I attended the CINNUG meeting on June 24, 2008. Tim Wingfield was the guest speaker. The topic was MVC and this is one I also missed at CODODN . Tim gave a good explanation of MVC and it's history.

Tim also had great TDD demos. He really showed each step of the process (the behind the scenes) to creating your test. He then walked through the results of the test after running the program. It was interesting to see the testing process. It gave me a totally different perspective of the application.

I can see how this would initially take time to set up the testing environment but it can also save tons of time at the end. You wouldn't have to do such rigorous testing because you've already tested your functions as they were being built. This could also catch errors better than traditional testing. Each section of the application that you are creating will be associated with a test.

I know I'm not on this level yet but still enjoyed the presentation and seeing more of the MVC framework. This reinforced what I learned from Alan Steven's MVC talk at IndyCodeCamp.

I was glad to finally meet Tim face-to-face because I've followed him on Twitter since the CODODN event. It was also WAY cool to hang out at Claddagh's after the meeting with a few local tweeps.

It felt really good to just sit back and talk to people that are interested in the same things I am interested in. I can talk about things that I do without getting the "oh boy, I hope this isn't one of the 'nerd' talks again" or the "I have no idea what you talking about" stare.

Update: Leon Gersing also gave a quick presentation at the end of the meeting. He discussed separation of responsibilities. I'm really embarrassed that I neglected to add this information. Even though it was a brief presentation it really got me focused. Many apologies to Leon. :) 

I attended the CINNUG meeting on May 20, 2008 and it was a open panel discussion on Software Development as A Career. There were a many people at the meeting and it was a great discussion. The guest speakers were Jim Holmes, Tim Apke, and Ed Summerfield. I finally got a chance to introduce myself to Jim. I've heard good things about him and Dayton .Net Developers Group is so close. I saw him at CODODN but I was too shy to introduce myself with it being my first event.

It's difficult to really cover this one because there were so many things being discussed but I got so much out of it and it was very inspiring. Some of the things that really stood out, they discussed the difference between working for a small company and working for a large company. They discussed certifications and gave their honest opinions and experience from the field. They answered many of the questions I had. They also talked about consulting. Another topic I was interested in and I was able to get a better understanding of the consulting world. I was able to talk to some my tweeps during the break.

After the break Mike Levy gave a quick presentation on Pattern Grok. This is something new the .NET Group is trying. There will be short sessions at the end of the meeting to allow people to get a chance to present a topic their interested in to the group. The discussion was on pipes and filters and was interesting as well as funny. I think the short sessions are a great idea. It gives people an opportunity to speak to a group of people. This may allow them to be comfortable enough to become a speaker or give a presentation in the future.

I attended my first Cincinnati Programmers Guild (CincyPG) meeting on May 21, 2008. Joe Wirtley was speaking. I really enjoyed this group. It's a smaller group which gave me a chance to relax a bit and actually talk to people. Before the meeting started I got a chance to speak to Leon Gersing, Matt Brewer, and Joe Wirtely (tweeps). I feel like I'm getting to know people a bit so now I not as stressed. A step forward in my journey.

The topic was Pragmatic Architechture and the Role of the Architect. Joe did a great job defining an architect as well as discussing the role(s), responsibilities, and some overall challenges. There were many good discussions that went along with some of the topics. This meeting had a more open format than some of the other I've attended. I really enjoy both. It does depends on the size of the group. For this group, it worked. I didn't jump into the discussion. I know I was welcome to but I'm not quite ready for the spotlight. :)

I hope to attend more CincyPG meetings. I was able to get a better understanding of what software architech's role is and some of the expectations. This related to the CinArc meeting I attended recently perfectly.

I attended the Cincinnati Business Intelligence (CincyBI) meeting on May 13, 2008. The topic was Advanced Data Modeling: Simultaneous Type 1 - Type 2 Slowly Changing Dimensions and the guest speaker was Tommy Adams. Tommy went over Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3 SCD's and gave a good explaination of when to use each. He then went gave an introduction to Hybrid Type 2 / Type 3. This was a short presentation but I was still able to get a good understanding of when you would use these differnent types of SCD's. The demo was in Microsoft Access to simplify the demo but I would have enjoyed seeing this applied on a larger scale.

When the meeting was over it was still early but I still planned to go home. The first Cincinnati Software Architecture (CinArc) meeting was in the next room and they were having a panel discussion with Joe Wirtley, Leon Gersing, and Mike Levy. I really wanted to attend that meeting too but since I had to make a choice I went with Business Intelligence. I saw Mike Wood, the director of CINNUG, in the lobby because CinArc was on break too. Mike was nice enough to allow me to attend the second half of the CinArc meeting. 

During the break I was able to chat with Andy Erickson. I was able to stand there and have a really nice talk. Enjoyable versus feeling so stressed out. This is one of the reasons I'm really trying to attend as many meetings possible. The more I come around the more comfortable I feel talking to people. Right before the second half started I was able to meet one of the tweeps, Matt Brewer, face to face.

The second half of the meeting was a FishBowl. Very interesting. There were four chairs and three people in the middle of the room and the rest of us sat around the outside in a circle. The group was defining "What Is An Architect?". If you wanted speak about the topic you had to go sit in the empty chair, the catch, someone had to get up. There always had to be an empty chair. 

I really enjoyed this meeting. This looks like an exciting and passionate group. I am not an architect and don't see myself in that role in the near future but perhaps one day. In the meantime, I do want to know how they think, what they do, and how it relates to someone like me. I will attend these meeting in the future on a regular basis.

CincyBI meets every two months but they will not meet again until September, 2008. You can find more information about CincyBI at http://cincysql.org. CinArc meets every two months and the next meeting is in July, 2008. For more information on CinAr please visit http://cinnug.org. 

I attended the April CincySQL Meeting on April 22, 2008. I will be my last.