market
14:30 My Identity on Rails
OpenID - an open source version of Microsoft Password
 Rails Application Optimization Techniques and Tools
How to test and optimize performance
 Monitoring Rails Applications in Production Environments
Surveillance of enterprise Rails applications
15:45 Rails Deployment on Shared Hosts
Deploying on a shared host with Geoffrey Grosenbach
 Overcoming Scaffolding Addiction
Beyond novice development with Amy Hoy
 Demos
(The legacy database talk unfortunately seems to have been cancelled)
Saturday
9:00 Ajax on Rails
Lastest and greatest in Ajax
 Internationalizing Rails
Discussion of Globalize and localization of Rails
 ThoughtWorks on Rails: Experience Reports
Convincing clients that Rails is good
10:15 Domain Specific Languages as Rails Plugins
Demonstration and discussion of DSLs
 Rails by the Waypoints: Integrating a GPS Unit and a Digital Camera in the Era of the Mashup
Combining a GPS and a blog
 Lessons from Blinksale and IconBuffet
Collaboration, RJS and REST
11:30 Metaprogramming Writertopia
Using metaprogramming with Authorization and Membership plugins
 Lucene Eye for the Ruby Guy
Indexing and searching using a Java server
 Putting the BBC’s Programme Catalogue on Rails
From green screen to Web 2.0 at BBC
13:30 Beam Me Up Scotty: Rails for the “Enterprise”
Moving from Java to Rails
 Using Rails on with Legacy Database Schemas with iBatis for Ruby
Using Rails with a legacy database
 Rails Deployment
Workshop setting up a complete Rails box
14:45 Testing Migrations
Ensuring that migrations are correct
 Accelerating Rails with lighty
Tuning and scaling of lighttpd
 Rails, Ajax and Universal Design
Usability and accessability with Ajax
16:15 Testing Rails Apps
All about testing
17:30 Homesteading: A Thriver’s Guide
Simularities between Rails and rail roads
Sunday
9:00 Beyond DHTML: Introducing Laszlo on Rails
Flash-based application framework
 Rails Acceptance Testing with Open Source Tools
Workshop with acceptance testing tools
 Agile Databases with Migrations
Best practice, gotchas and legacy in migrations
10:15 Rails Beyond Sites and Full-Form Applications
Rails web services and mobile applications
 Just the Facts (and Dimensions) — using Rails with your OLAP data model
Using Rails with datawarehouses
 Lightning Talks
Sign for a 5-10 min. slot and speak!
11:30 MetaRails
A look inside the core of Rails
 Rails Takes on the Enterprise with SOA
Tying Rails together with Java and .NET
 Using Ruby on Rails to Succeed in Selling Music in the 21st Century
Inside e-commerce and community sites
13:00 Deploying Rails Applications
Hard lessons learned about deploying Rails

The RailsConf schedule is like the one for Roskilde Festival (going there after the conference - anyone else?) - they always put the stuff you just don’t want to miss at the same time. In this case, I’d love to attend all the three talks Friday at 15.45, but since questions for Geoff’s talk is already popping up in my mind - and he has a cool voice - I have to go with his talk.

Looking forward to meet a lot of the cool and wise people that populates the Rails community at the conference!