AJAX/Andy/Matt meeting review

November 17, 2005 / Filed under: Events, Miscellaneous, People, Web Development

The AJAX meeting was last night, and it was pretty decent. The presenters (who are also now authors of an AJAX book) didn’t try to over-sell their book too much - and they basically stuck to the topic, and the concerns developers face.

They used a PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation, and I was a bit concerned about that. As Andy mentioned later, the big thing about AJAX is that it’s something to see - meaning they should have had a projector, with someone actually testing out an AJAX application, so that people can actually see what it can do.

Instead, they just had screen shots of Google Maps, Google Suggest, Digg, Netflix, and many others. Screen shots just don’t do it for me, in this case. I would have liked to see it happening, live.

But, overall, it was still very interesting and informative.

The presenters are Java developers, which is a slightly different angle from my experience - but still useful. The wife of one of the presenters was filming the presentation, so I’m sure they will post a video on the internet - at the very least the PowerPoint presentation file.

It was also very good to meet Andy, and his friend/co-worker Matt (not me - another Matt), and it was obviously nice to escape the frigid outdoor air of Minnesota, for a couple of hours. The three of us also went out to Applebees afterward, for some food and drinks - which gave us a chance to talk about all this crazy AJAX stuff, and how it would fit into our own work.

If I had more time, I’d probably join them for a small excursion into the heart of Minneapolis - and possibly to the Mall of America to see the giant Apple store - but I don’t have the time. With work all day - the evenings are real quick, and dark, and cold - and I’d rather not be out.

But who knows - I could easily be back up here in the near future, for my company. Since my co-worker/manager works up here, I’m sure there will be plenty more trips in the future.

Comments/Mentions