A partial description of my current research plan

1. How do software developers learn
"new tricks"? (DRAFT)
Adolfo Neto
http://about.me/adolfont
@adolfont
Assistant Professor at Federal University of Technology - Paraná, Brazil
Visiting Professor at North Carolina State University
November 13th, 2014

2. Developers have to...
It seems obvious to say that "developers have
to stay informed, maintain relationships, and
keep their domain knowledge up to date" [1],
right?
But how do they do that?

3. But first...
Why do developers need to keep learning
new…
● languages
● technologies
● practices
● tools...
???

4. … to become antifragile
Or at least less fragile…
Source: http://startupbros.com/antifragile-act-cant-know-much/

5. How do software
developers stay informed?

6. Online ways to keep informed
● Social Networks:
○ Twitter
○ Facebook??
○ ?
● Coding repositories
○ Github
● Question and Answer sites
○ Stack Overflow

7. Online ways to keep informed
● Web sites. Ex. exercism.io
● Videos (Youtube)
● Blogs
● MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
● Virtual Conferences. Ex. hack.summit()

8. Offline but not face-to-face ways
● Printed material:
○ Books (e-books)
○ Magazines
○ White papers
○ Scientific papers
● Tools
● Podcasts

9. Offline, face-to-face ways
● Meetups
● Conferences
o Local. Ex.: TriAgile.
o Regional. Ex: All Things Open.
o National. Ex.: Agile Brazil.
o International. Ex.: Agile, Clojure/conj.
● Coding Dojos
● Coderetreats

10. Offline, face-to-face ways
● Hackathons
● Training courses, Workshops
o Ex. Security Dojo Workshop, PO Dojo, Scrum
certifications
● Conversations with colleagues and friends

11. Did I forget something?
If I did, please send me an email (adolfo.usp
AT gmail.com) or comment below.

12. My interest
Right now, I am mainly interested in offline,
face-to-face meetings [2] in which software
developers take part to either learn and/or
maintain relationships.

13. Meetups
● Offline, face-to-face meetings usually
organized using the Meetup.com site.
● Not much different from Users' Group
meetings.
● Not always computer-related.

14. Types of Meetups in Software Development Meetup
Groups
● Talks
○ Lightning talks
● Meals (lunches, breakfasts)
● Hack sessions (hack nights, usually)
See also http://bit.ly/YU7doo

15. The end, for now
To be continued and modified…
Interested in this work?
Drop a comment below or contact me through
one of the many ways in
http://about.me/adolfont