A conference the way God intended…
Of all the conferences I’ve attended over the years, my favorite by far is code4lib. It’s like no other. The level of passion and sense of community is far greater than you’ll see elsewhere. The spirit of invention, willingness to work hard, and desire to help others reminds me where the bar for excellence really is. Plus it’s just plain fun.
Organizers for other events should be taking notes. Long talks at code4lib last 20 minutes. Short talks last 5 minutes. This means that you get exposed to great ideas fast and if a presentation is a dud, you’re quickly in the clear. Presenters assume that if you’re interested in something, you’ll follow up on your own so spoonfeeding is unnecessary. As a result, you don’t lose time repeatedly reviewing the basics.
Barely over 200 people went this year, but it seems like every time there’s something interesting going on, people from code4lib are involved. Just since last week, I’ve met with totally separate groups to plan for LOCKSS throughout our consortium, discuss uploading our digital collections metadata to the Talis platform for experimental purposes, and discuss specifications that will improve interoperability between library systems with vendors and the DLF ILS task force. Participation from code4lib participants was disproportionate at all of these venues even though the conference has no actual connection.
In other words, if you’re into library technology, code4lib is really a great place to learn, meet interesting people, and get involved with some pretty cool projects.