Sorry for the somewhat late notice, I’ve been out of town and swamped at work. That said, I’ve got a meeting planned for this coming Saturday, August 18th. Why a meeting on a Saturday? Well, we’ve got a special guest coming up from Portland - Jay Shirley will be up to give a presentation on the Catalyst MVC framework. If you develop (or want to develop) websites in Perl and haven’t heard of Catalyst, it’s definitely worth checking out.

The details of the meeting are as follows:

Time: 5pm
Date: August 18
Place: Sophos Mezzanine (580 Granville Street)

If you have any questions at all, please let me know. I’m especially
interested in anybody who wants to do a talk, even if it’s a five
minute blurb as to what you do at work.

I’m thinking either July 18th or July 25th (both Wednesdays) - are these good for people? Does anyone have a preference?

Also, I am looking for people to present. I’ve got a few maybes so far, but if you have anything you’d like to present, let me know. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 5-minute blurb on something cool you’ve found or a half-hour in-depth talk on something you’ve been using for years - all content is appreciated!

So, comment here, or send a message to the mailing list (to which this is cross-posted), and we’ll try to work out a time and agenda for the next meeting.

Luke Closs began with an excerpt of his upcoming YAPC::NA talk, Hacktastic Wiki Tricks. Luke gave an overview of several of the tools that he’s written for accessing the Socialtext wiki software, all of which are made possible by using an innovative REST API. Be sure to check out Luke’s pages on Hacktastic Wiki Tricks, as well as his wikrad screencast.

Kirsten Jones was up next, briefly showing off how The Perl Foundation’s website will soon be powered by a wiki while maintaining its current styling. After this, she talked about OpenID, with examples of usage and a short discussion on how to implement OpenID in Perl.

Next was an impromptu (but much appreciated) talk by Ingy döt Net, discussing his well-used module YAML, his work on YAML2, and a discussion of various community efforts related to YAML, such as libyaml, YAML::Syck, and JSON::Syck.

After a brief intermission (with much socializing and pizza), we sat back down to listen to the final speaker, Bill Odom, president of The Perl Foundation (TPF). Bill started off with a bit of an overview of TPF, discussing its mission, grant system, and other interesting tidbits. Bill then opened up the floor to questions, and gave in-depth answers to queries about everything from TPF financials to Perl 6.

Thanks again to all of our presenters and attendees. I haven’t decided if meetings will be monthly or bi-monthly over the summer, but either way you can either check out this website or the mailing list for details.

I’d like to organize a meeting for Wednesday, May 9th, at the Sophos offices (580 Granville Street, downtown Vancouver). I’m thinking 7pm for a start time, and I’ll try to organize some sponsorship for pizza or some other edible. I’ve already got one or two ideas for presentations, but anyone who would like to present something, from a 5 minute lightning talk to a 30 minute in-depth talk, please let me know.

The current presentation roster is as follows (this will be updated as news becomes available). Email the Mailing List if you’d like to present!

Matthew O’Connor - REST::Application
Kirsten Jones - OpenID in Socialtext
Chris Dent, Matt Liggett, Matthew O’Connor, Kirsten Jones, Zac Bir - Amo

And finally, Bill Odom, president of The Perl Foundation, will be on hand to answer any questions about the state of the Perl community.

Of course, if anyone has any ideas for a short talk about anything perl related, we’ll likely have time for some other presentations.

ActiveState has offered to pick up the tab for some pizza, and Sophos will be providing drinks and other snacks. To get an idea as to how much food I should order, could you please either leave a comment or email me directly at “vancouverpm AT chrissimmons DOT ca” if you are attending. I hope to see you all there!

(Socialtext is a Palo Alto based Wiki company that employs a lot of
talented perl programmers, and they’re helping plan the hackathon as part of a week long company excursion in Vancouver.)

If you’d like to be a contributor to this site, send a message to the Mailing List and I’ll set you up with an account.