It is official: the III Drools Boot Camp will happen on October 25th and 26th, just before the October Rules Fest 2009 in Dallas, Texas. And it is completely free for anyone attending to the October Rules Fest event!
Those that never joined us in a boot camp before might be wondering what is a boot camp, or what we do during those hours there together. For them, we’ve put together the quick FAQ bellow. For those that joined us before, I am sure no explanations are required.
Is the Drools Boot Camp some kind of intensive training?
Although some might thing so, it is definitively not.
the Drools Boot Camp goal is to make the product better for the users.
Yes, we mean you.
What activities do we promote during a boot camp?
- Use case discussion and mentoring: bring your use case (not a hello world example) and we will discuss it and try to give you new ideas on how to approach the problem.
- Roadmap discussion: bring your requirements (and also your use cases). We will use that to understand how Drools is used and to prioritize the Drools roadmap.
- Feature implementations: bring your feature request and we will coach you on how to develop that feature in the Drools codebase. It is an open source project, after all.
- Bug fixing: bring your bug report and we will coach you on how to fix the problem or fix it ourselves “on-the-fly”.
- Special sessions: we will have some special, more formal, presentations on Drools topics of interest. Check the agenda.
I am a [noob/average/expert] user. Can I join you?
Yes, everyone is welcome as long as you understand the constructive spirit of the event. We are there to share experience and grow together in the best open source spirit. Get your hands dirty or not, share your own experience or help with others cases, pick a subject that interests you or discuss a topic brought by a fellow user, but do it with a constructive attitude.
What will be the formal presentations that will happen during the Boot Camp?
So far, we have 2 sessions scheduled. As we approach the date, feel free to suggest other presentations you would like to see or even better, propose your own presentation. We will consider the suggestions and will add them to the agenda as we approach the event date. Current sessions are:
Drools 5.0 State of the Union: Sunday, October 25th, 11:00 to 12:00
- The new features in Drools 5.0 will be covered at an end user level. This includes all the drools projects, Guvnor, Flow, Fusion and Expert. This is suitable for anyone with minimal previous Drools experience who just want to know “what’s new”.
Drools 5.0 Advanced Engine : Sunday, October 25th, 15:00 to 16:00
- This will be a deep dive for the technical on Rete enhancements. We will cover the asymmetrical Rete implementation, as compared to the traditional symmetrical approach, and how we enhanced it for event processing and workflow. This is targetted at experienced people, who already have an understanding of Rete and wish to understand the latest research and innovations – not for the faint-hearted.
Happy Drooling!
