Next up in our OpenCF Summit speaker interviews: Peter Farrell!

Peter is an Open Source and CFML application developer who enjoys building smart and easy to maintain OOP enterprise applications that can stand the test of time.

OpenCF Summit: Hey Peter!  So tell us about yourself.

Peter: I have a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

While studying music, I took a life-long interest with computers to a new level and started learning about web development technologies. I have been working with CFML since 2001 and am the lead developer of the Mach-II framework.

I work as a Senior Technologist for GreatBizTools, a human resources consulting firm.  I live with my wife, Allyson, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

OpenCF Summit: What does your development environment look like?

Peter:  Oh, my this is kind of an ever moving target.  Currently, I'm using Ubuntu on all of my development computers and I'm happy to be rid of Windows.

IDE: CFEclipse, Eclipse
Server Tech: ACF8 (at work), OpenBD (personal and side projects), Tomcat, Apache, MySQL
Testing: Selenium, MXUnit
Tools: MySQL Workbench, SVN, StatSVN, Trac, JMeter, VisualVM, EclipseMAT
Languages: CFML, Java, SQL, JS, PHP (enough to be dangerous)
Frameworks: Mach-II, ColdSpring, Spring, Prototype, Django

Lately, I've been applying my learning about Java in a practical way by writing patches for OpenBD.  This has been greatly rewarding. 

OpenCF Summit: What is your experience with Open Source Software? Where do you see OSS going?

Peter: Open source means something different to everybody.  I think this is great because everybody brings something different to the table.  My introduction to open source was in a rather haphazard way via Mach-II.  I guess my complaining about the supposed death of Mach-II got me involved in ways I never imagined.

I can firmly say that I've learned and grown more as a programmer through my involvement in open source than I've learned "on the job".  I guess I could say my job has taught me how to leverage available open source tools to better work.

Open source is here to stay and any naysayers are just deluding themselves.  Open source has a way to turn specialized software into commodity software and fill holes proprietary software does not fill.  We've already seen this with browsers like Firefox and open source operating systems have taken over the server market.  If someone has an idea, I guarantee there is some open source project out there that fills the gap.

OpenCF Summit: Where do you think CFML is heading these days? How would you characterize the state of the CFML community?

Peter:  It's going in a great direction with all the open source happening. I think the open-source CFML engines are excelling and have become extremely stable.  Its a great time to be using open source CFML.

OpenCF Summit: Why are you excited about OpenCF Summit?

Peter: I think the thing that excites me most is that OpenCF Summit's format is different than I've experienced at other conferences I've attended.  I think a single track is going to bring a different atmosphere to everything at the conference.  The neat thing is that I'm just a speaker for an hour and an attendee the rest of the time.  Speakers are no different from anybody else who comes to OpenCF Summit and I think we have a tendency to idolize speakers to a point that they become less approachable.  I hope that I get a chance to speak to everybody at the conference.  If you're coming, be sure to approach me for a chat.  I learn more through speaking with others than in any other way.

The other thing I'm excited about is the open source HackFast application -- Enlist -- on which we'll be working during the conference.  More to come on that soon.

OpenCF Summit: One last question: could you tell us a little about what you'll be speaking on?

Peter: I'll be talking about Front-End Optimizations.  Websites are not always slow due to poor server-side code or database queries. Learn how to identify potential issues using YSlow and Google Page Speed to implement best practice changes to drastically optimize the front-end performance of your web pages. Front-end optimization helps to keep your users engaged, improve general server performance and reduce hosting/bandwith costs. A little front-end optimization elbow grease can yeild dramatic results.

During this presentation, we will take a poorly performing "mock" website, use tools to investigate issues and then make the appropriate coding and configuration changes to improve performance.

Come talk shop with Peter at OpenCF Summit February 24-26, 2012 and watch this space for more speaker interviews!

Next up in our OpenCF Summit speaker interviews: Mark Drew!

Mark runs the consultancy services division of Railo Technologies in the UK as CEO. Providing training, development services, architectural consulting and performance tuning for clients across the world.

His career has concentrated on eCommerce, Content Management and Application Scalability for various well known brands in the UK market such as Jaeger, Hackett, Hobbs, Dyson, B&W, Diesel and the New York Philharmonic amongst others.

OpenCF Summit: Greetings Mark!  How about telling us a little about yourself?

Mark: I've been programming CFML since 1996, and even though I've had forays into Perl, ASP and PHP, I'm still loving every line of code I've crafted with CFML.

Aside from commercial projects, I've contributed to a number of Open Source projects such as the CFEclipse Project (developing a CFML IDE), Reactor ORM, ColdSpring, ColdBox and the Model-Glue framework.

Because of this background, I've also become a well known speaker at various conferences on subjects close to my heart such as ORM's, Frameworks, Development Tooling and Development Process.

OpenCF Summit: What does your development environment look like?

Mark: I currently have an old MacBook Pro that has managed to get a new lease of life by simply adding an SSD harddrive. Best. Investment. Ever.

I primarily use Railo Server for all my development but also have Adobe ColdFusion 9 for a number of client projects.  

I use Eclipse heavily but also rely on Textmate and Sublime Text. When I am running windows in VMWare I use Sublime Text as my main editor too.

Other tools that I have running all day are GitHub and GitX for version control, Sequel Pro and Navcat for SQL for database access.

Other apps I use most of the time are Timer Utility to track time as I use the Pomodoro Technique to manage my time. To figure out how productive I am being I also have RescueTime running.

For quick notes I use Evernote. I love Alfred (a requirement for app switching) 

OpenCF Summit: What is your experience with Open Source Software? Where do you see OSS going?

Mark: I have been involved with open source projects since about 2004 when I joined the CFEclipse project, since then I seem to have been involved in a number of frameworks and projects before I joined Railo, where I deal with consultancy (more than the Server Engine side) but of course, I am the main proponent of Professional Open Source in the company.

OSS is here to stay, there is an increasing  number of companies, that are seeing the value of being able to shape the tools and applications they use, and I see this increasing with more foundations being formed with the investment of interested companies.

OpenCF Summit: Where do you think CFML is heading these days? How would you characterize the state of the CFML community?

Mark: This is difficult as there is massive silent majority and the community is going through a shift. A lot of developers are now understanding what open source is by releasing their projects and even contributing to existing projects. Unfortunately this is slower and later than many other communities that are already used to this. But it's a great move and will improve with years.

It has to be said that the CFML community is a very varied and helpful community! 

OpenCF Summit: Why are you excited about OpenCF Summit?

Mark: Having had to miss it last year due to an overload of travelling I am now really excited to both be a participant and a speaker! It will be great to see the presentations there and how people are benefiting from Open Source and it's developments.

OpenCF Summit: OK, one last question: could you tell us a little about what you'll be speaking on?

Mark: I shall be persenting on CFML Mythbusters, where we shall look at a number of myths about programming in CFML and which of these urban myths about the way we program are still true or not.

Myths like "IsDefined() is better than StructKeyExists()" and "It's better to Duplicate a component than create a new one" will be put to the test, and the myths will either be confirmed, deemed plausible or busted. Live!

I shall be doing all my own stunts at this conference. And maybe wearing a Beret.

Come talk shop with Mark at OpenCF Summit February 24-26, 2012 and watch this space for more speaker interviews!

We're thrilled to welcome a new speaker to OpenCF Summit, Matthew Esquibel:

Matthew manages austintexas.gov and the open data portal, data.austintexas.gov, for the City of Austin. Matthew's team has started several initiatives around open source and open data and Mattthew is eager to share their experience.

Matthew also just received GovFresh's Public Servant of the Year award.

OpenCF Summit: Greetings Matthew!  Could you tell us a little about yourself.

Matthew: I have no direct experience with CF but am very familiar with it as it was commonly used at the City of Austin. My background is in web design, CMS and content development. 

OpenCF Summit: What does your development environment look like?

Matthew: We run our external website and applications on Linux/Apache web servers and support a variety of applications from PHP, .Net, Cold Fusion etc. A pretty diverse environment.

OpenCF Summit: What is your experience with Open Source Software? Where do you see OSS going?

Matthew: Have deployed two major content management systems using Open Source--Plone (Python) and Drupal (PHP) for the City of Austin. We are working with Code for America which also uses a variety of PHP and Ruby for primary coding. I think community development using open source platforms is going to change the landscape in the development world -- particularly in the government business area.

OpenCF Summit: Where do you think CFML is heading these days? How would you characterize the state of the CFML community?

Matthew: On it's current course Cold Fusion seems to be losing market space and is declining in popularity. I am very interested to hear more about the Open Source possibilities for Cold Fusion to see if it can be saved.

OpenCF Summit: Why are you excited about OpenCF Summit?

Matthew: To learn more about the CF OSS Community and find out what the direction is. I think there is a lot of appealing potential in what is being proposed in this space.

OpenCF Summit: OK, last question: Could you tell us a bit about what you will be presenting on?

 Matthew: I will be speaking about the City of Austin experience turning to Open Source platforms and open data -- and how there is a great opportunity for the civic application developer to bring great change to how government does business.

Government at all levels is opening itself up to you as a platform - come learn more from Matthew at OpenCF Summit February 24-26 and watch this space for more speaker interviews!