Abstract
It was Ruby on Rails that called my attention back in 2005. There were not many people using Ruby in Brazil back then. There were no established community and no market to work with. So, I had a dilemma: I want to work full time with Ruby, but there was no market for me to work for. What to do? Move to the USA or give up and continue in the ever growing Java market. Or maybe, take a completely unexpected route: create my own local market. Impossible? Reckless? In this talk I'd like to explain why I like Ruby and how it enabled us to grow a sustainable community and market in Brazil. As a short summary and spoiler for the talk: yes, there is now a very good and healthy local market for Ruby in Brazil, several small and big companies using Ruby, several consulting companies offering Ruby services, lots of great developers contributing back to the global community, big conferences such as our own RubyConf Brazil. So yes, it worked! And no, I didn't have to move out to the USA to work full time with Ruby!
Presentation Language
English
Speaker(s)
Fabio Akita
Gonow Tecnologia
I currently work for Gonow Tecnologia, at São Paulo, Brazil. We are a software house doing custom projects for clients. We have more than 20 people doing Ruby/Rails, iOS and Android development. I've been evangelizing Ruby and Rails in Brazil since around 2006. I released the first original Ruby on Rails written in Brazilian Portuguese in 2007. I organized the first Rails Summit Latin America in 2008, and have been repeating the conference in Brazil ever since. In 2010 we renamed the conference to RubyConf Brazil. I am trying to always evangelize software development best practices, but above all, trying to explain how to be better professionals overall. I also helped implement the first Ruby on Rails support in a shared hosting web environment at Locaweb, the largest hosting service in Latin America. I also worked as Brazil Rails Practice Manager at Surgeworks Inc, building and supporting a small offshore outsourcing group in Brazil to serve US clients. Prior to the Ruby community, I've been involved in the corporate SAP/Java market for a few years. And even before I've been in the first internet bubble. Overall, I've been developing software and delivering projects since the early 90's. You can find me at Twitter (@akitaonrails) or read my blog (http://www.akitaonrails.com), though most of my content is in Brazilian Portuguese.
Video
Presentation Material
http://www.slideshare.net/akitaonrails/rubykaigi-2011
