For the past four months I have been working at Raincity Studios as a co-op student and thought it might be nice to try and sum up my experience. So what did I learn? Well, a couple things struck me in the first week that I still find impressive.

The importance of including community in your projects isn't normally covered in class and so far my schooling has had a focus on siloed programming and development. Raincity really stressed community involvement and some of my tasks in the first week were drafting a blog post, introducing myself to relevant Drupal groups, digging into the code, and filing issues for small improvements, with the overall goal of letting others know what we would be working on. Building momentum on your work is a great way to keep yourself going and often people are even willing to help out. Being able to build on an existing project like the SMS Framework module by Development Seed really helped get our work off the ground and now that I see my code and ideas being picked apart by other community members, it's nice to know that others can continue to improve on our contributions.

Geekfests!

Summer's winding down which means less camping camping, and more indoor camping, on the agenda.

Next up to add to your geek fest calendar are two free-form, inter-disciplinary meetups in Vancouver:

MobileCampVancouver2 at WorkSpace on Saturday, Sept.6th.

BarCampVancouver2008 at locations Granville Island on Saturday/Sunday, Sept. 27th-28th.

Both are participatory events with presentations selected by vox populi at the beginning of the session. Check out the the Rules of Bar Camp to learn what to expect.

MobileCamp Vancouver 2

Alas, MCV2 runs concurrently with Drupal Camp Victoria but there are enough enthusiasts around to make both events a success. MCV2 is sponsored by Mobile Muse - an applied research and developmet project funded by the Canadian government to conduct projects in the emerging mobile space.

Blurb:

MobileCampVancouver is bringing together iPhone junkies, Crackberry addicts, couch surfers, coffee shop hackers, vagabonds and mobile nomads to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of mobility.

Bryght Re-visited

Bryght, the pioneering Drupal hosting platform is tuned-up and ready for your web community building.

Quick-starting and infinitely extendable, Bryght's refined packages are designed specifically for content publishers - from heavily-trafficked enterprises, through to emerging organizations, and individuals seeking their own Gutenberg press for personal expression.

Now available in Free, Cheap, or Fancy

Defining the Drupal hosting space since 2004, Raincity Studios continues Bryght's tradition of setting the standard for open source web community publishing. Since the Raincity Studios acquisition of Bryght in Nov. 2007, we've carefully observed what Bryght customers produce on the platform, and explored many Drupal sites in the wild. Armed with this knowledge, we've honed the Bryght packages to fit your specific expectations. As such, you are sure to find a fit for your current needs, as well as a sensible upgrade path for continued happiness.

Yesterday evening over a bowl of absolutely delicious Itik Tim and noodles, Peter and I discussed human psychology with a friend, and what would happen to society in the case of catastrophic disaster.

I have started to stock up a grab bag of survival essentials obtained from nearby Army and Navy's camping section, including iodine tablets, and a sealed tin of 37 various items, including string, matches, compass, etc.