Ruby On Rails


I started with Ruby On Rails in 2006 – I was really impressed by Ruby as a language, and the simplicity of Rails as a framework. I hadn’t programmed for the prior 15 or so years, but it was really easy to slip back into it with RoR!

The first site I built is a flickr/youtube mashup with google maps (like everybody else!). Of course, this stuff is now ubiquitous, but Blue Okaapi was one of the first of its kind! This was also my first experience with open source technology – amazing how quickly you can build thing using free software others have contributed.

In November 2006, I organized – with my surfing buddy Max Dunn – the first Bay Area RubyOnRailsCamp. We ran it as an UNconference, charged a nominal 25$ per person, got IBM Alamaden Labs to provide the venue and raised sponsor money to fund the barista and the sushi dinner. 200 people showed up, and we got a nice, edgy write up in Infoworld. Besides a rich, participant-generated program, we had a speed geeking session, where I demoed Blue Okaapi and sliki (this a very simple on-line slide editor, much like Google Doc's presentation tools; I built it because I needed a short presentation for opening and closing remarks at the RubyOnRailsCamp, and I felt it only appropriate to create the slides in RoR!). One of the most fun things I've done in my life!

I also work with Max on MaxWiki, an RoR-based wiki (it runs the menhardt wiki also). MaxWiki is OpenSource, and used by a variety of commercial and non-commercial entities. It’s main differentations are (1) that it is easy to add additional functionality (eg plug-ins) using Ruby and (2) that we built connector technology so it can server as a publishing front-end to enterprise document management systems. More details at www.maxwiki.com.

A Data Mining project I have mostly implemented in Ruby is Okaapi, an automated document indexer. I used wikipedia as a sandbox for it, and got good results on document grouping 

Finally, I’ve done work as a RubyOnRails and data mining consultant (under the name The New Unicorn Group) for several Web 2.0 start-up including www.adbidcentral.com, www.vuvox.com and www.ourmesh.com.