DWYL Summer 2016
Why?
- Escape the city noise/smog, get some sunshine fresh air and tranquility
- Be immersed in learning how to build software products that solve real problems and people love using!
- Spend time with great people
Who?
A bunch of awesome people who love to solve challenging real-world problems using code!
These people either:
- Already work on dwyl client projects at the moment OR
- Want to work and learn together on dwyl products for the two weeks (paid at your current project day rate!)
For an up to date list of people who have confirmed they're coming, please check the sheet in the gitter channel!
What?
A Startup (Ideation, Product Development & Coding) Intensive Like No Other (because again, we're all pretty awesome)!
When & Where?
Dates
Overall dates: Saturday 17th September - Sunday 2nd October.
Key Dates so far:
- Saturday 17th September - Grape picking at a vineyard a half hour drive from Porto
- Monday 19th September - Product ideation workshop (hopefully led by the inimitable @harrygfox along with Ines & Nelson)
- At some point in the two weeks to be agreed by group - a day off mid-week to boat to the mini waterfall area for a picnic
Location - Fresh Air & Fresh Food Guaranteed
Mountains, Lake & Forest
A short drive from Porto is the Peneda-Geres National Park. You will be staying in a large lake-side house which catches the sun all morning and has a private patch of grass by the lake.
- Decent Internet
- Hidden amongst trees, a 30 second walk from nature
- 1 minute walk down to the lake
- 20 min walk or 5 min boat/car ride to shops with essentials (fresh produce, drinks and snacks)
- 1h drive to Porto, the 'capital of the North'
- Access to a rib for transport on the lake
Saturday 17th September
Strong possibility that we'll catch the last day of grape picking here (if people want to have a go): https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Mosteiro+de+Santa+Maria+de+Landim/@41.3794726,-8.4665606,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd24f61285cbd035:0xf11ff2ba637bd6f1!8m2!3d41.3794686!4d-8.4643719
Not Just Coding (after/between coding activities)
Food to Write Home (instagram) About
- Field Fresh fruit & Vegetables
- Incredible fresh bread
- Green/fruit smoothies
- Vegan option at every meal
- Fresh line-caught fish & grilled beef/lamb (for those who eat it)
'Pretty good' chance of sunshine
Or at least a much better chance than London:
Fresh Air
The house is surrounded by a forest so the air quality is good.
Action Packed or Super Chilled Activities
There are many other awesome activities we can do:
- ALL the Board Games you could ever hope for!
- Snooker, Foosball, Pingpong, Darts
- Climbing
- Kayaking
- Yoga/Pilates (we will be doing this, but self-led)
- Reading & Relaxing
- Mountain or Quad Biking
- Water sports aplenty
These will be voted on by the people who join in!
A Lean MVP (Like No Other)
The MVP will be building a modular application for dwyl which will solve some of the problems/time-sucks we are facing right now as developers within dwyl (like invoicing dwyl at the end of every sprint and having to remember how many hours/days you put in for example).
There are plenty of time, task, activity tracking apps out there. How many are open-source, revenue funded, customer-led and extensible?
What You Should Expect
Expect a fun learning experience in a beautifully peaceful location surrounded great people who love coding and learning
Specifically:
- Kicking off with an ideation workshop to make sure we're solving real problems and narrow our scope
- Guidance & Mentoring at Every Step
- Daily pairing, code review and insights
- Every line you write will be 100% Open Source so you can refer back to it as portfolio work in the future (*and get nice "green squares" on GitHub)
Short List
- Scalable Test-Driven Real-time Applications (from first principals)
- Mobile first
- Progressive Enhancement (start with Zero JS (SEO-Friendly) up to slick
- Micro/Nano-Service Architecture (small inter-operable pieces)
- Web Components using a micro (4kb) full-stack framework
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Analytics
- Brand Development
- Customer Development
- Multivariate Testing
- Usability Testing with real people
Pre-Trip Reading
- The Mythical Man-Month: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month (why adding more people to a project can make it slower...)
Useful Information (WiP)
Airport transfers
It's a drive, so we've tapped up some friends in the area for mates rates which are better than average but still money. These prices include a stop at the local supermarket for food shopping. They are Porto airport <-> the door of the house and one way:
- €120 for up to eight people (€15 each) - jeep with trailer for luggage and shopping
- €70 for up to four people (€17.50 each) - standard car
It's possible by public transport but will take a few hours, involve various types of transport (tube, train, bus) and won't be particularly easy to navigate (you'll get English speakers in the train stations, but unlikely on buses!).