What Does Node Need From Us

This is a presentation I gave at a local node.js meetup at Palm's headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA. The basic gist of the talk was that node is about enter a transition to mainstream adoption and we need to be ready for the changes ahead.

Transcript

1. WHAT DOES NODE NEED FROM US? By Tim Caswell Tuesday, September 14, 2010
2. WHAT NODE HAS DONE FOR US Given us a fast, lightweight, javascripty way to write network servers. Caused me massive sleep loss due to being too much fun. Been the common goal for a very dynamic community to form around. Created jobs! (few now, more to come soon) Taught us that we have no clue how to use it! Tuesday, September 14, 2010
3. GROWING COMMUNITY 2,303 people subscribed to the mailing list. 13,952 messages posted to the list. 350 members in the IRC channel #node.js 3,012 github.com followers for ry/node. (308 forks) Estimated about 1,000 node related frameworks/libraries. At least 40 companies using node internally. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
4. GITHUB.COM/RY/NODE Tuesday, September 14, 2010
5. HOWTONODE.ORG 116,118 visits came from 6,323 cities Tuesday, September 14, 2010
6. WHAT DOES NODE NOT NEED FROM US? YACDBCA (Yet Another CouchDB Client Abstraction) YATFA (Yet Another Test Framework Abstraction) YASOCFD (Yet Another Semicolon Or Comma First Debate) More hype calling node the “Rails Killer”, the “Java Killer”, the “Apache/nginx Killer”. Node doesn’t kill anything. Unprofessional and unkind attitudes within the community. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
7. ENOUGH ALREADY, WHAT DO WE NEED? Helpful and knowledgeable volunteers to field questions to the growing number of newcomers to the community. Solid, well-written and thought-out libraries for things we don’t already have. A better understanding of JavaScript and operating systems in general. (This is key) Synergy between the front-end JavaScript community and the backend-end development communities. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
8. BE NICE! A sense of humor is good, but be careful through online mediums where meanings can be easily misunderstood. Trolling for the sake of trolling is not ok! The community is too large and diverse for that kind of activity. If you see someone needing help and you have the time and ability to help, please do. The more pleasant we make the community, the more talent we will attract. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
9. TROLLING Don’t do it! Tuesday, September 14, 2010
10. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY Diversity and competition among libraries is good, we’re still learning and growing. But too many half baked projects all presented in equal standing with high quality ones makes it impossible for newcomers to know what there is available. And thus more half-baked libraries emerge. We need a way to better organize, rate, and discover modules. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
11. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
12. LEARN IT! REALLY! This is a new world. Learn what’s different and learn it well. There is a huge need, both in front-end and back-end JavaScript, for people who truly understand it. Become an expert in something that matters and contribute. Don’t just port what you’re used to from your old environment to the new environment. Things are different here. Tuesday, September 14, 2010
13. LEARN The ways of the master Tuesday, September 14, 2010
14. SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE Write blogs articles about what you learn. (howtonode.org) Organize competitions to challenge the mind (js1k.com) Hold conferences and meetups devoted to sharing what you know. (jsconf, nodeconf, local meetups) Tweet about fun things you find (wtfjs.org) Tuesday, September 14, 2010
15. SHARE The Fire Tuesday, September 14, 2010
16. PHOTOS USED http://www.flickr.com/photos/furiousgeorge81/177926979/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/filicudi/272591878/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/joost-ijmuiden/4485190116/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/1780733762/ Tuesday, September 14, 2010