Open source is not just a means to obtaining free software, it also provides us an opportunity to shape and improve the tools we use. When buying a car one is not given a chance to help improve it based upon past experiences with other vehicles, but with open source software this is an option open to all - the real power comes from getting involved.

The rise of Bitcoin and [its underlying technology] cryptocurrency have moved out off the tech underground with the potential to transform the way we handle online commerce and information through transparent, decentralized systems. But how does it really work and what are its real-world applications?

Collaborating with Git is now an essential skill for developers in today's market. It's not enough to know how to push and pull commits. The real power of Git emerges when adhering to a successful workflow. At it's core, the key to using Git is making frequent commits and shaping them into clean and atomically meaningful units of work. In this session, well cover:

• Crafting useful commit messages
• Working with remote repositories
• Branching strategies
• Stashing temporary changes
• Rebasing branches to manage merge conflicts

The design is done, the site is built and launched. How do you make sure you keep that site running well? What steps do you need to do before you have problems? What are the tricks and tips on how to troubleshoot your site when you are having problems? We are two support engineers who help people fix their broken Drupal sites everyday.

Introduction to Drupal starting with the basics: content types, fields, taxonomy, views, themes, modules, etc. The session will walk though setting up a Drupal site on your local computer, and then put it up on a web host for the world to see. Emphasis will be on "this is easy", because it is. This session is not just for beginner developers but also for non-developers who just want to better understand Drupal and content management systems in general. A contact management website will be built to show how Drupal can be used to build much more than just a blog.

The web continues to mature, but is the education of the next generation of web professionals maturing accordingly? So many of us arrived at the web through a circuitous path. Is the path for those students clear? And how prepared are they beyond software aptitude and knowledge programming languages?

What makes a useful bug report or issue ticket? The session will outline some common categories of issues (email delivery, encountering problems on websites, reporting an issue in open source software) and what information is most helpful to the developers who will receive the report. Providing the right information will help you get your problem solved faster and may save you money.

Creating an open source project is an excellent way to hone one's skills, gain experience, and network with other passionate software developers. Beyond the first "I Wrote Some Code!" stage, there are additional steps you should take to have a successful open source project.

If you understand the context of a user's question, the answer comes easily. If you don't, support is nigh unto impossible.

Having a reliable and comprehensive local development environment has gotten easier and easier over the past few years, but setting one up can still be mysterious. This session will cover the main configurations to understand in a typical LAMP stack. Learn about the various kinds of environments (VirtualBox, EC2, WAMP, "do it yourself" environments), and criteria for selecting one over the other. Learn how to manipulate your hosts file, understand your log file, and the key tools to make working "locally" easier.