Day 1, Gluecon: A Look Ahead

In case I haven't mentioned it, Gluecon's early bird pricing expires this Friday, April 2nd. As such, I thought I'd take a look at how Day 1 of Gluecon is shaping up from an agenda standpoint.In the midst of all of the unconferences happening today (and don't get me wrong, I think they're great), I do think that sometimes it gets easy to forget the value of curated content at a conference. There really is a method to the madness that is the Gluecon agenda; a larger theme that's working to emerge. So, we turn to Day 1...The day begins with two broad looks at aspects of data models: Eric Brewer (of CAP Theorem; and inspiration for much of the NoSQL work going on) on Wide-area Data Management, followed by Mike Stonebraker (founder of Ingres, Postgres, and not a NoSQL guy, per se). Having put those two themes of the table, we move to some quick hits to help frame the discussion for the afternoon session: the Open Web, Cloud Platforms and Integrating in the Cloud. The morning ends with an open space session for some peer discussion.As we come out of lunch, the breakout/dig-in sessions begin with three distinct threads: Cloud Frameworks (web oriented architecture, scaling websites in the cloud, etc), Cloud Platforms (Azure, Force.com, App Engine, and how to build your own cloud), and NoSQL explorations (an overview, a look at next-gen LDAP, and a deep dive into Cassandra).Post-afternoon break, the threads continue with a look at various topics around APIs (terms of service, developer support, etc), digging into more specific NoSQL examples (Riak, Hbase, CouchDB and Neo4j), and an opening thread on identity (SAML, OpenID and Facebook - when to use what and how).That set of afternoon sessions provides the flexibility to really custom-structure what you'd like to learn/interact around (all of those sessions have significant 20 minute discussion portions). You could for instance, explore cloud frameworks, learn how to build your own cloud, and then shift into identity management in the cloud (1 possible "track"). Or, you might check out the major platform providers, learn about rolling out cloud apps for SMBs and then bone-up on the latest API issues (another possible track). Or, let's say you're really into NoSQL at the moment (or want to be), spend the afternoon getting an overview, contrasting that with LDAP, digging into Cassandra and then exploring Riak, Hbase, CouchDB and Neo4j. And those are just three possibilities (you can obviously mix and match as you choose). The point is, after the morning "big picture" framing, the afternoon offers you a ton of "foundational" sessions that we'll build on during day 2.As we slide out of the breakouts and back into the end of day keynotes on Day 1, we find ourselves hearing from Michael Barrett (CISO, PayPal) with a curmudgeon's warning about "securing the cloud." Lastly, we wrap the agenda portion of the day up with Chris Hoff (a.k.a, @beaker) and his aptly titled session, "Cloudifornication: Indiscriminate Information Intercourse Involving Internet Infrastructure."Day 1 winds down with our evening reception (open bar, mingle with sponsors, enjoy some food), and then moves into a hackathon that's sponsored by Twilio and Blank Slate (for those that have the stamina to go and build all night).Whew! How's that for a first day? Lay the foundation, interact with peers, have a few laughs, dig deep on data models, and come up for air with some adult beverages and a hackathon.And, we haven't even gotten to day 2 yet.....Did I mention that early bird pricing expires this Friday, April 2nd? Register today. ;-)