The “Thank you!” post

December 9th, 2012 1 comment

Another PHP Conference Brazil ended on Dec. 2nd and oh, man, what a huge  event it was! This post tries to highlight the best of what happened on those days and to thank everyone who was a part of it. A tall order indeed!

On Nov. 29th the event kickstarted it’s training day. My big “thank you” to the instructors who trained our audience in matters such as ZF2 (Flavio Lisboa), Symfony2 (Eriksen Costa), MongoDB (Jean “Suissa” Nascimento), MySQL (André Barbosa)  and RestFul Webservices (Alex Piaz). These guys not only produced the courses material, but also did the full 8h training in a fantastic way! Flavio, Alex, Eriksen, André and Jean: you guys rock!

Also on the 29th, Zend (one of our sponsors) had a meeting with representatives from the Brazilian PHP community. This was, by far, one of the most amazing things I had the honor to take part in my carreer, and if I can sum this up in one sentence it would be: “How many languages/technologies do you know that you have the opprtunity to seat face-to-face with the CEO of the private company that is most relevant for it and talk to him about your opinions and suggestions?”.

My big “thank you” to Andi Gutmans, Ana Maria Valarezzo and our own Marcel Araújo for organizing and making this meeting a reality. Andi and Ana Maria proved to have such a stamina – they’ve went to this meeting, Ana Maria participated on the Conference’s opening ceremony the next day, they’ve traveled to another Brazilian state, talked a lot to companies and attendees – I mean, I don’t know what they’ve been putting on their own food, but I definitely want some! =)

On Friday, 30th it was the time to kickstart the event’s first talks day and we’ve began, as usual, with the opening ceremony. I was really impressed on how many attendees were coming to the event for the very first time. This fact alone showed me how much the Brazilian PHP market has been growing and how much more potential do we have. My big “thank you” to our wonderful audience, the event is made for you!

The ceremony was followed by our “PHP Super Hero”, Flavio Lisboa, our first Keynote Speaker. The “Super Hero” part comes from the commitment and the stamina Flavio has and always had (maybe he’s been eating the same thing as Andi and Ana Maria, it all makes sense now!). Flavio gave a training on the 29th, a Keynote on 30th, regular talks on 30th and Dec. 1st and also found time to record attendees statements! My HUGE thanks to you, Flavio! You rule!

 

 

The day went along with the regular talks by speakers from 6 difrerent Brazilian states. The talks were carefully evaluated and pre-selected by the amazing guys from PHP Rio. The Conference has always been lucky to receive a huge support from the FANTASTIC Brazilian PHP Community. My ENORMOUS thanks for the guys from PHPRio and to all the members of the  Brazilian PHP Community. We wouldn’t be here without you, guys!

And what to say to the Brazilian speakers who make this event so great? Can’t thank them enough. They do a work that is so vital for the PHP ecossystem in Brazil that it’s hard to find the exact words, my most humble thank you to everyone from RJ, SC, SP, RS (my home state!) and PR. You guys are absolutely the greatest!

On Saturday, Dec. 1st it was time to watch our foreign Keynote Speakers.  Andi Gutmans kickstarted the day talking about the future of PHP in the mobile ecosystem and the cloud. Amazing talk, largely upvoted on our joind.in page. Can’t thank Andi enough on this post. To find the time to do everything he did for us is really an incredible job.

Andi was followed by this guy from Nashville… Now, what can I tell you about the amazing Paul Jones? Paul is one of the guys that the circumstances allowed me to spend time enough on his company to consider him a friend by now. Paul was not only extremely likable and charismatic, but he delivered a mind-blowing fantastic presentation on decoupled PHP libraries and the fantastic Aura project. Our audience was delighted by his Keynote and I believe Aura will be largely used in Brazilian projects. My huge, HUGE thanks to Paul. You absolutely rocked our audience, man!

Still on Saturday, I’ve had the great honor of presenting to the event’s audience the ABRAPHP – Brazilian Assocation for PHP Professionals, along with my board colleagues Ricardo Coelho, Thiago Rigo and Marcio Albuquerque. This is a one-of-a-kind initiative and I’ll be making an exclusive post about it in a few days, so stay tuned.

The previous paragraph reminds me that it would be crazy to end this post without mentioning Marcio Albuquerque. Marcio was another of the event’s heroes, presenting talks and also being responsible for two of our most interesting special presentations: the non-official ZCE simulated test and the Fishbowl. I’m very lucky to have him on ABRAPHP’s board, and the event and the audience are very lucky to have him “disturbing” the regular event schedule. Marcio did an amazing, incredible job. My big thank you to you, man!

Such a long post (writing it only in en_US, sorry guys!), so many “thank yous” left. As I’ve said in the event’s opening ceremony, PHP Conference Brazil is such a “lucky” event. We are and always will be thankful for having such great companies, communities and persons on our side.

My huge thank you to our wonderful sponsors (Zend, PagSeguro, MySQL, Folha de S. Paulo, Vivaweb, Engine Yard and Github) and to Scalable Path, our Exhibitor who was in Brazil to hire off-shore developers. These companies keep the PHP business market flowing, so please, don’t forget to show them your support!

Also it would be insane to forget about our Mobile kick-ass dev, Klaus Silveira. Klaus is responsible for our very first mobile app! What a great job he did for us, I can’t thank you enough, man!

Also, it’s always important to remember the fantastic work done by Tempo Real Eventos and Anderson O. de Paula. Tempo Real Eventos is the company who created the PHP Conference in first place, back in 2006. It does such a relevant work for the PHP business market that we can’t really appreciate them enough. Anderson, you’ve been the best, greatest partner I could ever ask for. My huge thanks to you and all the personell in TRE. You guys are the best!

That’s a wrap, guys! Don’t forget: PHP Conference Brasil 2013 is already set: From Nov. 28th to December 1st! See you ALL THERE! \o/

Categories: Events, PHP Conference Brazil Tags:

How Geeklist have mistaken me for a fool

July 25th, 2012 2 comments

notGeek    We live a great era for IT workers. Never in history Geeks, Coders and IT Groups (more specifically User Groups)  experienced so much respect, recognition and admiration. I’m very happy to live in such an era, being deeply involved in the three categories  – I’m a geek, a coder and I work deeply involved with OSS and specially PHP communities in Brazil.

Along with this change in how IT workers are perceived by the general public came websites, tools, and applications meant to support and enhance our day to day. Tools that allow us to unite, to share, to teach and to learn.

Geeklist is not one of those tools. It claims to be all about giving geeks respect, credit, recognition. Ah, so in tune with our great IT era, right? Wrong.

Tonight Geeklist, in the person of it’s co-founder and CTO  disrespected me with such a low level of professional ethics that I’ve couldn’t, at first, believe.

I’ve received a chat notification (the full screen capture can be seen here) from him, entitled “sr software engineer”. Here’s the first message:

I was, of course, very excited, since I’ve had a deep (and not deserved as you’ll see later1) respect for them, so I’ve happily replied:

After waiting for quite some time and knowing he was online (their chat tool tells you that) I’ve just closed the Geeklist tab and went back to work. After almost an hour and a half, he realized that I was waiting for him and so he comes and like if it was the most natural thing in the business – maybe for him and his company it is, who knows, really? – drops it:

I’ve had to read that three, maybe four times, to believe I was seeing right. Me, who believed in them for so long2.

It seems that for him and Geeklist playiing with others careers and expectations is a natural thing (hey, c’mon, he said he was “so sorry”!). More than that, he displays an atittude that clearly reflects the twisted mentality of self proclaimed “Chiefs-of-Something”, that think way too much of themselves and their brilliant little companies: we WILL have a future, where he MAY be so kind to consider me for a role in his so important business, and that all will happen because he knows it will.

In reality, what he and Geeklist showed me tonight is that they should be forbidden to use words like “geek”, “community” and “professionalism” in their BP.

True professionals don’t demo an application in a production environment, with a real user who doesn’t know he’s being part of a demonstration. And even if we could excuse these two prerrogatives, true professionals wouldn’t “act”. They would tell the user they were presenting a demonstration and ask, very politely, for his assistance.

We, geeks, professionals, community-driven people call it  “Common Sense”, Geeklist. We call it  “professionalism”, “ethics” and we first heard it from our parents as “education”, “respect”.

A company that proclaims itself to be all about “giving credit”, “empowering communities” forgot a much, much basic principle: none of these concepts mean anything if you don’t give people “respect”.

Goodbye, Geeklist. I once believed that your values were true, now I know that below all those bells, whistles and empty words rely just another sad, depressive and self-important business.

[1] I should have known, really. When I applied for Geeklist’s “Ambassador Program” to support them and work for them in Brazil, I had to wait two and a half months – during which I was repeatedly stalled by the person responsible for the program – to receive a message, directly from their CEO in the lines of “We don’t have interest in South America at the moment, thank you for your patience”.

[Edit]: As requested by Geeklist’s CEO, his exact words were: “I can sense the frustration, but opening up Brazil and providing support was, as I mentioned, something we were not completely prepared to do”.

[2] Even after the Ambassador Program fiasco, I’ve been a supporter. Always sharing their application features, inviting friends and colleagues to join and so on.

 

P.S.:

So guess what, Geeklist wasn’t mistaken, I was a fool. Now you should ask yourself: are you?

P.P.S. (for the Brazilian readers):

Peço deculpas aos Brasileiros que lêem o blog, mas pela primeira vez não vou postar uma versão do texto em Português. Cansaço, excesso de trabalho e de responsabilidades têm me mantido afastado do blog, e só escrever a parte em Inglês já foi um esforço e tanto – mas que eu não podia deixar passar. Conto com a compreensão de vocês.

 

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Official Announcement: PHP Conference Brazil 2012

March 7th, 2012 2 comments

[pt-BR]

It’s official: PHP Conference Brazil 2012 will take place at UNIFIEO, in the city of Osasco (SP) Brazil from November 29th to December 2nd. Tracks for the event were chosen by the audience, through a poll we’ve published on Twitter:

  • Frameworks & Tools
  • APIs & Webservices
  • Challenges and Trends
  • Case Studies and Successful Cases
  • Security
  • Job Scenario

The event is already searching for Sponsors and in an unprecendented promotion is giving more than 10% off until the end of June. Bring your company’s brand to the Main PHP Event in Latin America, talk to us!

É oficial: A PHP Conference Brasil 2012 acontecerá na UNIFIEO, na cidade de Osasco (SP) Brasil de 29 de Novembro a 2 de Dezembro de 2012. Os macro-temas foram escolhidos pelo público, em uma pesquisa que publicamos no Twitter:

  • Frameworks & Ferramentas
  • APIs & Webservices
  • Desafios e Tendências
  • Estudos de Casos e Casos de Sucesso
  • Segurança
  • Mercado de Trabalho

O evento já está a procura de Patrocinadores e em uma promoção sem precedentes está dando mais de 10% off até Junho. Traga a marca de sua empresa para o Principal Evento de PHP da América Latina, fale conosco!

NOT leaving =)

February 23rd, 2012 4 comments

[pt-BR]

People seem to be (re-)discovering my blog and the funny thing is that a post from 2010 is getting everyone confused thinking I’m leaving PHP Conference Brazil. Well, I’m not, not anymore. Those were different times, with different demands. I’ve actually left the event’s direction back then to take some time for myself (both personally and professionaly), but I’ve came back afterwards.

As usually happens with the event, we have some great news for this year’s (THIS year, 2012 =) ) edition, so stay tuned, we’ll break the news as soon as we can.

Oh, and BTW, this year’s “sponsorhip hunting season” is open! More than 10% off until April, so hurry up and drop me a line at  patrocinio@phpconf.com.br

Parece que as pessoas estão (re-)descobrindo meu blog, mas o engraçado é que um post meu de 2010 tá confundindo o povo, que pensa que estou deixando a PHP Conference Brasil. Bom, não estou, não mais. Aqueles tempos eram diferentes, com demandas diferentes. Na verdade cheguei a sair da direção do evento nessa época pra tirar um tempo pra mim (tanto pessoal quanto profissionalmente falando), mas voltei logo depois.

Como já é costume no evento, tem novidades muito bacanas vindo para a edição desse ano (DESSE ano, 2012 =) ), então fique ligado que a gente conta assim que for possível.

Ah, e BTW, a “temporada de caça ao patrocínio” para este ano está aberta! Mais de 10% off até Abril então corra e nos mande um e-mail:  patrocinio@phpconf.com.br

Categories: Events, PHP Conference Brazil Tags:

Authentication 101 – Part 2 – mcrypt FTW!

January 11th, 2011 5 comments

[pt-BR]

In my first article about authentication we took a look at some – in my opinion – misconceptions that had been weakening the general security of web applications, more specifically the need of a good authentication system and therefore to ensure a decent level of cryptography over sensitive data. Read more…

Time for some fresh blood on PHPConfBR

May 7th, 2010 5 comments

[pt-BR]

PHP Conference Brazil has always been an amazing event The Content Director “job” gave me, aside from terrific memories, opportunities that I otherwise would struggle to seize: Meeting incredible professionals from around the world, making contact with big companies and watching some high quality presentations.

As of today I’m leaving the Content Direction of PHP Conference Brazil. There’s no need for sadness tho: I’ve heard that PHPSP (the PHP UG from Sao Paulo) is already in charge of the content for this year’s edition and I’m sure they’ll do a great job.

I’d like to thank all of you who attended the event and those (speakers, UG leaders, companies) who helped me bringing a good event to our audience in these 2 years.

I hope that people who attended the 3rd and 4th editions (2008 and 2009, respectivily) had a good experience. I did! =)

A PHP Conference Brasil sempre foi um evento incrível. O “emprego” de Diretor de Conteúdo me proporcionou não apenas lembranças maravilhosas, mas oportunidades que de outra maneira eu sofreria pra obter: Conhecer profissionais fantásticos, fazer contato com grandes empresas e assistir a palestras de alta qualidade.

A partir de hoje estou deixando a Direção de Conteúdo do evento. Não há motivo pra tristeza: fiquei sabendo que o PHPSP (o GU de PHP de São Paulo) já está encarregado da direção de conteúdo da edição deste ano e tenho certeza de que eles vão fazer um ótimo trabalho.

Gostaria de agradecer a todos os que compareceram ao evento e aqueles (palestrantes, líderes de GUs, empresas) que me ajudaram a fazer um bom evento nestes dois anos.

Espero que as pessoas que compareceram na terceira e na quarta edição (2008 e 2009, respectivamente) tenham tido uma boa experiência. Eu tive! =)

2009 Wrap up – Better late than later!

February 15th, 2010 10 comments

[pt-BR]

According to popular belief, people go through an “astral hell” some time before their birthday. I’m not a superstitious guy, but from 45 days before my birthday until something around 15 days after I’ve got a pretty hard phase: from hard drive failure – including losing 4.1Gb of data and finally learning to back-the-hell-up – to illness in the family – everything is OK now – you name it, I’ve got it all. So yeah, 45 days after 2009 ended here I am to sum this wonderful year up =) Read more…

Authentication 101 – Part 1 – Concepts

August 14th, 2009 2 comments

Intro

Authentication always been one of the main concerns when developing web applications. This is a first post of a series of three (that’s what I’ve initially planned, I may extend it)that tries to shed some light on this subject. Although all examples in this series are presented using PHP and PostgreSQL, you’ll notice that the concepts involved are pretty common to other web technologies as well.

Part 1 – Concepts

I always liked to think before doing something or, in the worst case, think while doing it. Both strategies work for me, although the second one always requires more time re-coding everything =) The important thing here, and this is commonly overlooked in most development environments I’ve watched in almost 15 years working on the web, is to define which are the concepts involved in authenticating a user, how the application (or, at least this part of the application) should flow.

Read more…

Rise of the PHP Conference Brazil

July 23rd, 2009 No comments

[pt-BR]

PHP Conference Brazil have been drawing an awesome unprecedented attention this year. Not only the Brazilian PHP Community have been massively supporting us, but also Blogs, IT Portals, Companies have been gathering around the idea we’ve supported from day one: To bring an awesome event, with well known speakers and subjects that are relevant and important for the PHP professional.

Today we’ve confirmed our first, off-shore, Keynote Speaker: Sebastian Bergmann, who is not only one of PHP’s core developer, but also the creator of PHPUnit and co-founder of The PHP Consulting Company. Aside from that the event already counts more than 100 (!) presentation proposals from people all over the world: France, Germany, United States and, obviously from all over Brazil.

Next week we begin the submission evaluation period, where we’ll invite relevant and well known Brazilian PHP Professionals to evaluate the proposals of their peers. This year we expect to make an event that can even overcome the success we had in 2008. A hard task, but with all the help we’ve been receiving from all of you we’ll get there!

Our (me and Anderson’s) Thank you very much to all of you. Let’s kick some serious ass in November, shall we?

Er Galvao Abbott
(proud) Director of Content
PHP Conference Brazil

A PHP Conference Brasil tem atraído uma atenção incrível e sem precedentes este ano. Não apenas temos recebido o apoio em massa da Comunidade Brasileira de PHP, mas também Blogs, Portais de TI e Empresas vêm se juntando em torno da idéia que defendemos desde o começo: Trazer um evento incrível, com palestrantes de renome e assuntos relevantes e importantes para o profissional de PHP.

Hoje confirmamos nosso primeiro Keynote Speaker internacional: Sebastian Bergmann, que não apenas é um dos core developers do PHP, mas também o criador da PHPUnit e co-fundador da The PHP Consulting Company. Além disso o evento já conta com mais de 100 (!) propostas de palestras de pessoas do mundo todo: França, Alemanha, Estados Unidos, e obviamente de todo o Brasil.

Na próxima semana daremos início ao período de avaliação de submissões, onde convidaremos profissionais Brasileiros relevantes e de renome para avaliar as propostas de seus pares. Esse ano esperamos fazer um evento que poderá até mesmo ultrapassar o sucesso que tivemos em 2008. Uma tarefa difícil, mas com toda a ajuda que temos recebido de todos vocês nós certamente chegaremos lá!

Nosso (meu e do Anderson) Muito Obrigado à todos vocês. Vamos detonar em Novembro, o que vocês acham?

Er Galvão Abbott
(orgulhoso) Diretor de Conteúdo
PHP Conference Brasil

So you think you’re ZendCon material, huh?

May 6th, 2009 2 comments

[pt-BR]

I’m an action-kind of guy. That means that after considering something for a long time there’s always a moment when I think “OK, let’s do it!”. One thing that I’ve been considering for a very long time is to try to present myself at foreign (outside Brazil) events. ZendCon became the perfect opportunity to do so: I’ll have time to prepare myself in case my submission gets approved and it’s one of those events I’m used to dream about.

So, cheer for me. If everything goes well this humble Brazilian programmer will be in California on October. Who knows? =)

Eu sou um cara de ação. Isso significa que após considerar algo por um longo período tem um momento em que eu penso “OK, vamos lá!”. Uma coisa que eu venho considerando por um período bem longo é tentar apresentar uma palestra em um evento estrangeiro (fora do Brasil). A ZendCon se tornou a oportunidade perfeita pra isso: Eu vou ter tempo de me preparar caso minha proposta de palestra seja aceita e é um daqueles eventos que eu estou acostumado à sonhar a respeito.

Então torça por mim. Se tudo correr bem esse humilde programador Brasileiro estará na Califórnia em Outubro. Quem sabe? =)

Categories: Events, Zend Tags: