Observation from a conference, etc

Last week, I was both a presenter and an audience member at a Software User group conference. On the first day, I saw two presentations on "Webifying" legacy type database applications using assorted technologies (XML, CSS, CGI, Java-Script). One presenting organization was a large commercial enterprise with a fairly large budget and staff. The other presenting organization was a small state agency with a minimal budget and staff (they did their project with only 3 developers, who had other responsibilities at the same time). IMHO, both teams did a good job building their applications. However, my vote for what was a better job was from the tiny agency with low budget and the small team. This looked like an example of where limited resources forced the small team to prioritize and focus very carefully. Sometimes less is more. I will be good and not name the presenters.

On an unrelated note, the conference was in Austin Texas. Its a very nice place, and reminded me of Boston quite a bit in that it has a huge college student population, and lots of businesses (clubs etc,) that cater to students. Austin also has a kind of neat campaign called "Keep Austin Weird" which encourages people to shop at small, non-chain businesses. It seems to work: at least near where I was, I saw a lot less Starbucks, Burger King, etc. than you do in most American cities. I like it.