Monday I attended Mongo Boston 2011 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge.
The opening keynote by 10gen’s CTO and co-founder Eliot Horowitz struck a couple of very interesting notes.
- 10gen wants MongoDB to be a general-purpose database.
- One of their key principles in building MongoDB is to reduce the number of “knobs” an administrator needs to turn.
Overall I would say the conference was valuable, but could really do with a second day. For one thing, none of the presentations were more than forty-five minutes long. While that length does allow for decent overviews, it’s impossible to get into any real depth with such a limited time.
A second day could also reduce some of the “drinking from a fire hose” effect. I attended eight different presentations, which contained a lot of concepts to absorb.
I wouldn’t recommend these conferences for those who have no experience at all using MongoDB. I’ve worked with it for a little over a year now, so the material was at a good level for my current understanding.
The price was right at $20 or $30 depending on whether you met the early bird deadline or not. In my mind, this pricing is a shrewd strategy by 10gen, as it enables interested students to attend. Building interest and enthusiasm among the up-and-coming developers of tomorrow is a great way to build a community. However, it was gratifying to see that the attendees represented a wide range of ages.
If you get an opportunity to attend one of the upcoming conferences, I think you’ll find the day worth your time.
