a2div meeting #1: SproutCore with Majd Taby

Sep 14, 2009 13:30 · 382 words · 2 minute read

A few days back, I announced the creation of the a2

group: devoted to learning new tools and techniques for building the best webapps. Meetings will be on the 4th Thursday of each month, so the first meeting is on September 24th at 7PM at the SRT Solutions office in downtown Ann Arbor. Meetings are free, so join us (please let us know that you’re coming using the form below — reason for that in a minute).

The general meeting flow that we’re going to start off with is:

  1. A presentation/demo of something awesome (for about an hour with questions interspersed plus maybe a few extra minutes for questions afterward)
  2. 5 minute lightning talks (proposed beforehand using the form below)
  3. General discussion (either collectively or in groups. Individuals having discussions with themselves is not encouraged.)

This is a rough outline, and I expect a lot of flexing based on the topics du jour.

I’m asking for RSVPs because I’d like to encourage folks to give lightning talks and the form gives a space devoted to that. Lightning talks, for those unfamiliar with the term, are simply 5 minute or shorter talks to introduce people to a topic or to give a quick demo of something new and useful. They can also be a good way to spur new discussion. RSVPs are also good to ensure that a really hot topic doesn’t overwhelm the space we have.

For the first meeting, the main event will be Majd Taby showing off SproutCore. SproutCore, for those who have never seen it, is an amazing open source JavaScript UI toolkit that is highly optimized for speed and reduction of the amount of code you need to write. It borrows liberally from concepts in Apple’s Cocoa framework, and Apple themselves use it for their MobileMe service. If you’re building a “website”, you probably want to use something else. If you’re building something that is an honest-to-goodness app, you owe it to yourself to check out SproutCore.

There aren’t any lightning talks lined up yet, so be sure to toss your name into the hat if you want to give one.  Also, there’s a form online if you want to give a talk at a2div and another if you have a topic you’d like to hear about.