Participants of RubyConf 2015 (photo courtesy of Nairuby ke Facebook Page)
It is about that time to geek out. The annual Ruby Conference is here organized by Nairuby, a group of Ruby programmers based in Nairobi, who live and breathe the power of Open Source software culture which is evident from this year’s theme;
“Nurturing entrepreneurship through Open Source Culture”
I cannot imagine our world without Open Source. So many developments have been made by people sharing and collaborating on projects. To name a few, Open Source led to the development of the widely used Linux and the largest mobile phone operating system, Android. Many people develop their software using Open Source tools to build interesting products and businesses.
That is what this year’s RubyConf is all about. The conference will be about how the Open Source Culture can empower individuals on their entrepreneurship journey. It will encourage both the use and the development of Open Source tools to be used in supporting others grow their businesses.
The When and Where
RubyConf Kenya 2016 will take place from 5th May – 7th May at Jernigan Hall, African Nazarene University, Ongata Rongai.
The conference is open to all who are interested as you get to interact with the leading Ruby developers from around the world who will come together to share, inspire and learn.
The Speakers
Ray Hightower
He is a software developer, open source hardware enthusiast, founder of WisdomGroup and organizer of ChicagoRuby, WindCityRails & WindCityThings. You can find out more about him;
Aaron Cruz
Based in Vienna, Austria, Aaron builds MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) for small startups using Ruby, Javascript and Go. He also organizes 4 meetups, and most recently, co-organizes ROSSConf – a Ruby Open Source Conference in Vienna where people who work on open source projects get to share their experience. You can find him at
Alvin Kato
Having abandoned his academic career as an Economist/ Statistician for a keyboard and black screen, he fell in love with ruby and he wonders of rails after being introduced to programming by a close friend. His current mission is to transfer this same joy and enthusiasm for coding into the hearts of others. You can find him at;
Audrey Cheng
Audrey Cheng is the co-founder of Moringa School, which currently offers a 12- week, immersive program training world-class web and mobile developers. She is passionate about providing education and access so people can reach their human potential, and she sees tech as one of the most powerful outlets of impact. You can find her at;
Eugene Mutai
Driven by the curiosity of how Facebook works, Eugene challenged himself and gained self-developed skills based on standards set by guys like Paul Irish. He has worked in tons of projects from data analysis, hybrid html apps ranging from Android to Blackberry. He has expansive knowledge in what it takes to build powerful web applications from architecture, technologies and tools. He is the Nairobi JavaScript Community (user-group) Lead and a consultant at iHub. Find him at;
- @JheneKnights
Christian Reuterwall
Christian is a ruby scrub – he joined the Nairuby community after its relaunch last year. He started his career as a java developer. Before coming to Nairobi, he was working as a project manager. Christian was also responsible for Continuous Integration, Change and Incident management. Find him at;
Sawo
Sawo is a great lover of code and the amazing things that can be done with it. He has a bias for developing web app using ruby on rails and currently he is the lead code slinger for BlueGate Technologies. He spends his weekends teaching mobile development to GDG M.M.U. His favourite quote, “It’s not the product, it’s what you can do with it” Find him at;
Diana Wanjuhi
Diana is a Software Developer at MaraMoja Transport. She is excited by all things technology, with a bias towards software development. She developed her skills in Ruby and Rails during a programming boot camp at Moringa School. While not writing code, she enjoys reading avidly and thinking about the tech ecosystem in Nairobi
- @DianaWanjuhi
- github/dwanjuhi1
Register now for the conference and get the chance to learn and collaborate with leading open source enthusiasts as you set off in your entrepreneurship journey. Be sure to keep up with us as we continue to explore and share new information about this and the larger Nairobi Ruby community.
Read On Web → Listen Up! Ruby Conference Kenya 2016 Coming Up In May