Ruby without Borders

Monday, January 26, 2009 — Matthew Todd

If you’re (a) reading this and (b) not my mom, chances are good you write software for a living, and that you may have seen the short talk I gave last September inviting you over here to work for a few weeks. (video, slides)

We’ve got an awesome gig ahead, and if you’ve found this idea intriguing, now would be a great time to be thinking about joining us.

The Gig

All nepotism aside, Amani Children’s Home is in a fascinating place in its development now, shaking off the crises of early growth and really starting to come into its own.

All of their records, however, are still on paper.

You can see where this is going.

But can we discover the right system to build? These dozen teachers and social workers are largely computer un-saavy. Can we build their confidence and actually make their lives easier?

Clearly, we’ll be taking an XP/Getting Real approach, working on site and looking to deliver value as often as possible. And, thanks to Valerie’s good work, there’s already something of a culture of organizational learning at Amani that should be quite amenable to an agile process.

The Team

Joe Ventura, Amani’s Communications Coordinator and The Customer. Joe’s my good friend, and this will be our third project together. He gets it.
Japhary Salum, Amani’s Social Work Coordinator. Japhary’s keen to see his staff get a good tool in their hands, and he’ll be a joy to work with–not to mention he’s scary brilliant, like Austin.
Joachim Mangilima, Software Developer. Joachim and I have been pair programming together for the past year. He’s an avid learner and is growing well as a developer. It would be awesome for him to get some outside influence other than me!

… and You?

It would be absolutely fantastic if you could come sit in with us for a few weeks–whether you tend toward development, design, or system administration, you’ll certainly have a lot to offer. (Though you’ll want to have done some work with Rails first.)

We’ll start around the end of April, with the project continuing through the summer. That means that Real Soon Now is the perfect time to price plane tickets, renew your passport, and see to it that all your shots are up-to-date.

Sound fun? Drop me a line.