Scott Davis
The Rich Web Experience
Orlando · December 1 - 4, 2009
Author of "Groovy Recipes"
Scott Davis is the founder of ThirstyHead.com, a training company that specializes in Groovy and Grails training.
Scott published one of the first public websites implemented in Grails in 2006 and has been actively working with the technology ever since. Author of the book Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java and two ongoing IBM developerWorks article series (Mastering Grails and in 2009, Practically Groovy), Scott writes extensively about how Groovy and Grails are the future of Java development.
Presentations
Web 2.0 Checklist: Deconstructing Modern Websites
“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.” (Antonio Gramsci)
There are plenty of sarcastic “Web 2.0” checklists out there – be perpetually in BETA, when in doubt add rounded corners, etc. While we can all laugh at the superficial aspects of the Web 2.0 revolution, there are plenty of serious aspects to it as well. Is your website mash-up friendly or hostile? Do you tell your visitors when things change (via RSS or Atom syndication), or do you expect them to check in daily for updates? Is your website a silo or a part of a larger ecosystem?
Lizard Brain Web Design
“There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.” (Bjarne Stroustrup)
The “lizard brain” is the oldest part of the human brain – the part responsible for autonomic functions like breathing, heart rate, and navigating websites. OK, maybe not that last part, but your website should be easy to use. Stupid easy. Lizard brain easy. Any time your user spends figuring out how to do something – even for a split second – is wasted time due to poor design. Inspired by Steve Krug's book “Don't Make Me Think”, this talk answers the question, “Why is that website so hard to use?”
Solr: Adding Lucene Search to your Website
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.” (George Moore)
Without search capabilities, the web wouldn't be nearly as useful as it is today. Public websites have the luxury of letting Google do the indexing for them. For business applications that run behind the firewall, you need to go the extra step yourself. Lucene is an incredibly powerful open source indexing library. Solr makes it trivial to roll out Lucene by offering RESTful and JSON-based interfaces.