New England Regional Developers - Strategy

Hack for Western Mass and NERD Summit Team up for 2016

kelly — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:58:27 +0000

Due to a large overlap in our communities and in our funding sources, H4WM and NERD are joining forces for the new year. We are looking for 4-8 people to join the central organizing team which coordinates the event held in May or June each year. This is a fantastic way to develop your leadership skills with an experienced team, to learn more about tech needs and resources in the Valley, and to give back to your community. Your commitment level can be as large or as small as you want it to be. Come to find out more!

Experience level:

Beginner

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 13 2015 - 1:00pm-Sep 13 2015 - 3:50pm

Room:

168

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Fundamentals

Strategy

Code for Change

Reflections and Follow-Ups 2015 Hack for Western Mass

kelly — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:54:47 +0000

Learn more about this annual, local event that connects civic-minded tech professionals with nonprofits in need of elegant web and mobile solutions. How does Hack for Western Mass work? Who is involved? Who did we help? And what is the plan for next year. Learn the answers to all this, and how you can get involved.

Experience level:

Beginner

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 13 2015 - 10:00am-Sep 13 2015 - 11:50am

Room:

168

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Fundamentals

Strategy

Code for Change

Basics of a Lean Launch: The Successful Start-Up

Rick Feldman — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 17:54:30 +0000

If you, or you and some colleagues, are considering starting your own business, here are the basics of the "lean launch" method. Lean start-ups, agile start-up, lean continuous improvement, design thinking ---- these are the methods that have propelled Silicon Valley, Cambridge (Mass.) innovation, and our own Pioneer Valley successful explosion of new, innovative companies. This session will introduce the basic concepts and tools,and introduce you to the new world of venture creation and development.

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 10:00am-Sep 12 2015 - 10:50am

Room:

162

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Development

Project Management

Speaker Bio(s):

Rick Feldman and Rick Plaut have been providing lean launch courses, workshops, mentoring and coaching for several years. Both are mentors and facilitators with Valley Venture Mentors, and both are members of INCOMMN, a regional enterprise and community development network and consultant organization. Rick Plaut has had a successful career in marketing and strategic development; Rick Feldman has been active in economic development, venture development, and entrepreneurship. He started and sold two technology businesses, and is working on starting a third.

Online Marketing Manager at Big Voodoo Interactive

jade@bigvoodoo.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:40:36 +0000

Position Title:

Online Marketing Manager

Has experience in:

Fundamentals

Strategy

Full/Part Time:

Full Time

Part Time

Telecommute Allowed:

Job Description:

See attached file for complete information.

Attachments:

Online Marketing Manager Job Summary 082015.docx

User Experience Designer at Common Media

gabe@commonmedia.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 03:23:40 +0000

Position Title:

User Experience Designer

Has experience in:

Strategy

Design

Full/Part Time:

Full Time

Part Time

Telecommute Allowed:

Job Description:

We’re hiring again! Common Media is looking for an outstanding User Experience Designer to join our team in Hadley, MA. We’re a web design, development and consulting shop with a healthy mix of new and ongoing projects. We’re looking for an experienced UX professional who is passionate about designing beautiful, intuitive and functional websites. The right candidate will have a well-developed process and will be to facilitate collaboration between clients and developers. This candidate will also be able to lead coworkers in making decisions based on their knowledge of usability benchmarks.

We hire craftspeople who care about keeping their tools sharp: we look for co-workers who are smart, get things done, and care about doing things right. We appreciate a wide breadth of experience, but the final requirements for this particular opening are a passion for usability, design and the drive to keep up with the latest tools, processes and techniques.

Primary responsibilities will include:

Project planning, requirements gathering, wireframing and UX design for new client projects
Conducting usability evaluations and moderating user testing studies for new and existing clients

Valued skills and attributes:

A healthy respect for and knowledge of usability and accessibility standards
Ability to consider edge cases and lead clients through the initial website phases
Ability (and eagerness) to learn new skills on the job
Attention to detail and production schedules
Ability to contribute positively in a team environment
Ability to maintain a busy work schedule in a collaborative work environment

Compensation commensurate with experience: we value expertise and efficiency, and our pay scale is very competitive. Benefits include health insurance and 401k. Please submit a resumé, cover letter, and salary requirements (if any) to jobs@commonmedia.com.

We would prefer to hire full-time and on-site in Hadley MA; but could make an exception for an exceptional candidate.

Position to start on or before September 15, 2015.

Pay range:

Compensation commensurate with experience

Using Celery Task Queue in a Content Processing Build Cycle

JeffreyPeck — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 00:59:26 +0000

If you process content regularly, you might deal with capturing data from multiple sources, performing some processing, and then outputting to multiple targets. (For example, you might have a search index and a MySQL database that need to be updated simultaneously every week based on new content from a client.) You also might need error tracking and reporting. Wouldn't it be nice if you could build a system where you could automate all of this? Wouldn't it be nice if you could trigger your entire build cycle with a single command that will, in turn trigger all of the many intricate parts to work in unison?

I will demonstrate you how to use Celery task queues and task chaining to create an efficient approach to a build cycle that outputs processed data to multiple sources.

I will speak at the level of beginners to Celery, however some familiarity with Python would be good. Even if you feel that you are not familiar with Python, I hope to spark the interest of anybody who is involved in content processing, and to impart this effective approach which can be applied in many ways.

Experience level:

Intermediate

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 11 2015 - 11:00am-Sep 11 2015 - 11:50am

Room:

177

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Development

DevOps

BOF - Why Drupal can save the Environmental Movement

Elyssa Marie — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 03:14:44 +0000

Can it? Humanity is certainly at a crossroads. There is something universal about Open Source communities that unleashes human creativity, that drives people to late nights tearing down the barriers to their dreams and creating powerful change. What are the visions that Open Source people want for the world, and how does the Drupal framework bring that vision to reality?

20-min Presentation - Power + Parallels among Open Source Communities

The Pioneer Valley is teeming with groups that value free exchange of information, versatility + adaptability, and coming together for the common good. It is no coincidence that you find overlap among the people in Open Source communities. This presentation outlines the parallels in the norms, values and practices of the Drupal community and two other local regenerative culture movements: Permaculture and Non-violent Communication.

25-min Discussion + Think Tank

What would happen if a web platform for collaboration, free discussion and collective enterprise were created with Open Source values at its core? It is amazing that Drupal Core has over 30,000 contributors. How is collaboration possible among this many people? The northeast permaculture community has over 10,000 people. Imagine if they could collaborate to an equal degree, and if they could network and collaborate among movements with similar core values. The sky would be the limit, and the movement would be firmly rooted in the ground.
Thank We.

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 4:00pm-Sep 12 2015 - 4:50pm

Room:

Concourse

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Speaker Bio(s):

Elyssa Serrilli is a community organizer in the environmental, education and non-profit sectors. As a budding web developer, she is keenly aware of how impactful web technology upgrades are for local and regional movements. Elyssa is also a kick ass wilderness guide - hit her up if you'd like to know more hidden gems to explore in the Pioneer Valley.

Business Panel (3rd Annual)

noahwsmith — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 00:24:21 +0000

Local development agency and technology company leaders engage in a panel discussion centered on topics of solving business problems, as opposed to technical or project management issues.

Experience level:

Advanced

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 11:00am-Sep 12 2015 - 11:50am

Room:

163

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Speaker Bio(s):

TBD

Agile Workshop

seddings — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 21:02:59 +0000

Managing waterfall projects is about protecting the notorious iron triangle: scope, budget and timeline. However, it is inherently rigid and leaves little to no room for innovation or new ideas. Large modern web projects have failed and potential long term relationships turned contentious due to the rigidity of waterfall. Poorly written requirements lead to new or changing requirements which leads to scope creep which leads to change orders, project delays and decreased project satisfaction. New ideas aren't allowed, including the good ones.

But sometimes the path forward isn’t completely clear, but the goals, vision and priorities are. Enter agile. It’s a way of thinking that prioritizes responding to reality over following a strict plan to deliver maximum value. Agility is a great fit for all projects, especially where the path is unclear but the goals and priorities are. It allows teams with varying areas of expertise to work together for the benefit of the project to chart the path forward, adjusting tasks along the way to allow new discoveries along the way to be implemented.

Agile is timeline and budget sensitive, and is an exercise thinking about how to solve complex problems. Guided by the project’s goals and priorities, it’s flexible to allow for shifting requirements and new ideas. Agile is flexible, collaborative and iterative in nature. It focuses on project goals and priorities, and allows space for innovation.

Agile, however, can require a significant paradigm shift for some people. Agile is about figuring out what we're doing based on today's realities (being agile) instead of wanting to know what we're doing weeks from now (following a plan). If the preceding sentence wasn't evidence enough, Agile is abstract in its core concepts, which comes off as too risky and increases the likelihood that an organization will adopt a more traditional approach, such as waterfall.

In this session we’ll explore:
- introduction to agile
- how to identify a project that’s a good fit for agile
- agile frameworks (scrum, kanban)
- how to establish project priorities and goals
- how to make sure work gets done and progress made (avoid an infinite loop)

Experience level:

Beginner

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 11 2015 - 2:00pm-Sep 11 2015 - 2:50pm

Room:

177

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Project Management

Speaker Bio(s):

Sean is a Certified ScrumMaster.

Closing the Gap: Gap Analysis for Web Producers

knectar — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 18:31:53 +0000

Well before contract, we’re often faced with project inputs that are astonishingly vague. Even RFP’s that can go on for dozens of pages, often miss critical big picture details related to legacy systems, and outline comparably nebulous descriptions of new deliverables. As account, bizdev, and pm leads, if we’re crafty, and a bit lucky, we might successfully parse and interpret these documents to the point of defining a reasonably satisfactory scope of work.

Even then, with shiny contract in hand, and a kick-off date on the calendar, project starts can often engender a rather unsettling feeling! Even the most senior project stakeholders look around the room, wondering who will break the silence. How do we proceed? What are the pieces of the puzzle? How might we craft a design and development time-line that reliably captures the needs? How do we achieve our goals, and minimize risks of project failure?

“Gap analysis”, in its various forms can provide a critical conceptual organizing tool in navigating these early uncertainties on complex projects. In this talk, we discuss some case studies, big and small, and illustrate how gap analysis techniques can reduce what initially seem like intractable complexities into clean project plans. This is less about document and report generation, and more about a way of thinking about project challenges that leads to clarity.

Good times!

Experience level:

Intermediate

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 10:00am-Sep 12 2015 - 10:50am

Room:

163

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Project Management

Speaker Bio(s):

Chris is the founder and team leader for Knectar (www.knectar.com), a 15 person web development firm based in Western Massachusetts. He specializes in advanced web site architecture, team development, technical project management. Chris has managed dozens of complex web application productions, including content management systems, enterprise level e-commerce systems, and custom API (application programming interface) designs. Clients include Harvard Medical School, Jack Daniels, Temple, Buzztala.com, MIT, among other global brands, start-ups, and universities. Chris is also the lead product designer of Piston (www.pistonapp.com), a web-based capacity management application. Chris has two kids, likes strawberries with vanilla ice cream, and 'old man jazz'.