Our Visual Studio and .NET Framework 3.5 Open Space event in Gothenburg turned out quite different compared to our Malmo event on Monday (Visual Studio Open Space in Malmo - Feedback). I think the key difference was that we were a few more participants and so could form more than one discussion group. An Open Space is typically organized (not so much but still) around some main topic but discussions branch out in many smaller groups where people flow from one group to the next and topics vary over the course of the happening. We branched out to many different topics during the evening always in two groups. But the group compositions changed over time. It became more convenient for us to synchronize start and end times for the topics so that we could reconvene at intervals to select new topics of discussion.
(The other events: Visual Studio Open Space in Malmo, Visual Studio Open Space in Linköping)
I think the main feeling among the participants was the grateful recognition of fellow professionals "out there" that care as much about technology and being really good at what they do as themselves! Sometimes it does feel a little tiresome that anyone may call themselves consultants or system developers in our field with absolutely no discretion between a mastery in disparate fields of technology or even between very skilled and/or experienced practitioners committed to the field and those whom perhaps do not share the same enthusiasm for the work. One of the discussions in last nights event was on this exact topic. It started out as an ALT.NET discussion but diverted when the issue of company maturity and interest arose. OK say nHibernate would be GREAT for solving some of a company's problems. Say you as a dedicated developer have found this out. Your company might be large so decisions of this sort would have to come "from the top" or you might be a lone ranger in your department with the rest of the members disillusioned or worse. What then? How do you make a change when your surroundings are unable or unwilling to participate in your enthusiasm? Unfortunately there are many companies out there in this poor state. As a specialist consultant I've certainly had my share of challenges when coming into an organization. Typically each workplace has a core of a few very dedicated workers and at the same time have a larger group that just do not share the burning passion for the work! This is a major issue for many companies and last night I got confirmation that this situation is the same "everywhere". It is a sad state of program development. How do we, the enthusiasts, tackle this problem in order to begin make a change?
Our profession suffers from being very difficult for non-techies to understand while being totally unregulated. One quote from the evening: Why is it smarter to hire a less skilled consultant to do the work at 650 kronor an hour for a hundred hours than to hire a truly skilled professional at a 1 000 kronor an hour for ten hours?" This is, sadly, quite often the case. As if there couldn't possibly be a difference between a good surgeon and a bad one, between a good chef and a bad one, between a good techie and a... not so committed one? We need a sense of pride as a profession and a way to establish some standards for our industry! What kind of developer are you?
As a total the evening was very interesting and I felt that all of the participants agreed that this was time worth spent!
On a side note I was very glad to be recognized by name last night. I presented myself as Magnus and the guy replied:
- Not "Magnus Mårtensson"?
- Yes, why?
-I've heard your MSDN Summer Radio episode. Twice!
And then another guy also admitted to have heard my recording! How cool was that! Not only mom have listened in! Thanks you guys for making my evening!
I just added my file to my Skydrive. It's in Swedish but anyway... here it is:
MSDN Summer Radio with Magnus Mårtensson (in Swedish)
On Monday Dotway moves the show to Linköping and next Thursday to Stockholm! You can read about it here: dotway.se/events See you there!
The other events:
Cheers,
/Magnus
posted @ Friday, August 29, 2008 11:52 AM