ScotlandJS 2016
Thursday June 2nd 2016 was a very sunny day, I had definitely overpacked and overdressed. It must’ve been 20˚C+ and I was in … Edinburgh. I had flown in from London the day before.
What for? To attend ScotlandJS, courtesy of codebar and ScotlandJS.
I do use JavaScript a lot by day, even though I secretly expand my love and knowledge of Ruby by night. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but with a touch of bravado and fake nonchalance, I walked to Dynamic Earth, the venue hosting the 2-day event.
From an architectural point of view, it was an impressive venue. I followed the trail of people gently walking up to the entrance, feeling more and more like my first day at school.
All of a sudden, feeling uncool because I was not only on my own, but also ridiculously warm from my jumper. As I enter, the first thing that catches my eye is the code of conduct on a big banner stand:
My anxiety receded. No bully in sight. Smiles everywhere, I felt better already. One of the volunteers welcomed me and handed me a name tag/schedule leaflet all packed into one — clever and efficient. All held together by a yellow lanyard for picture consent — why didn’t I pick the purple?
I walked in, lured by coffee and viennoiseries. I still don’t understand how but I introduced myself to another girl who happened to live and work in Edinburgh, also on her own for the 2 days. So if only for that, thanks to ScotlandJS because her company was awesome and that was just the start.
Coding is ultimately about people, welcome/include everyone.
Then it started — Liv Erickson, from Microsoft, tackled WebVR, the why and the how. It was 9 AM and I was barely awake, yet leaning in, instantly captivated. So much so that by the end of the talk I felt like leaving to go play with A-frame, a framework for creating virtual reality web experiences.
I was wondering how the following speaker would manage to keep my attention levels even half that high. Jem Young from Netflix talking about service workers did the trick.
Then Charlotte Spencer did an amazing job at highlighting how and why Open Source needs to be inclusive. Starting with paying attention to the language used. Language *is* important. As a non-native speaker (among other quirks), this is spot-on. Charlotte also discussed the importance of naps, which ended up being one of the main themes of the conference.
Take a breath and a nap and be the best you can be. Don’t compete with others, compete with older versions of you.
I even found myself interested by MIDI when discussed by Ruth John, as passionate and convincing as Kim Crayton on Overcoming the Challenges of Mentoring. After every 3 talks, we were invited to a break upstairs called ‘discussion tracks’ to address any further questions we had on a given topic. I realised how dedicated and nice these speakers must be. Being (even gently) quizzed by peers is very intense and quite a commitment. Kudos to them.
The afternoon was then followed by Matthew Podwysocki on Reactive programming and Dan Jenkins on Getting Physical with Web Bluetooth, both sure know how to use props. Berlin-based Ola Gasidlo gave a very good insight into the offline web and some of its challenges. Chad ponders on when it’s okay to ask about gender and if so, how to do it correctly. I had thought about what to put in the dreaded drop-down but had never actually questioned the validity of the question altogether. James Halliday (substack) hops on stage with a hat, which I wrongfully thought was a tribute to Jayne from Serenity. He discussed a fairer world by describing his P2P work Off The rid. If I have to be honest, I would quit my job and go for strappy sandals and a funky hat if I had a project and an experience comparable to his. I am impressed and inspired. Not every part of this planet faces the same technological challenges.
Robin Mehner on Surviving Javascript made me laugh a lot. I loved his approach to coding and his appeal for more humility and inclusion in the community. He also addressed the adopt/know-it-all race. I did share more with Robin on the topic at the after-party on Friday, he also almost convinced to move to Berlin. I mean it’s a cool city, so it wouldn’t take much convincing.
The day finished with Ruth John and Tim Pietrusky treating all of us to a ‘nerd disco’ at the end of Day 1. By that point, it got surreal to be here, having fun with tech and like-minded people.
My brain then got really fuzzy about chronology. I continued to see friendly faces and hear interesting voices talking about HTTP/2, how cognitive biases affect our work as developers, mining your own data (including some guessing games which I resisted to participate in during the HTTP/2 discussion track — that was…hard). Other topics include accessibility, Electron, how TV screens are mobile screens you can’t touch at a 10ft distance, cellular automata and fear.
I got fully, entirely and completely starstruck by C J Silverio from NPM talking about ‘Monitoring on a budget’ — my awesomeness sensors were off the charts and I felt like a very small dev in a very big uber cool pond.
Numbats, wombats and Jedis rock.
The team at ScotlandJS were funny, caring and extremely organised. Whilst the talks were inspiring and content-rich.
My personal take-aways:
Coding is ultimately about people, welcome/include everyone.
Take a breath and a nap and be the best you can be. Don’t compete with others, compete with older versions of you.
Numbats, wombats and Jedis rock.
If I have not yet convinced you to buy your tickets for next year, I know I will and I truly hope to see you there.
Written by Natacha Ségala
